Prospecting for coking coal in the Plains region of western Canada

Abstract

ABSTRACT In 2021, coking coal was discovered in a Lower Cretaceous Mannville Group seam in the Plains region of the province of Alberta, Canada. This coal seam, although thick enough, is too deep and too low a rank to have commercial development potential. Further Plains region exploration is needed to identify any new economically mineable deposits of hard-coking coal. This paper presents a methodology to achieve this. Two regions are identified where the geothermal regime might provide a suitable geological environment: the Northwest Edmonton prospect is coincident with the Edmonton Anomaly, and the Hudson’s Hope prospect is coincident with the Peace River Arch (PRA). At the Hudson’s Hope prospect, testing showed that the Lower Cretaceous seams host potential hard-coking coal at depths ranging from less than 400 m to approximately 750 m, and the desired prospect parameters are satisfied. Furthermore, the most prospective area where new economically viable hard-coking targets may be found is the region within the boundaries of the PRA extending to the east and northeast from the Peace River Canyon.