Tremblay has 22 years of experience in the industry and was most recently Teck’s general manager for mining and processing business improvement.
Previously he was the general manager at Teck’s Fording River operation in British Columbia. The Fording River operation is the largest metallurgical coal mine in Canada with over 1200 employees and a capacity to produce up to 10 million tonnes of metallurgical clean coal for sale to steel mills around the world.
Tremblay will be based in the Coalspur’s Hinton, Alberta, office and will have overall responsibility for the safety and effectiveness of Vista operations as wells as all environmental and health matters, production control and staff functions at the mine.
Coalspur has cited Tremblay’s diverse and extensive management experience in open pit coal mining and a proven track record of achieving operational targets.
He has been recognised twice as operating the open pit mine in the province of British Columbia with the lowest lost time incident frequency (2009 John Ash Award – Fording River Operation, 2005 Edward Prior Award – Line Creek Operation).
“Richard is ideally placed to step into the VP, operations role and we are extremely pleased that he has joined the Coalspur team,” Coalspur president and chief executive officer Gill Winckler said.
“Richard’s hands-on operational expertise, strong leadership skills and considerable coal mining experience will be invaluable as we move forward with the development of Vista.
“Coalspur is proud to have attracted someone of Richard’s calibre to enhance the technical and operational capabilities of our team.”
The Vista project is projected to produce 11 million tonnes per annum of coal over a 30-year mine life.
Construction is expected to begin on the mine in the first half of the year, with first production in 2015.
Last year, Coalspur increased Vista’s measured and indicated coal resource by 404% to 471Mt and confirmed the site’s potential for longwall operation.
The company said the 9984ha project had the potential to be the largest export thermal coal mine in North America.
