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southern coal continued The second unit was scheduled to begin producing during January. "We believe long-term the met coal market is sustainable," Justice said. "We want to grow Bishop to a 2.5 million tpy operation that will operate for a long, long time." Southern Coal purchased two P&H; 2800 electric shovels from a mine in Australia, moved them to the U.S. and refurbished them. "It cost us four times what we originally thought they would, but they will be going to work soon," Justice said. During December, Flanders was performing its pre-flight check. The shovels have totally upgraded electrics, which will improve cycle times, availability and reliability. The company recently commissioned a $60 million, 700-tph state-of-the-art prep plant with a 100-car flood-load rail siding. Taggart built the prep plant. The reject from the plant will be backfilled into the pit. The centerpiece for this strategy and the plant is a new McLanahan plate-and-frame press, that will dewater the reject. While other coal companies have started working with plate and frame presses (See Dewatering, p. 35) to dewater reject, Bishop will be the first to rely on the system to backfill reject into the pit. As far as reject levels, only half of the surface mined coal will be washed, and it would have a 70% recovery (150,000 tons of reject). They are expecting a 40% recovery from the underground production (180,000 tons reject). "We have much more plant capacity than we need at this time," Justice said. "Building total production to the 2.5 million tpy level will mostly come from growing underground production." The underground mine runs Joy 14CM15 continuous miners and Joy 10SC shuttle cars. Underground, they are mining coal from the Pocahontas No. 11, which runs 42- to 46-inches thick with 400 ft of cover. The surface mine extracts the Pocahontas Nos. 8-11 seams. Southern Coal was able to get this operation permitted during a period where permitting has become difficult. The Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has been very helpful, Justice explained. Most of the surface permits do not require a valley-fill. There was an existing impoundment on the property that will be reclaimed and used for fill. "It also made it much easier to get the mine started," said Marc Merritt, manager surface mining operations, Southern Coal. "Bishop is a big project January 2013 Southern Coal's Diversified Production Portfolio (2013e) Market A&G;/Virginia Beechcreek/Kentucky Tams/West Virginia Bishop/Virginia Alabama Operations Total Met Sequoia/Kentucky Premium/Tennessee Sigmon/Virginia Bevins Branch/Kentucky Logan/West Virginia Jones Fork/Kentucky Total Steam Total Production High-Vol Met High-Vol Met Low-Vol Met Mid-Vol Met Mid-Vol Met Steam Steam Steam Steam Steam Steam and we needed some elbow room. We ran a 6-mile, 34.5 Kva line to provide power for the shovels, the underground mine and the prep plant." While the construction activity was taking place, they used Cat 5230 hydraulic front-shovels to get the surface mine started. The mine plan calls for two 50-ft lifts with 25-ft benches. One shovel will take the top seams, essentially pre-striping for the other shovel. A total of 15 24- to 30inch seams, mostly the Pocahontas, are recovered. "On average we will move 3 million yd3 per month, which equates to 100,000 tons of coal," Merritt said. "With this being an area mine, we are moving the mountain over, not leveling it out." The mine will employ nine Cat 789 haul trucks and six Komatsu 730 haul trucks to haul material. Alabama Operations In May 2011, Southern Coal purchased mining permits and leases in Alabama from the GTM Energy bankruptcy. The operations are located in Flatrock, Ala., in the northeast part of the state. "The transaction included three permitted surface mines and we are currently operating one of the three mines," Justice said. "When one plays out, we will move to the next. We have 30 million tons of proven reserves. About one-third of that is permitted. It's all surface mineable. It's 25, 26 vol [mid-vol] coal, very similar to Bishop. As far as met characteristics, the Alabama coal has great CSR [coke strength after reaction] and both of them are great met coals." Producing at a pace of 600,000 tpy, the Alabama operation employs two Cat 993 spreads with D11 and Komatsu 475 dozers. All of the coal is washed. Taggart built a 300-tph prep plant for the operation, Production (tons/year) 1,500,000 500,000 500,000 1,400,000 600,000 4,500,000 1,000,000 750,000 1,000,000 750,000 500,000 500,000 4,500,000 9,000,000 which went online in August. At this pace, the Alabama properties have a 40-year life. The stripping ratio is about 28:1 clean recovered tons. The Alabama coal has a lot of laminated partings. "You have two choices," Justice said. "You can leave great deal in the pit or you can mine it all and run it through the plant. We have about a 65% recovery." Southern Coal markets the Alabama and Bishop coals separately and as a blend, which it refers to as "Alabishop." The ash content of the Alabama coal is higher than the Bishop coal, but the CSR value of the Alabama coal is higher than the Bishop coal. The Alabama coal has a lower sulfur content, so they complement each other. Coal is shipped by truck to the Tennessee River and then shipped by barge to Mobile and New Orleans. "We have a tremendous transportation advantage here," Justice said. "The transportation cost is half of what it is in Central Appalachia to get coal loaded in a vessel. And, we're working all possible combinations, shipping Alabama coal to Norfolk and shipping Bishop coal to New Orleans." Coal transportation remains a big issue in Appalachia, not just rail transportation, but trucking as well, according to Justice. "In the past we used a couple of big guys, but we have also used a thousand little guys," Justice said. "In 2011, we purchased Todd Case Trucking, based out of Louisa, Ky. They had 70 coal trucks and were Massey's exclusive hauler. We have expanded that company to 100 trucks now. And, we now haul about 90% of our coal. This was a wise move. It has reduced our costs, but more imporwww.coalage.com 33