Productivity of the Mines

Due to the new rail transportation system, coal production increased greatly. In its first year of operation (1885), the Galt company produced 20 865 tonnes of coal. Output from the coal mines was about 145 149 tonnes a season by 1893. The Galt seam is thought to have contained about 20 180 tonnes of coal under each hectare. Half of this was extracted and the rest was left as support or waste.

P19640861000-GA Another lantern that lit the way for many workers inside the mines.

By 1909, the Lethbridge district was the largest single, domestic coal producing centre in Alberta. Production was boosted even further by the opening of the High Level Bridge which allowed for mass coal production in Coalhurst and Diamond City. By 1919, coal production had peaked in Lethbridge with 20 000 men in ten major mines, producing about 1 million tonnes of coal a year. In all, 23 million tonnes of coal were removed from the Lethbridge coal fields between 1874 and 1957. Coal mining by that point, had created over 3 218 km of tunnels and rooms varying from 2.4 to 9.1 meters in width. To put this into perspective, it was commented in 1957 that, "if the coal brought to the surface were to be piled on the gravel, it would cover the area of Lethbridge to a depth of a four story building"

A coal hod that was used to hold coal in the homes for stoves and other sources of heat.

In 1957, Galt mine No. 8 closed, and the Galt no. 10, formerly known as the Standard mine at Shaughnessy, became the last operating colliery in the Lethbridge region. Its closure in 1965 signaled the end of an industry that had created Lethbridge and sustained it for three-quarters of a century. In total, 98 mines operated at one time or another in the Lethbridge coal district, all of them mining from the same coal seam. The Galt seam is now estimated to cover an area of 481 square kilometres, situated at various depths below the prairie surface from 80 to 180 metres. The total amount of coal extracted has been estimated to be 1 million tonnes per square kilometre.