“We have the world’s premier metallurgical coals from multiple mines and high quality, high heat thermal coal production, which, in many cases has been serving the same power customers for decades,” Stetson said.
“With 2,700 employees and 17 active mines and seven prep plants, we are a fully integrated coal company with estimated 2017 production in excess of 13 million tons. While one of the largest coal producers in the Central Appalachia (CAPP) region, we remain committed to being a good steward of the environment as we honor our obligations to federal and state agencies, as well as the communities in which we operate.”
The Energy Information Administration expects the share of U.S. electricity fueled by coal to slowly begin growing again and to surpass natural gas as the most common electricity generating fuel in December, January and February.
The capital projects for next year and beyond include developing a conveyor system to connect the Workman Creek reserve base with the Marfork preparation plant in Raleigh County, West Virginia, which will provide transportation for 50 million metallurgical reserve tons and will remove coal trucks from local highways, Stetson said. And, expansion is planned for the Kepler mining complex in Wyoming County, West Virginia, that will provide access to 15 million tons of premium metallurgical coal.
Stetson said additional divestitures of inactive assets are likely. “We recently sold the Enterprise Mining complex to Kingdom-Keystone and we are in negotiations for at least three other idle complexes,” he said.
