Coal Age

JAN-FEB 2018

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24 www.coalage.com January/February 2018 2018 u.s. longwall census Longwall Production Rebounds in 2017 The numbers of overall faces drops by two, but production increases by nearly 10% by steve fiscor, editor The U.S. coal industry saw overall produc- tion grow in 2017 and so did America's long- wall mine operators. After two consecutive years of decline, total longwall production experienced a substantial increase. Col- lectively, U.S. longwall installations pro- duced 167.8 million tons in 2017, a 9.5% increase over the 153.2 million tons pro- duced in 2016. While this is a positive signal, the sector remains well below the 207-mil- lion-ton level it achieved in 2014. The total number of longwall faces dropped from 44 to 42. That figure in- cludes two tronah mines in Wyoming. Two longwall faces were removed: Amer- ican Coal's New Future mine in Illinois and Ohio Valley's Powhatan No. 6 in Ohio. Year-on-year, the total number of longwall mines dropped from 39 to 37 as five mines operated two longwall faces each. The top three longwall operations pro- duced more than 10 million tons per year (tpy) from two longwall faces. Foresight Energy's Sugar Camp mine set a U.S. record for annual coal production from a longwall installation with more than 12.8 million tons in 2017. Last year, 16 longwall instal- lations produced at a capacity of 5 million tpy or more, compared to 11 in 2016. A couple of new/old names appear on the 2017 U.S. Longwall Census, including CONSOL Energy, Canyon Consolidated Resources and Mission Coal. In November, CONSOL Energy spun off its coal mining group as CONSOL Mining Corp., changed its name to CNX Resources Corp., but re- tained its ticker symbol CNX on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). At the same time, the newly formed CONSOL Mining Corp. changed its name to CONSOL Ener- gy Inc. and its common stock trades on the NYSE as CEIX. That's a really long-winded way of saying CONSOL Energy has been renamed CONSOL Energy from the coal industry's perspective. In November, Murray Energy Corp. (MEC), Bowie Resource Partners, Javelin Global Commodities and Grupo CLISA formed a strategic partnership called Can- yon Consolidated Resources. Bowie's long- wall assets in Utah, the Sufco No. 1 mine and the Skyline mine, are now listed under Canyon Consolidated Resources. During August, ERP Compliant Fuels established Mission Coal to manage its U.S. coking coal assets, which include the Oak Grove longwall mine in Alabama and the Pinnacle No. 5 longwall mine and the Maple Eagle operations in West Virginia. The Pinna- cle mine cuts coking coal from a thin seam and operates the only plow face in the U.S. A few longwall mines posted some outstanding production figures last year. Warrior Met Coal in Alabama has been reaping the long overdue rewards of a coking coal rally. Year-on-year, the com- pany's Blue Creek No. 4 mine quadrupled production and its Blue Creek No. 7 mine increased production by nearly 1.8 million tons. Alliance Resource Partners' Hamil- ton County longwall mine in Illinois dou- bled its production. Longwall ownership in the U.S. re- mained relatively unchanged. Robert E. Murray and the companies he controls (American Energy, American Coal Co., Foresight Energy and MEC) operate 12 longwall faces spread across Illinois (4), Ohio (1), Utah (1) and West Virginia (6). CONSOL Energy operates three mines and five faces in Pennsylvania. Alliance Re- source Partners, Arch Coal, ERP and War- rior Met Coal own three longwall faces. With 13 faces, West Virginia remains the longwall leader, followed by Pennsylvania (6), Alabama (5) and Illinois (5). Looking at the numbers, the average U.S. longwall mine operating in coal produced 4.94 million tpy in 2017 compared to 4.23 million tpy in 2016. On average, it has a cutting height of 93.8 in., a panel width (or face length) of 1,414.2 ft, and a panel length of 12,804.4 ft. Last year, those numbers were 94.3 in., 1,236 ft, and 12,321.5 ft, respectively. A total of nine longwalls have face lengths of 1,500 ft or Table 1—Longwall Installations by Parent Company (2017-2018) Company Ala. Colo. Ill. Mont. N.M. Ohio Pa. Utah Va. W.Va. Wyo. Total Alliance Resource Partners 1 2 3 American Energy (MEC) 1 1 Arch Coal 1 2 3 Blue Mountain Energy 1 1 Canyon Consolidated Resources 2 2 CONSOL Energy 5 5 Contura Energy 1 1 Coronado Coal 1 1 Drummond 1 1 ERP Compliant Fuels 1 1 Foresight Energy (MEC) 4 4 Mission Coal (ERP) 1 1 2 Murray American Energy (MEC) 6 6 Pacific Minerals 1 1 Panther Creek Mining 1 1 Peabody Energy 1 1 Signal Peak Energy 1 1 Solvay Chemicals 1 1 Tronox Alkali Co. 1 1 UtahAmerican Energy (MEC) 1 1 Warrior Met Coal 3 3 Westmoreland Coal 1 1 Total 5 3 5 1 1 1 6 3 1 13 3 42

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