Coal Mountain operations is located 30 kilometres southeast of Sparwood. At the Byron Creek operations (now called Coal Mountain), the Jurassic-Cretaceous Mist Mountain Formation (Kootenay Group) contains several coal seams of which the Balmer seam is stratigraphically lowest and most important. The other seams occur towards the top of the formation. The coal is medium volatile bituminous in rank and sulphur content ranges from 0.2 to 0.5 per cent. The coal when cleaned to 16 per cent ash, will have between 24 and 26 per cent volatile matter and a fuel value of 12,000 BTU's per pound. The Mist Mountain Formation occurs in a north trending synclinorium running the length of Coal Mountain. The formation is thickest and increasingly abundantly preserved towards the north (example in Lots 6999 and 6997).

The structure consists of a north trending, north plunging synclinorium which is cut in places by north trending, west dipping thrust faults. The coal-bearing synclinorium is exposed in Coal Mountain. To the west are strata of the Jurassic Fernie Group which are also cut by a roughly north trending thrust fault.

The No. 3 pit extends from approximately 12,250 north to approximately 15,350 north (Mine Grid). The Balmer seam reserves are present within the north plunging double syncline, outcropping at the southern end and on the western limb.

Previous mining activity in the area was carried out by the Corbin Coal and Coke Company between 1908 and 1934. Mine No.'s 1, 2, 4 and 5 were four adits in the north end of the mountain which extracted coal from nearly vertical, north striking seams. The No. 4 mine was the major producer; 958,000 tonnes coal was mined between 1913 and 1930, while approximately 370,000 tonnes were mined from the other three mines. The No. 3 mine extracted approximately 450,000 tonnes from the west side of the mountain by open pit and underground methods. The No. 6 mine produced 598,000 tonnes from both limbs of a long narrow syncline which is less complicated than many of the other structures on Coal Mountain.

Byron Creek Collieries Limited operated on Coal Mountain from 1974 to 1990; Corbin Coal from 1991 to 1993 and Fording Coal Ltd. from 1993. Teck acquired the mine in 2008, and production averaged 2 to 2.5 million tonnes of PCI coal per year until closure in 2019. Total production from the mine between 1974 and 2019 was 698 million tonnes.

The Coal Mountain Phase II project (Marten-Wheeler; MINFILE 082GNE006) was designed to replace production after the depletion of the resource at Coal Mountain. Coal Mountain Phase II entered the pre-application stage of Environmental Assessment in 2014, however in late 2015, Teck Coal Ltd removed the proposal from the pre-application process as a result of lower commodity pricing (Information Circular 2016-1).

The Coal Mountain mine ceased production in 2018 as reserves were depleted. 200,000 tonnes were sold from stockpile in 2019. The wash plant and load-out facilities continue to be used to process coal from other Teck coal mines in the Elk River valley.