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String of blasts in a rock layer loosens the covering near a 40 foot thick seam of coal at the Buckskin Coal Mine, 12 miles north of Gillette, Wyoming, May 5, 2004. The open pit Buckskin Mine is a relatively small operation in eastern Wyoming. Owned by the New Vulcan Capital Equity of Delaware, the mine produces 20 million tons of low sulfur and low BTU coal per year. Wyoming coal sells for $6 per ton compared with high sulfur, high BTU Appalachian coal, now at $60 per ton. Wyoming coal is transported by rail east to St. Louis, Detroit, Chicago and eventually the eastern US for power generation. With declining reserves and high cost of Appalachian coal and diminishing US natural gas reserves, Wyoming is seeing maximum demand. Little profit is earned with $6 per ton coal though the price is expected to remain steady enough in Wyoming for all coal mines to be fully active. Large deals for Wyoming mines are underway after seeing a boom in the early 1980's fade. People in Gillette, Wyoming are fully employed in both coal mining and coal-bed methane gas drilling. Campbell County, where Gillette is located, is flush with funds from Get premium, high resolution news photos at getty