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July/August 2017 www.coalage.com 11 news continued Poplar Grove, a room-and-pillar operation, is targeted to pro- duce about 1.8 million tons per year (tpy) from the western Ken- tucky No. 9 and No. 11 seam. Paringa said it soon will begin de- velopment on a second underground mine in the area, Cypress, whose projected output has been estimated at 3.8 million tpy. Beech Creek Coal Mine Resumes Production Southern Coal Corp.'s Beech Creek Coal subsidiary is reopening a surface mine near Phelps in Pike County, Kentucky, to produce metallurgical coal, another sign that a nascent recovery may be coming to the Central Appalachian coalfield. According to Dustin Deane, associate counsel for the James C. Justice Cos. of Roanoke, Virginia, the mine was expected to re- sume producing coal around July 15. It had been idled for about a year because of the soft coal market. Deane said the mine should produce approximately 600,000 tons of coal annually. The company was in the hiring process in early July and anticipates having about 100 miners on the payroll this summer. The met coal is expected to be sold both domestically and in- ternationally, Deane said. The mine's restart is welcome news to both the Kentucky coal industry and Pike County, for years the leading coal producing county in eastern Kentucky. Coal production is rising slowly in Kentucky in 2017 follow- ing several years of decline. The state produced 11.2 million tons in the first quarter of this year, a 0.56% increase over the fourth quarter of 2016, according to the Kentucky Department of Natu- ral Resources. In 2016, Kentucky produced only 42.6 million tons, its lowest yearly total since 1939. Pike County produced about 1.1 million tons of coal in the January-March period, down slightly from the fourth quarter of 2016, although coal output was up slightly, by 0.2%, in eastern Kentucky as a whole. Berwind Mine Permit is Issued Ramaco recently announced it received the final reclama- tion and mine permit for its Berwind mine from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. Management anticipated preproduction development work at Berwind to be ini- tiated on July 5, with initial development production anticipated in the fourth quarter of 2017. The Berwind property on the border of West Virginia and Virginia consists of approximately 31,200 acres of controlled mineral. The property consists of 72 million tons of re- coverable low-vol met coal reserves with advantaged coal thickness. Berwind's low-volatile coal with very low sulfur should be well-positioned for high-value specialty business, the company said. Berwind's proximity to SunCoke's Jewell coking plant pro- vides significant delivered-costs advantage to the coking plant. The company anticipates ultimate production from the Berwind mine at more than 800,000 tons per year (tpy). In other news, the company is largely in a development phase in 2017. Deep mine Alma is currently producing at a rate of 20,000 tpm and the company expects productivity to have improved fur- ther since first-quarter earnings. Ramaco is adding another sec- tion at Alma that would lead to incremental production of near- ly 10,000 tpm for four to five months. This additional production would help bridge the gap for targeted test shipments for 2017. The second deep mine (Eagle mine) at Elk Creek came online ahead of schedule during the week of April 10, and is now shipping de- velopment coal. The third mine at the complex, which is a surface mine, would be active almost at the same time as the Elk Creek preparation plant, which is expected to be completed by August. Management expects to achieve an annualized run rate of around 2.5 million tons by the end of 2017. Ramaco plans to increase met- allurgical coal production from an estimated 1.1 million tons from two mine complexes (Elk Creek and Berwind) to a 4.4-million-ton rate during 2022 from three mines (Elk Creek, Berwind and Ram). MSHA Launches Initiative to Address Increase in Injuries Data recently compiled between October 2015 and March 2017 by the U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) shows that less experienced miners — both at a mine and at a specific occupation — suffer injuries at a higher rate than more expe- rienced miners. Over this 18-month period, miners with one year or less of experience at a mine suffered 903 injuries, compared to 418 for those who had worked at a mine between one and two years. Miners with one year or less job experience suffered 603 injuries, compared to 409 for those with between one and two years of job experience. MSHA launched a Training Assistance Initiative throughout the nation's coalfields to address the causes and trends in recent coal fatalities. On June 12, the agency began informing mine operators of the initiative's planned launch, and encouraging them to partici- pate and provide information about miners hired within the previ- ous 12 months, and those in their current job for 12 months or less. "Of the eight coal mining fatalities so far in 2017, seven in- volved miners with one year or less experience at the mine, and six involved miners with one year or less experience on the job," said Patricia W. Silvey, deputy assistant secretary of labor. "We at MSHA will be working closely with mine operators and miners to eliminate these fatalities." Staff from the agency's division of Coal Mine Safety and Health and training specialists from Educational Field and Small Mine Ser- vices will conduct these visits to coal mines. Their objectives include reviewing the approved training plan posted at the mine to ensure that all information is up to date, and the most recently approved plan is posted; talking to and observing work practices of miners with one year or less experience at the mine to evaluate the effec- tiveness of the mine operator's new miner and experienced miner training program; talking to and observing work practices of min- ers with one year or less experience performing their current job to evaluate the effectiveness of the mine operator's task training pro- gram; identifying deficiencies and offer suggestions in training; and working with mine operators to improve their training programs. MSHA personnel may ask operators to allow miners with more experience at the mine to accompany agency personnel during interactions with miners who have less experience. The initiative runs through September 30. Clean Coal Technologies Signs Agreement for Pristine M Plant Clean Coal Technologies Inc. (CCTI), an emerging cleaner-energy company utilizing technology to convert untreated coal into a clean- er-burning and more efficient fuel, announced they have signed a binding agreement with Wyoming New Energy Corp. (WNEC) for the build-out of its first commercial facility in Wyoming.