GILLETTE - Kennecott Energy will invest up to $32.8 million this year to add a fleet of new equipment at two of its three mines in northeastern Wyoming, according to company officials.

Kennecott spokesman Peter Fox said the additions will allow the company to maintain the current rate of production at all three of its Wyoming mines, Cordero Rojo, Jacobs Ranch and Antelope. Collectively, the mines produced approximately 96.7 million tons in 2002, about a quarter of all coal mined in the basin.

"There would be some increase in the work force," Fox added.

However, the company wouldn't estimate the exact number of new jobs that might be added, Fox said.

Kennecott laid off 14 employees in November, including nine managers. Company officials said the layoffs were part of an effort to streamline Kennecott's Western operations and would allow the company to prepare for future growth opportunities.

Kennecott is owned by the world's largest coal company, London-based Rio Tinto. Kennecott's 2004 purchase plans include a 77-cubic-yard shovel, 11 haul trucks and associated support equipment.

"This investment reflects the confidence of the Rio Tinto leadership in Kennecott Energy and the future of the Wyoming coal industry," Kennecott President and CEO Bret K. Clayton said in a press release.

The new shovel will be placed at the Antelope mine to maintain the mine's annual production rate of about 26 million tons. The shovel is needed to keep up with an increasing strip ratio - the amount of overburden a mine must remove to get to the target coal.

For more than a year, highwall and spoil-pile stability challenges have caused a production shortfall at Kennecott's Cordero Rojo mine, according to company officials. During 2003, Kennecott was able to fill shipping orders by shifting some production to its other mines in the Powder River Basin.

"(Kennecott Energy) conducted extensive studies to better understand the cause and mechanism of the Cordero Rojo stability challenges to establish design criteria that will allow ongoing safe and productive operations," the company said in a press release.

As a result, the overburden highwall slope angle was reduced. The mine also modified blasting practices and increased its efforts to dewater the overburden ahead of the mine pit progression.

Now, Kennecott plans to move a 35-cubic-yard shovel from its Antelope mine on the Campbell/Converse county line to Cordero Rojo, which is located about 18 miles south of Gillette. The shovel will be used to pre-strip the overburden, reducing the highwall heights from the current plan of 200 feet to 160 feet, according to the press release.