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Gold/Mining/Energy : Coal -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tommaso who wrote (270)	4/12/2006 12:06:16 AM
From: rrufff	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2031

Hi - this article explains it a bit better re HLB.to, HLSRF.pk By Craig Wong 21 Mar 2006 at 11:05 AM EST VANCOUVER (CP) -- Coal miner Hillsborough Resources Ltd. [TSX:HLB] is joining a giant American power company in planning a coal-fired plant in northeastern British Columbia feeding into the provincial electricity grid. ''We think there is a potential deficit of electricity in the Northeast,'' David Slater, president and chief executive of Hillsborough, said Monday. The Vancouver-based company proposes to develop the project with AES Pacific Inc., a unit of Arlington, Va.-based global energy company AES Corp. [NYSE:AES]. AES is to be responsible for the power plant while Hillsborough supplies the coal. The plant, to be named AESWapiti Energy, would include a 165-megawatt generation complex and a 35-kilometre transmission line, and would have a project life of at least 40 years. Its fuel would come from Hillsborough's Wapiti coal mine, located between Tumbler Ridge and Dawson Creek in northeast B.C. Slater said one of the biggest hurdles for a coal mine is transportation of the coal to its ultimate user, especially lower-quality thermal coal from its proposed mine, so power generation is a strong alternative. ''It's not a coking coal; it's a thermal coal and not even the best thermal coal that we've seen,'' Slater said. ''If you have a low-priced commodity that's situated 1,100 kilometres from a seaport, the chances of you being able to sell that coal into an export market are going to be pretty limited.'' AESWapiti is submitting a bid under the current BC Hydro power production tender call, but Slater said the plant could sell electricity to Alberta as well. Hillsborough bid on two earlier power projects on Vancouver Island, but they never materialized after BC Hydro decided they were not viable, Slater said. Hillsborough Resources operates the Quinsam underground thermal coal mine in Campbell River, B.C., as well as the Crossville underground coal mine in Tennessee. The company is also developing metallurgical coal properties near Tumbler Ridge as well as the Bingay Creek metallurgical coal project in the Elk Valley region of southeast British Columbia. Hillsborough shares [TSX:HLB] closed at C$1.17, down one cent, at the Toronto Stock Exchange. AES shares closed at $17.14, down 43 cents, at the New York Stock Exchange. AES, with 30,000 employees in 26 countries, has a stock market capitalization of $11.3 billion. It announced March 7 it was selling its half-interest in the Kingston Cogeneration Limited Partnership, a 110-megawatt plant in Kingston, Ont., to its partner, Northland Power Income Fund, for $110 million.