Coal Age

NOV 2015

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n e w s c o n t i n u e d inal throughput agreement will remain in place through the end of 2 024. " Westshore is a critical part of our effort to build a viable long- term Asian export business," CPE President and CEO Colin Marshall said, noting that it values Westshore for its willingness to work with them in light of the issues at hand. "We believe in the long-term opportunity for Asian exports of Powder River Basin coal as oversupplies of seaborne thermal coal are rationalized," Marshall said. "We are also engaged in active discussions with the BNSF regarding potential modifications to o ur rail take-or-pay commitments for our Asian export business. We are hopeful we can reach a mutually acceptable agreement with the BNSF and will provide an update on the outcome of those discussions as appropriate." The announcement came just days after reports that U.S. Magistrate Judge Carolyn Ostby decided in federal court that the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) should not have approved the expansion of Spring Creek mine three years ago without exam- ining its environmental impact in greater detail — but also that the expansion work already under way at the operation will not be shut down immediately. According to the Associated Press, the judge recommended recently that the DOI reconsider the effects of the mine's growth. The environmental issues are longstanding; several groups first sued the DOI in 2012 when it approved CPE's growth plan. Cloud Peak spokesman Rick Curtsinger said October 26 that the company was disappointed in the judge's decision and had planned to work with federal officials to defend the expansion, which would have added 2,042 acres and 117 million tons of coal — permitting the Decker, Montana, operation to mine through 2022 or even longer. "Spring Creek mine is an important part of America's energy supply and Montana's economy," Curtsinger said. Alpha Divesting Operations in Chapter 11 Restructure Alpha Natural Resources, which was working through Chapter 11 reor- ganization in U.S. Bankruptcy Court at press time, is planning to sell off a group of 16 closed coal operations as part of a business overhaul. The operations are located in West Virginia, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee, though neither a statement from officials nor the filed court paperwork indicated the specific operations that would be included. A planned November 5 hearing on the case and pro- posed sales procedures was expected to add some clarity. January 20, 2016, has been set as a target date for bids on the properties; should an auction be held, it will take place at the office of Jones Day in New York City. The approval of a bankruptcy judge will likely follow a month later. The announcement comes less than one month after Alpha confirmed it would lay off 79 workers at the Edwight surface mine and 13 more at Independence Coal's Tunnel mine by November 30. The mines are neighbors in Naoma, Raleigh County. Alpha cit- ed "adverse market conditions" for the decision. United's Carter Roag to Shut Down Nearly 200 miners will reportedly be looking for new work come Christmas after reports that United Coal will close its Carter Roag Coal mining complex in West Virginia. Local news outlets including West Virginia MetroNews said 173 workers received Worker Adjustment Retraining (WARN) Act reserve will remove some 13% of brown coal capacity from the mar- ket. The three power plant operators will receive an average of 230 million euros per year for the shift to divide up among themselves and the move is expected to result in higher electricity bills for con- sumers. RWE said it would shift about 15% of its total lignite c apacity of about 10,000 MW to the reserve. Vattenfall, which has total brown coal capacity of 8,000 MW in Germany, said it would move capacity from two 500 MW units to the reserve in 2018 and 2019. Environmental activists said the German government would need to switch off three times as much to hit its goals to reduce CO 2 emissions by 40% by 2020 from 1990 levels. Canadian Exploration Program Better Defines Elko Program Pacific American Coal Ltd completed its exploration program at the Elko coal project in British Columbia, Canada. The company will now move forward with advanced geological modeling and anticipates announcing a JORC-compliant inferred resource. In addition to proving up the reserves, the company sought to establish relationships with stakeholders including First Nation groups. The company engaged Highland GeoComputing (HGC) to lead the exploration program. The Elko coal license contains multiple outcropping coal seams along the southern boundary of the East Kootenay Coal Basin. Exploration in the Elko area has been regularly performed over the past 50 years. The primary objective of this field reconnaissance was to verify the locations of drill holes, adits, outcrops, and faults referenced in geological reports prepared by BC Coal, Mitsui and Cline Mining. The group was able to locate and verify the locations of nearly every geological data point referenced in the historical reports. Balamara Expands Polish Coal Portfolio European-focused coal developer Balamara completed an inaugural mineral resource estimate for its recently secured Mariola 2 thermal coal project in southern Poland resulting in the delineation of 66.4 million metric tons (mt) of reserves and 187 million mt of resources. Balamara has appointed Salva Resources Pty Ltd. (HDR) to immedi- ately commence a prefeasibility study (PFS) for the Mariola 2 pro- ject. Once the PFS has been completed, the two discrete Mariola concessions will be combined into one overall Mariola project. By combining the projects, Balamara believes significant cost savings can be realized through the resulting operating synergies. GlobalCOAL Welcomes New Members GlobalCOAL announced that three new Market Members have joined its online coal-trading platform. Dubai-based Farlin Energy & Commodities FZE operates and has exclusive off-take agreements with several mines in the Sumatra and Kalimantan regions of Indonesia. The combined reserves of these mines are more than 30 million metric tons (mt). Headquartered in Jakarta, PT Jwala Energy Resources mines and exports thermal coal from the East Kalimantan and Sumatra regions. Verdo Energy sells coal, oil, coke and other bulk commodities. Continued from p. 6... 8 www.coalage.com November 2015 ˛

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