A Murray Energy Corp. subsidiary is asking Ohio regulators to approve a permit application that would extend the life of its Century longwall thermal coal mine in Belmont County, Ohio, by about five years, a company official said Tuesday.
Gary Broadbent, senior corporate counsel and spokesman for Ohio-based Murray Energy, said in an email that the additional 7,290 underground acres American Energy is seeking to permit would lengthen the life of the state's largest coal mine.
"Indeed, at the current rate of production, the Century mine is estimated to currently have over 35 years worth of high-quality, high-heating value coal reserves," he said.
The Ohio Division of Mineral Resources Management has not yet deemed the application complete. It can take a year or more for the agency to process a mine permit request, so final regulatory approval is unlikely in 2017.
Century produced 2.8 million tons in the first half of 2017 and almost 5 million tons in 2016, according to the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration. It has nearly 300 employees.
Century and the Powhatan No. 6 underground mine, once operated by Murray's Ohio Valley Coal Co. subsidiary in Belmont County, accounted for about half of Ohio's annual coal production until Powhatan was closed last year.
Broadbent said Murray Energy's operations produced approximately 36.2 million tons of coal in the first half of 2017. That figure includes about 10.9 million tons from Foresight Energy LP, now controlled by Murray Energy. St. Louis-based Foresight operates three longwall mines and a continuous miner operation in Illinois.
In Illinois, White Stallion Energy's Vigo Coal subsidiary wants state regulators to approve an extension of its Friendsville thermal coal surface mine in Wabash County, said Art Rice, an official with the Illinois Office of Mines and Minerals in Benton.
"Vigo has picked up some additional property and will extend at Friendsville," he said in an Aug. 15 interview. "They only had a couple of years of mining left" under the mine's existing permit.
Friendsville produced 331,712 tons in the first half of 2017, more than the 274,680 tons it turned out in 2016, MSHA figures show.
Veteran coal operator Steve Chancellor's recently formed White Stallion Energy acquired Evansville, Ind.-based Vigo more than a year ago.
Bob Matyi is a contributing reporter to S&P Global Platts, which, like S&P Global Market Intelligence, is owned by S&P Global Inc.