A PHOTOGRAPH OF A lake built by Luminant on reclaimed land at its Big Brown Mine is presented to Freestone County Judge Linda Grant and county commissioner Luke Ward, Sr. Pictured are: l-r Gary Trammell and Mike Williams of Luminant, Judge Grant and Ward. Luminant started mobilizing equipment last week at Big Brown Mine in preparation for digging a test pit on the site in which Big Brown mine is to be expanded in Freestone county.

The mine supplies lignite coal to fuel Big Brown Steam Electric Station electric generating plant.

The power company, formerly TXU, held a luncheon last week for elected officials and business owners in Fairfield to celebrate receiving an award from the Office of Surface Mining and to answer questions about current and future operations.

Two weeks ago the U.S. Department of Interior OSM awarded Luminant its Director's Award for its ongoing efforts in advancing the science of land reclamation.

The Director's Award is the highest distinction awarded by OSM and this is the second consecutive year that Luminant has received the honor.

"We stress operational excellence and try to be good at everything we do," Mike Williams, chief fossil officer, says. "We would not be as successful as we are without the support of the community."

Luminant has mined almost 24,000 acres of land in the county starting in 1971, following up surface mining operations with reclamation work.

Early this year the company filed a permit application with Texas Railroad Commission to expand the Big Brown lignite mine. The permit is for 10,000 acres of land in the Turlington area east of Fairfield.

When Big Brown Mine was opened 38 years ago, it was permitted for 12,000 acres, and another 12,000 acres was added as mining progressed.

Big Brown engineering manager Daniel Munoz reports that the test pit is near the middle of the proposed mine expansion area and will encompass fewer than 20 acres.

The test pit will be uncovered with scrapers to give engineers a large scale look at the stratas of soil and lignite in order to get a better idea of how to design and operate the mine. Core samples already have been taken in the area but give only a partial idea of what is underground.

Luminant is currently in the process of answering technical assessments dealing with the mine permit, Munoz reports, and he says the company hopes to get the final state permit in May 2010.

Building infrastructure for the new mining area, including walkways for equipment, haul roads and dewatering ponds, will take about a year. The new area could open in summer 2011.

"We are saying we need about a year's time before we can start mining after the permit is approved," the mine engineer says.

The company has acquired land parcels for five years of mining and have a right of entry for the whole area.

Big Brown mine employs 250 people and the power plant employs 143 fulltime workers and about 35 contract workers.

The power plant originally was fueled entirely with lignite coal, but now blends lignite with western coal brought by train from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming.