The Corbin occurrence is located approximately 33 kilometres east of Fernie, British Columbia, and forms the southern extent of the mining at Coal Mountain (MINFILE 082GNE001).

The Upper Mammoth seam (up to 35 metres thick) which contains the economic coal in the Corbin area occurs predominantly with discontinuous lenses and interbeds of shale varying from 0.5 centimetres to 4 metres in thickness. The strata belong to the Jurassic-Cretaceous Mist Mountain Formation (Kootenay Group). In the south syncline, the Upper Mammoth seam consists of two coal splits, 12 and 6 metres thick, separated by 23 metres of clastic sediments. In the remainder of the property it consists of a single thick coal zone. The thickness of the unit varies considerably due to intense deformation. The Lower Mammoth seam (up to 58 metres) consists of claystone with thin, discontinuous lenses and interbeds of coal and stony coal.

The structure consists of four major synclines which plunge north at approximately 20 degrees. The western three synclines (west, central and south synclines) are faulted onto each other in an imbricate manner, while the eastern syncline is separated from the former by the Coal Mountain anticline. There are nine major (imbricate) high angle reverse faults in the area west of the anticline. They trend north, dip west and have a complex nonplanar geometry.

Extreme thickening of the coal in the area is thought to be due to fault repeats of the Mammoth seam, folding of coal within the seam and plastic flowage of the coal.

The coal is bituminous (thermal and metallurgical) with a composite washed sample containing 23.6 per cent volatiles (dried air free basis), 9.7 per cent ash (dry basis), 68.8 per cent fixed carbon (dry basis) and 0.32 per cent sulphur, with a British Thermal Unit value of 15,150 (dried air free basis) (1976).

Around 1991 Corbin Creek Collieries was operating the Corbin Mine (Coal Mountain; MINFILE 082GNE001) and planned the Corbin South Mine Extension with a 15,000 tonne bulk sample (EXPL 1991). Corbin Creek Resources took over the project in 1992, and Fording River Operations purchased the project in December of 1994 (EXPL 1992; 1994). The mine has since been referred to as Coal Mountain Operations. Expansion to the south since 1995 targeted the Corbin occurrence (this MINFILE), with several drill campaigns reported continuously through 2003 (Exploration and Mining in BC 1995; 1996; 1999-2003). At some point during or after this time, the Corbin occurrence was incorporated as part of Coal Mountain Operations.

In the 1970’s, total raw recoverable coal reserves for the Mammoth upper coal zone were calculated around 7.2 million tonnes, mineable by open pit methods. An additional 2.4 million tonnes were calculated for the lower high ash zone. The major reserves lie in the west, central and south synclines on the west flank of Coal Mountain, with the smaller reserve area of the east syncline occurring on the east side of Coal Mountain. These reserves are being mined as part of the Coal Mountain Operations (MINFILE 082GNE001).