The Peace River Coal Limited Partnership (PRC) is a joint venture between Anglo Coal Canada (74.825% ownership), Hillsborough Resources Limited (12.991%) and NEMI Northern Energy & Mining Inc. (12.184%), with Anglo Coal Canada acting as the manager of the partnership.
PRC is a Canadian producer of high-quality seaborne hard coking coal. PRC has a portfolio of projects that are either in production, in advanced development or are supported by economic and technical studies that, when in full production, would result in PRC being a significant global producer. These projects are located near the town of Tumbler Ridge in northeastern British Columbia, Canada, a region which has been a major producer of high quality hard coking coal since the 1980s.
PRC operates the Trend Mine, which commenced commercial operations in January 2008. Coal is transported from the mine by rail and shipped to the export market through Ridley Terminals at Prince Rupert, British Columbia. PRC's primary customers are steel mills in countries that rely on coal imported by ship. These mills are mainly in Japan, Korea, China and other Pacific Rim countries. From time to time PRC may also sell to customers in South America and Western Europe.
In addition to capital improvements and resource extensions at the Trend Mine, PRC is conducting development work on its other properties. This includes work on the adjacent Roman Mountain property, where a pre-feasibility study was completed in 2008. Development of a mine on the Roman Mountain property could increase overall Trend Mine production to approximately 4 million tonnes per year.
PRC also owns the nearby Horizon project and has a 50% interest in the Belcourt Saxon LP (“Belsax LP”), with the other 50% held by Western Coal Corporation. A scoping study that was completed on the Horizon project by Hillsborough in 2006 has been recently updated by PRC. A feasibility study for the Belsax LP of the Belcourt North & South project was completed in December 2008.