Coking coals of western Colorado
— L. R. Ladwig
Abstract:
Colorado is presently a major producer of coking quality coal. These resources are located in three Colorado coal regions, two of which lie within the western portion of the state. The Uinta Coal region produces high quality coking coal from a number of active mines while in the San Juan River region the production of coal for coking purposes is extremely limited although reserves appear to be adequate.
The coking coal resources of Colorado have been dealt with in the past by West (1874, 1875) and Weeks (1884) with state-wide coking coal data and by Lakes (1899a). Lakes specifically mentioned coke from coal mined at the Porter and San Juan mines in the "La Plata Field" and in a subsequent article (Lakes, 1899b) described the coal resources of the "Grand River Field," now called the Uinta region.
Numerous authors over the years have presented data on Colorado coking coal deposits; however, the most important publications in recent years are those of Averitt (1966), Jones and Murray (1978), and Goolsby and others (1979). These most recent publications indicate that the Uinta region with the Somerset, Crested Butte, Grand Hogback, and Carbondale fields is the most important western Colorado coking coal producer while the San Juan region has been of historic importance only. Figure 1 shows the outline of these two regions.
Full-text (3.46 MB PDF)
Recommended Citation:
- Ladwig, L. R., 1981, Coking coals of western Colorado, in: Western slope Colorado--western Colorado and eastern Utah, Epis, Rudy C.; Callender, Jonathan F., New Mexico Geological Society, Guidebook, 32nd Field Conference, pp. 249-254. https://doi.org/10.56577/FFC-32.249