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CONSOL's Enlow Fork mine reported production of 2.2 million tons, down from 2.4 million tons in the year-ago period. The mine has struggled recently with geo- logical issues. Alpha Natural Resources had three mines in the region that were among the top pro- ducers in the third quarter. Together those three mines produced nearly 3 million tons of coal. The top producer, Cumberland, reported production of 1.6 million tons of coal in the quarter. The company is expect- ed to increase Cumberland's coal produc- tion in the hope of offsetting the loss in production at the company's Emerald No. 1 mine, which is nearing the end of its pro- ductive life. Emerald produced 1.1 million tons of coal in the third quarter, down from 1.3 million tons in the year-ago quarter. Alpha President Paul Vining recently said the company is looking at other options for expansion in the Northern Appalachia basin but declined to comment further on those plans. "We're not going off the end of a cliff with Emerald shutting down, but we're likely at some point in the future to be looking at starting to move toward perhaps some development, some incremental or longer term investment that will create additional value beyond just a lot of the measures that we've taken in Cumberland," Vining said. Alliance Resource Partners, one of the few coal companies that has managed to avoid a collapse in market value and continued to report record earnings, reported that its Tunnel Ridge mine produced 1.5 million tons of coal in the third quarter, up from 900,000 tons in the year-ago period. Alliance's Mountain View mine produced 500,000 tons in the quarter. Oxford Resource Partners owns three mines among the top 25 coal producers in the region. The three mines — Snyder, Dairy Jean and Tuscarawas Strip — pro- duced a combined more than 800,000 tons in the quarter. Arch Coal's new Leer mine, which pro- duces metallurgical coal, is also one of the top-producers in the region. Leer reported production of more than 650,000 tons in the quarter, up from 100,000 tons in the year- ago quarter. "The startup of Leer has been as good as we could have hoped," Arch Executive Vice President and COO Paul Lang said. "It continues to hit our numbers." Arch's Sentinel mine reported production of more than 270,000 tons. m a r k e t w a t c h c o n t i n u e d December 2014 www.coalage.com 23