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Issue link: https://coal.epubxp.com/i/131326
news continued coal mines owned by Booth Energy. The privately-owned coal company, owned by Jim Booth, operates mines in both eastern Kentucky and West Virginia. From the beginning, however, some coal industry observers were skeptical about the arrangement, questioning both its magnitude and pricing. They also wondered why the Indian company was interested in buying so much steam coal, instead of metallurgical coal, although Abhijeet is, among other things, a power development company in India. According to the company's website, it is developing three thermal power projects with an installed capacity of 2,671.6 mw in the Indian states of Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Bihar. Repeated attempts to reach FJS' domestic office in Morristown, N.J., for comment were unsuccessful. Since the original announcement, Abhijeet has not talked publicly about the agreement, including releasing specifications for the coal to be purchased, labeling that as "proprietary" information. River Trading Co., based in Cincinnati, is supposed to load the coal onto barges at a Big Sandy River terminal in eastern Kentucky for transportation to Associated Terminals on the lower Mississippi River near New Orleans, La. John Grantham, River Trading's vice president-East Division, said in February he did not know if the exports will commence this year, at one point suggesting such a scenario is "doubtful" in 2013. Although skeptics say India can get coal from South Africa and other countries cheaper than from Central Appalachia, Grantham said he is confident the deal will go forward. The question is when. Oaktown Could Begin Production This Year If ongoing negotiations with potential customers prove successful, Vectren Corp.'s newest coal mine, the Oaktown No. 2 contin- Drug Cartels Cash in on Coal Rush in Northern Mexico BY JOSEPH KIRSCHKE After a brief shootout in October, Mexican authorities proudly announced the death of Heriberto Lozcano, or Z-3, a notorious leader of Mexico's Zetas, its most feared and brutal drug cartel. Like so much in northern Mexico near the Texas border, the immediate disappearance of Lozcano's body wasn't a total surprise. More intriguing, though, was where "The Executioner" was discovered: unguarded, watching baseball at a restaurant in Progreso in Coahuila state—home to 95% of Mexico's $3.8 billion coal industry—where he had been working as a miner. The Zetas' foray into Mexican coal mining isn't new, but it has garnered publicity in recent months following a surge in cartel activity, including its most recent prison break—one of the biggest in history. But ultimately it's been ex-Gov. Humberto Moreira who, since his son's recent slaying by cartel members, has given it the most attention. Moreira, himself tainted by corruption after a seven-year term, said Lozcano would "go to the store to buy soda and chips, he did not walk around armed or anything—he was a miner." True to form, while under U.S. indictment, Lozcano allegedly even hunted zebras specially imported from Africa at a local game park. "It's an open secret that drug traffickers are infiltrating the coal mines," a local businessman confirmed anonymously to Agence France-Presse. "But since Moreira spoke out, we have seen police and military around." Mexico's Reforma newspaper reports that Zetas and other criminals sell 10,000 tons of coal a week—in a region producing 15 million tons annually—for a profit between $22 million and $25 million per year. Customers have included PRODEMI, a state government body which has, in turn, sold it to the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE); an investigation is underway. Such endeavors aren't unique to the enterprising Zetas, a former elite military unit first co-opted in 1997 by the mainstream Gulf Cartel it has since turned against. "We've seen Zetas making millions off crude oil and finished products, gas and diesel," said Scott Stewart, a Latin America specialist at Stratfor, a risk analysis firm. 20 www.coalage.com In Mexico's drug war which has claimed 30,000 lives since 2006, most cartels focus on narcotics. Zetas, on the other hand, are "equal opportunity criminals for everything—people smuggling, CD and DVD piracy," noted Stewart. "They do it all." This is accomplished through consolidation of massive territories where Zetas "exploit everyone in the region," said Howard Campbell, a professor of Anthropology at the University of Texas at El Paso. In their wake, tortured and mutilated bodies turn up with depressing regularity. "They're sort of like Vikings," noted Cambell. "They rape, pillage and plunder." But given Mexico's mineral-rich "Aztec Tiger" economy—as Latin America's fourth mining producer and the ninth-biggest worldwide—others are getting in on the act, too. In 2010, when mining first overtook tourism in revenue, according to Mexican Mining Chamber data, Mexico exported $15.5 billion in mineral exports with increases forecast through 2015. Mexico is also a bismuth, lead and zinc leader with one of the highest silver concentrations anywhere and, notes the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), possesses mineral deposits in 26 of 32 states. Its Silver Belt ("Faja de Plata"), notably, is the world's most productive silver region—yielding 10 billion oz. of silver with 75 million gold oz. Other cartels and local bandits are thus on the prowl elsewhere in Mexico, albeit less systematically: In 2008, for instance, the government reported $8 million in gold missing while, in 2010, some $240 million in steel vanished. That year, Canada's Goldcorp and Torex Gold Resources temporarily suspended ground transportation after run-ins with local outlaws, before enhancing security. ("We didn't need our people staring down the wrong end of a gun," said Torex CEO Fred Stanford, adding his company wasn't affected by cartel activity.) But it's the Zetas who rule most audaciously and with little heed to working conditions in Coahuila's poorly-run mines with their history of frequent accidents and fatalities, includ- March 2013