DIVISION MOUNTAIN Division Mountain near Braeburn has enough coal to employ 250 people and supply markets such as China for the next 20 years.

That's the opinion of Basil Botha, the president of the Cash Minerals, the company that holds leases on the mountain.

Speaking to members of the media on the mountaintop last Thursday afternoon, Botha said exploration on the mountain had revealed '38 million tonnes of coal along a six-kilometre strike,' and that the company was now looking to complete a feasibility study before year's end.

'We have resources for at least the next 20 years,' Botha said.

His company would be looking to get the open-pit mining operation up and running by late 2007, he added.

It would contract out the mining work and would be using the port at Skagway to send the coal to Asian markets.

'We would have about 70 trucks a day on the road,' he said.

Botha said he expected his company would need to raise $32 to $35 million to get the project up and running. It would require power from the Yukon's power grid.

'Power is a concern,' said Botha.

Earlier this year, the company was at the centre of controversy in the Yukon legislature when it was suggested in a Cash Minerals survey that 175,000 tonnes of surplus coal from Division Mountain would be used to generate energy in the Yukon through coal-fired generation.

Energy, Mines and Resource Minister Archie Lang said the Yukon has an excess of energy and doesn't require any more.

NDP MLA Gary McRobb said last April, however, that the Yukon only has an energy surplus in the summer months.

Premier Dennis Fentie said his government has no plans to pursue coal-fired power generation in the Yukon.

In July, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority agreed to spend up to $50,000 (US) on a feasibility study on the reopening of a dormant coal-mineral concentrates terminal in Skagway.

Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski said he was optimistic about putting the terminal, which has been dormant since 1998, back into use.

'I'm optimistic about putting this state asset to work,' Murkowski said in July.

The Skagway terminal was built in 1969 to serve as a warehouse and shipping operation for metals coming from the Yukon mostly lead and zinc concentrates from the then-new Faro mine.

The Alaska development authority bought it from the White Pass and Yukon Route railway for $25 million US in 1990.