Coal Age

APR 2018

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14 www.coalage.com April 2018 news continued coming months in 2018. To date, the company has contracted more than 90% of its expected 2018 production. "We continue to expand our export business through direct relationships with international customers and through the use of coal brokers," Boone said. "We believe that sales to the inter- national markets provide the best growth opportunities for us to continue to expand our business." The recent completion of a new three-year financing agree- ment provides them the financial stability and flexibility to con- tinue to grow Rhino, Boone added. "We look forward to working with Colbeck, our new financing partner, to increase the value of our partnership for our unitholders," he added. At the company's Central Appalachia operations, they have contracted for all of 2018 projected steam coal production and a small amount of 2018 met coal tons remaining to be booked. Production at Pennyrile and Castle Valley are completely sold out for 2018. Pennyrile recently completed contracts with multi- ple utility customers for 2019 through 2020. At Castle Valley, they have booked sales for 300,000 tons per year for 2018 through 2020 with a major utility. In Northern Appalachia, they have agreed to a sales agreement with a local utility for their Hopedale operation for 200,000 tons for 2018 along with export orders for the remain- der of 2018 that have this operation completely sold for this year. Pennyrile long-term sales contracts have committed sales of 1.4 million tons for full-year 2018 and 550,000 tons for 2019 and 2020. Sales volume for the current quarter was 325,000 tons, ver- sus 286,000 in the prior year and 316,000 in the prior quarter. For Central Appalachia, coal revenues were $25.1 million, versus $16 million in the prior year and $27.9 million in the prior quarter. The increase in revenue year-over-year was primarily due to the increase in demand for met and steam coal tons sold from this region, the company said. Sales volume was 371,000 tons in the quarter versus 266,000 in the prior year and 382,000 tons in the prior quarter. Cost of operations per ton in the quarter was $50.85 versus $48.77 in the prior year and $54.73 in the prior quar- ter. The increase in cost per ton year over year was due to higher maintenance costs to upgrade the equipment fleet to meet the demand for additional met coal production. For Rhino Western, coal revenues were $10.3 million versus $9.5 million in the prior year and $9.1 million in the prior quarter. Sales volume was 282,000 tons versus 247,000 tons in the prior year and 242,000 tons in the prior quarter. The increase in coal sales in the fourth quarter of 2017 was the result of an increase in customer demand at our Castle Valley mine. For Northern Appalachia, sales volume from the Hopedale operations was 130,000 tons versus 91,000 tons in the prior year and 105,000 in the prior quarter. Sales were higher in the current quarter compared to the same period in 2016 due to increased sales volumes from the Hopedale operations as de- mand increased for coal from this region during the compara- tive periods. On November 7, 2017, the partnership closed an agreement to transfer 100% of the membership interests and related assets and liabilities of Sands Hill Mining LLC to the third party in ex- change for a future override royalty for any mineral sold, exclud- ing coal, from Sands Hill Mining LLC after the closing date. The partnership recognized a gain of $3.2 million from the sale of Sands Hill Mining LLC. The partnership engaged an independent third party to per- form a fair market value appraisal on certain parcels of land that it owns in Mesa County, Colorado. The parcels appraised for $6 million compared to the carrying value of $6.8 million. The part- nership recorded an impairment loss of $0.8 million during the fourth quarter of 2017. CONSOL Energy Reports Record Production In its latest earning report, CONSOL Energy reported record annual throughput of 14.3 million tons at the CONSOL Marine Terminal and record annual coal production of 26.1 million tons in 2017. Annual sales volume grew 6% compared to the year-ago period, and average revenue per ton grew 5% compared to the year-ago period. "The fourth quarter of 2017 marked an important milestone in the history of our company," said Jimmy Brock, CEO of CON- SOL Energy Inc. "We became an independent publicly traded company when CNX Resources Corp. completed the separation of its gas exploration and production business and its coal busi- ness into two public companies on November 28, 2017." The new company is a pure-play coal company and com- bines a world-class coal mining complex located in Pennsylvania, a strategic coal export terminal and an abundance of undevel- oped reserves, Brock said. "Over the past several years, we have adjusted our cost structure to improve our competitiveness in a changing energy c a l e n d a r o f e v e n t s May 6-9, 2018: Canadian Institute of Mining (CIM 2018), Vancouver Convention Center, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Contact: Web: www.cim.org. June 5-8, 2018: Ugol Rossii & Mining, Novokuznetsk, Russia. Contact: Web: www.ugol-rossii.com. June 24-25, 2018: The Rocky Mountain Coal Mining Institute's 114 th Annual Meeting & Conference, Hotel Talisa, Vail, Colorado. Contact: Judy Colgan; Tel: 303-948-3300; Email: jcolgan@rmcmi.org. September 10-14, 2018: Electra Mining Africa, Expo Centre Nasrec, Johannesburg, South Africa. Contact: Web: www.electramining.co.za. September 12-14, 2018: Coal Association of Canada 2018 Coal Conference, Westin Bayshore, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Contact: Web: www.coal.ca. October 14-16, 2018: The World Coal Leaders Network 2018, Pullman Barcelona Skipper, Barcelona, Spain. Contact: Web: www.coaltrans.com/ world-coal-conference/details.html. November 6-8, 2018: MetCoke World Summit 2018, Pittsburgh, Penn- sylvania. Contact: Web: www.metcokemarkets.com/metcoke-summit. March 10-13, 2019: Haulage & Loading, Hilton El Conquistador Resort, Tucson, Arizona. Contact: Web: www.haulageandloading.com. May 20-22, 2019: Longwall USA, David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Contact: Web: www.longwallusa.com.

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