Coal Age

AUG 2016

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18 www.coalage.com August 2016 news continued ground steam coal mine near Allerton in Vermilion County, Illi- nois — if a state mining permit is issued by the end of 2016, as is anticipated by the company. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources earlier this year gave the Terre Haute, Indiana-based company more time to submit revised plans for Bulldog, and Hal- lador President and CEO Brent Bilsland believes the entire process can be completed by December 31. Bilsland said his company will continue to develop the continuous miner operation that tentatively would produce its first coal in 2018. Bulldog's coal, as is the case with coal from the company's other Illinois Basin mines, would be sold to U.S. electric utility customers, including several in the re- gion and in Florida. The Bulldog mine, located near Allerton in Vermilion County, would produce up to 3 million tons of high-sulfur coal annually. It would be the first Illinois mine for Hallador/Sunrise, which until now have mined exclusively in neighboring Indiana. The mine project has encountered some local opposition, mainly from environmental groups opposed to coal. Currently, Hallador essentially is operating only its two Oak- town underground mines in Knox County, Indiana, and the small Ace in the Hole surface mine in neighboring Clay County, Indiana. The two Oaktown mines produced about 2.8 million tons in the first half of 2016, with Ace chipping in with another 145,000 tons for a company total of about 3 million tons. That leaves the com- pany on pace to reach projected output of approximately 6 mil- lion tons in 2016. The Oaktown mines were acquired by Sunrise from Evansville, Indiana-based Vectren Corp. more than two years ago. The Prosperity underground mine in Pike County, Indiana, also included in the transaction, was idled by Sunrise soon after the deal closed. Until two years ago, Hallador's flagship mine had been the Carlisle underground operation in Sullivan County, Indiana. For nearly a decade, Carlisle turned out about 3 million tons of steam coal annually. But Carlisle, a higher-cost mine, began to be pared back and its production shifted to the Oaktown mines once they were purchased. At present, Carlisle is idled, according to Bilsland. His hope, however, is for a sufficient improvement in the steam coal market so Carlisle can reopen in 2017 at a production rate similar to what the mine is used to. Whether that will happen re- mains unclear. However, Bilsland predicts steam coal demand will recover in late 2017 and 2018 because of projected increases in natural gas prices. Knight Hawk On Track For Solid Year At midyear, Knight Hawk Coal was on track to reach its high-sul- fur steam coal production and sales forecast of approximately 4.7 million tons for 2016, and it began shipping coal from its newest mine in southern Illinois. It entered 2016 expecting a solid, if not spectacular, year, and that appeared to be the case six months in, according to company officials. The company sells its coal to elec- tric utilities in the U.S. As anticipated, the company's Prairie Eagle mine in Perry County continues to be the hub of its regional operations. Prai- rie Eagle started as a surface mine in 2005, but eventually was ex- panded to include two underground mines. By early fall, Knight Hawk expects to complete construction on a new portal at Prairie Eagle that would reduce the distance and time needed to reach the mine's face. Knight Hawk controls an estimated 100 million tons of reserves at the Prairie Eagle loca- tion. Also, as expected, Knight Hawk's new Golden Eagle surface mine near Pinckneyville in Perry County is in production. Ship- ments from Golden Eagle started in July from coal trucked from the mine to the Prairie Eagle prep plant elsewhere in the county. Golden Eagle will not be a particularly large mine, turning out per- haps 200,000 tons of high-sulfur coal this year before ramping up to full output of around 400,000 tons annually in 2017. Under an arrangement reached with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Knight Hawk is allowed to use part of the 19,701-acre Pyramid State Park in Perry County as a staging area for mining 240 acres of private, adjacent land owned by the com- pany that includes the Golden Eagle operation. Once mining is finished in several years, Knight Hawk will turn the land over to the state. Almost all of Knight Hawk's operations are located within a 35-mile radius of where Perry, Jackson and Randolph counties c a l e n d a r o f e v e n t s September 14-16, 2016: 2016 MEMSA Technical Symposium, Sher- aton Sand Key, Clearwater Beach, Florida. Contact: Web: www. miningelectrical.org. September 16, 2016: Mining Law Summit 2016, University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, Tucson, Arizona. Contact: Web: https://law.arizona.edu/mining-law-summit. September 20-21, 2016: S&P; Global Platts 39 th Annual Coal Market- ing Days Conference, Omni William Penn Hotel, Pittsburgh, Penn- sylvania. Contact: Web: www.coalmarketingdays.com. September 25-28, 2016: The National Association of State Land Rec- lamationists and the National Association of Abandoned Mine Land Programs conference: Enhancing Communities Through Reclamation, Bozeman, Montana. Contact: Montana Department of Environmental Bozeman, Montana. Contact: Montana Department of Environmental Quality; Tel: 406-444-4973; Web: www.naslr.org or www.naamlp.net. September 26-28, 2016: MINExpo INTERNATIONAL 2016, Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada. Contact: Web: www.min- expo.com. October 16-18, 2016: World Coal Leaders Network, EPIC SANA, Lis- bon, Portugal. Contact: Web: www.coaltrans.com/world-coal-con- ference/details.html. December 5-9, 2016: American Exploration and Mining Association Annual Meeting, Sparks, Nevada. Contact: Web: miningamerica.org. January 29-February 1, 2017: ISEE 43 rd Annual Conference for Explosive and Blasting Technique, Orlando, Florida. Contact: Web: www.isee.org. February 20-23, 2017: SME Annual Conference & Exhibition, Denver Convention Center, Denver, Colorado. Contact: Web: www.smenet.org. May 7-9, 2017: Haulage & Loading, Wigwam Resort, Phoenix, Arizo- na. Contact: Web: www.haulageandloading.com. June 13-15, 2017: Longwall USA, David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Contact: Web: www.longwallusa.com.

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