Operations - Nant Helen Extension

Nant Helen Extension opencast coal site is situated on the northern outcrop of the South Wales coalfield. The mine produces high quality anthracite coals
from up to thirteen individual coal seams lying up to one hundred and fifty metres below the surface.
The site was granted planning permission in 1998 as an extension to the earlier Nant Helen operation.

Nant Helen is currently the largest operational site in Celtic Energy's portfolio, with a remaining recoverable reserve of around three million tonnes and
an annual output of circa four hundred thousand tonnes.
The site is projected to continue coaling until 2014 and will be restored mainly to upland common.

All mined coal is transported directly via internal roads to our nearby processing and distribution centre at Onllwyn for onward shipment by rail and road to customers in the domestic, industrial and power generation sectors. The site is being mined by shovel and truck methods utilising a fleet of modern one hundred tonne capacity dump trucks and hydraulic excavators of up to fifteen cubic metre bucket capacity. These prime movers are supplemented by various ancillary plant such as bulldozers, graders, drilling rigs and other support equipment. This equipment facilitates a digging capacity in the order of 5.8 million cubic metres of overburden per year.

Nant Helen Extension employs a predominantly local workforce of approximately ninety personnel with over eighty five percent of the
plant operatives living within a 10 km radius of the mine.