Coal Age

NOV 2015

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Production, Sales Up at Stockton Anthracite Mine British-based Atlantic Coal plc said coal production and sales are increasing at its Stockton anthracite surface mine in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, despite challenges that continue to con- front the nation's coal industry as a whole. In the first nine months of 2015, Stockton produced 151,523 clean tons of coal, up 28.1% over the 118,279 tons it turned out in the same p eriod of 2014, the company said in late October. Run-of-mine out- put was even higher — 365,985 tons in the first three quarters of this year, or a 30.3% rise over 243,527 tons in the year-ago period. According to the company, total coal sales were 186,186 tons for the nine months ended September 30, compared with 112,831 tons for the first three quarters of 2014, a 65% gain. Stockton had 26,149 clean tons of coal in inventory at the end of September, versus only 8,839 tons a year earlier. Steve Best, Atlantic's managing director, said he was pleased with S tockton's performance, especially "when viewed against the very chal- lenging market conditions for commodities, in particular for thermal and metallurgical coals, the prices of which have plunged dramatically." In contrast, he said, anthracite prices "have held up well and we will be raising the prices of all our anthracite grades by $10 a ton" in October "to take advantage of the healthy market for anthracite as we move into what is traditionally our best period of the year for both sales volumes and prices." He was referring to the traditional home and industrial heating season in Pennsylvania and other areas of the northeastern U.S. where more anthracite coal is burned in the winter months. For the first time since Stockton opened several years ago, "we have a very healthy inventory of clean coal which means that we have the confidence to supply our traditional customer base and also to go out and seek new customers," Best said. With the steel industry experiencing global reductions in pro- duction in terms of anthracite use, "this is being counterbalanced by an increase in demand for anthracite to replace high-sulfur p etroleum coke with a consequent increase in demand from that s ector which also bodes well for the future as the steel industry recovers," he added. Best said Stockton's improvement is being driven by Atlantic's investment in new plant and equipment that has boosted capacity and reliability. "Our Komatsu PC3000 hydraulic excavator gives us 98% availability and the combination of mining the almost solid Mammoth seam and improvements to the washing plant have resulted in an almost 37% increase in our wash recovery rate," he a dded. Mining at Stockton is close to reaching the bottom of the coal basin in the current cut, he said, and "according to indications from old underground mine maps, we are due to enter the almost solid 30-ft-thick Mammoth seam, which will further assist in maintaining our high production levels." All anthracite coal in the U.S. is mined in several counties in northeastern Pennsylvania. Since the latter half of 2014, the state's anthracite producers have experienced renewed interest from prospective European customers because of the continuing con- flict in the Ukraine. n e w s c o n t i n u e d November 2015 www.coalage.com 19 Unearth the innovation potential. Secure your ticket now at: w w w.bauma.de/tickets/en Connecting Global Competence What technologies and innovations will define, change and revolutionize the global mining industry in the future? Find out at bauma 2016. You can expect: 700 exhibitors with mining products Halls B2, C2 and C3 and the bauma Forum all focus on mining 605,000 m 2 of total exhibition space with plenty of other products and components for mining 31st Edition of the World's Leading Trade Fair for Construction Machinery, Building Material Machines, Mining Machines, Construction Vehicles and Construction Equipment www.bauma.de April 11–17, Munich bauma Official

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