Coal Age

FEB 2015

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Congress will conduct closer oversight hearings to expose instances of regulatory overreach, he said, and the Supreme Court will decide several cases brought by the NMA that could result in a more bal- anced regulatory environment. Alpha Idles Mines, Cuts Workers Alpha Natural Resources has confirmed plans to idle three of its West Virginia operations and reduce workforce numbers at a number of other mines due to continued weakness for domestic and internation- al coal as well as ongoing depressed prices. Officials said January 30 that Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notices were issued to about 91 Highland Mining Co. employees related to the expected stoppage of Highland Mining's Superior, North and Trace Fork surface mines. Combined, the mines produced 1.5 million tons of thermal coal last year. Alpha is also planning staff reductions at the Reylas and Freeze Fork surface mines; an additional seven workers with Rum Creek Coal's Anna Branch reclamation unit, working at the affected mines, will also be displaced. The producer will be keeping about 25% of its workers on payroll for reclamation work as three of the oper- ations wind down to an idle state. It expects all idlings and worker cuts to be complete by the middle of April. Corsa Coal Idles 2 Mines, Cuts 130 Workers Canadian-based junior and new PBS Coals owner Corsa Coal has con- firmed plans to reduce its workforce in Northern Appalachia (NAPP) by 25% by cutting 130 employees while idling two of its newly acquired mines. Company officials said January 9 that, as it continues to inte- grate PBS Coals assets into its NAPP division portfolio, it has idled the Kimberly Run and Barbara mines and placed them under manage- ment review for closure. It also cited global met market weakness for the move. Corsa will transfer some personnel and equipment from the mines to its active, lower-cost Casselman and Quecreek complexes; the additional personnel and equipment are expected to allow for an increase in production and operational efficiency at both mines. Cline Group Now Sole Owner of Foresight Reserves Investment group Riverstone Holdings and its affiliates have divested their ownership stake in Foresight Energy's Foresight Reserves LLP (FRLP), making Cline Group the company's sole owner. St. Louis-based Foresight said that E. Bartow Jones, a member of its partner's board of directors, has stepped down; Jones had been a Riverstone partner and on the Foresight Energy board since its initial public offering in June 2014. The remaining partners of FRLP, which are all Chris Cline controlled companies and trusts for the benefit of Cline family members, now hold all ownership interests. Cline, who did not disclose the financial details of the deal, noted that he looks forward to working with Riverstone on other projects in the future. James River Divests Last of Operations Financially troubled producer James River Coal quietly confirmed that it no longer has mining operations after selling its remaining Central Appalachia assets to privately held Revelation Energy LLC in a $2 mil- lion cash deal. James River said in an 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, filed as part of its ongoing bankruptcy n e w s c o n t i n u e d NWR Completes Debiensko Prefeasibility Study Czech coal miner New World Resources (NWR) recently completed a prefeasibility study for the Debiensko project. Undertaken by DMT Consulting GmbH, it identified a total of 263 million metric tons (mt) of JORC-compliant proven and probable coal reserves. All are hard coking coal reserves that will yield 186 million mt of mar- ketable coal. NWR is now exploring opportunities to attract funding for the estimated two-year feasibility stage of the project. Moelis & Co. UK LLP has been engaged to assist the company in this process. The Debiensko area is located in the Upper Silesia Coal Basin in southern Poland. The project is one of the largest undeveloped hard coking coal deposits in Europe. Exports from El Cerrejon in Colombia Reach Historic Levels Exports from Colombia's El Cerrejon, the largest open-pit coal mine in Latin America, topped 34.2 million tons in 2014. A 2% increase over 2013, Cerrejon Coal Co. said it was a new record for them. "2014 was a challenging year for Cerrejon," said Roberto Junguito, president, Cerrejon Coal. "A significant drop in international coal prices affected economics. The company will focus this year on improving efficiency and productivity to cope with the steep fall in the price of coal." Ex-Anglo American Coal Exec Charged in Scam A fraud case against a former Anglo-American coal executive has more than doubled to $9.8 million. In Q3, Glenn James Tonkin was charged with stealing $4.5 million from the company's Queensland operations last year and 2013; he was then drawing a $315,000 salary as manag- er of central Queensland's $2 billion Grosvenor project. The 50-year-old used contractors, fake invoices, and off-shore Caribbean and Hong Kong bank accounts, the civil suit said. After freezing his assets, Anglo officials filed another claim in Brisbane Supreme Court asserting Tonkin's used expansion at Chile's $2.8 billion Las Bronces mine between 2009 and 2011 to cover a further $5.3 million scheme. Contractors unwittingly passed consulting fees from Tonkin to Anglo American projects, which he would then approve. No equipment or services were rendered, the allegations said, but amid billions in project costs, the $9.8 million was not missed. Canada's Grande Cache Will Likely Lay Off Miners Grande Cache Coal could cut up to 150 jobs in Alberta, according to The Globe & Mail , another casualty of falling metallurgical coal prices. The company told workers during January that the cuts could happen over the next few months, said a spokesman for the United Mine Workers of America union. Grande Cache is still running its underground operations, the union spokesman said. Miners who may be impacted work above ground, he said. Last year, the owners of Grande Cache sold the coal miner for $2, after paying $1 billion for the asset at the height of the commodity boom. Continued from p. 7... 8 www.coalage.com February 2015 ˛

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