Black Thunder (USA)

Located in the U.S. state of Wyoming, the Black Thunder mine is the second largest coal mine in the United States. The mine was originally opened in 1977 by ARCO Coal until was acquired in 1998 by Arch Coal. The surface mine is estimated to contain 1,466 million tons of recoverable coal reserves as of December 2012.

Black Thunder consists of seven active pit areas and three loadout facilities. Production of raw coal is directly shipped through the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe and Union Pacific railroads. The mine produced 92.9 million tons of coal in 2012.