Codename: COALMINER

Codename: COALMINER is an ONI operative involved in Operation: HYPODERMIC and aware of the SPARTAN-III Program by 2532. In a progress report to Codename: SURGEON concerning those two projects, COALMINER noted the early stages of preparing Alpha Company were progressing satisfactorily and expressed confidence in Kurt-051's training regimen.

In 2552, COALMINER detected Cortana's intrusion into the the ONI database at Reach. While COALMINER failed to identify the intruder, the intrusion threatened to compromise HYPODERMIC. COALMINER informed SURGEON of the breach and deleted the from Reach Station Gamma's database to minimize the damage.

This later caused difficulties during the Battle of Reach as it prevented the AI Doppler from erasing the Circumference ' s NAV database as per the Cole Protocol. A SPARTAN-II team had to deploy to destroy the ship and suffered casualties in the process. This may, however, have effectively saved John 117 and humanity, as John 117 may have died or been trapped on the planet, and would not have taken part in the destruction of Installation 04. This may have also saved the lives of many other notable characters, such as Sergeant Johnson and Cortana.