Coal produced at the Brazeau Collieries was crushed into small pieces, and fed into a large storage building. Storing a volume coal helped balance the processes of initial coal production, vs. processing into finished briquettes. The storage bin had a capacity of hundreds of tons; crushed coal was released through 14 gravity-fed dump gates. Each gate had a manual lever that could be raised or lowered to regulate the volume of coal flowing by conveyor belt into the briquette production process.