Rosebud Mining, Corsa Coal, Robindale Energy and AK Coal Resources all are developing new mines in the Keystone state ranging in size from several hundred thousand tons annually to nearly a million tons a year. Much, though not all, of that output will be earmarked for the seaborne export market. AK Coal, however, plans to supply coal from its new Polaris mine in Somerset County to a plant in Middletown, Ohio, owned and operated by its AK Steel parent company.
AK Coal currently produces met coal for Middletown at its North Fork deep mine also in Somerset County. Although the company was issued a final mining permit from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for Polaris, it has not publicly released a mine construction/in-production date for the new mine.
Robindale Energy’s LCT Energy subsidiary is expected to begin producing coal later this year at its Maple Springs mine also in Somerset County. Production could start as soon as June with the mine eventually ramping up to around 500,000 tons annually. At that rate, Maple Springs has sufficient met coal reserves to last for 15 years, according to Gil Widenhofer, a Robindale vice president.
Corsa plans to focus more on met coal production and sales this year, in part through its new Acosta mine in Somerset County that is scheduled to begin production in the second quarter. The mine is projected to produce about 375,000 tons of coal a year for multiple years. Corsa also intends to restart the Shade Creek prep plant and loadout facility on the Norfolk Southern rail line in Somerset County.
Finally, privately owned Rosebud, which mines in both Pennsylvania and Ohio, is developing the Cresson mine in Cambria County, Pennsylvania. Rosebud assumed a decade-old permit for the mine after acquiring Amfire Mining LLC of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, in a $86 million deal in December 2014. Amfire received the permit from DEP in December 2006 but never activated it. The permit was transferred to Rosebud in September 2015. Cresson’s targeted output is unclear as Rosebud officials declined to publicly discuss the mine and a DEP spokeswoman said she did not know the answer.
