Ramp Up Continues at Arch Coal's Leer Metallurgical Coal Mine in West Virginia

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Amid a poor coal market, Arch Coal Incorporated (NYSE:ACI) (Saint Louis, Missouri) is making progress on the construction of the Leer underground coal mine near Grafton, West Virginia, and is planning for a production capacity of 3.5 million tons per year by the end of 2013.

The project was formerly known as the Tygart #1 Coal Mine. Industrial Info first reported on it during a scoping study in 2005. Since that time, the total investment value of the project has doubled to nearly $400 million.

Construction began on the project in 2010, and the preparation plant and rail loadout facilities were completed last year. Currently, continuous miners are developing the first stage of the mine in anticipation of the start-up of the Longwall mining system, which is now being installed. The majority of the mine's 360-plus employees were relocated from the company's other mining operations in West Virginia and Maryland.

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