American Resources Corp. has commenced shipping specialty stoker coal to customers for industrial purposes. It has also begun ramping up the production of the Perry County Resources (PCR) mine under its low-cost operating structure and mine plan. The company is scaling its production utilizing three continuous miners to increase its coal production for its baseload steel customers and said it plans to scale its production to utilize a total of five continuous miners throughout the year.
“These shipments from Perry County Resources represent our first since idling and restructuring the complex during the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic,” COO Tarlis Thompson said. “We are very excited to bring the complex back online to showcase our efficient low-cost structure, supply our customers with a high-quality, stable product and bring stable well-paying jobs back to this region.”
The PCR complex has been restructured under American Resources operating strategy to reduce legacy liabilities, streamline operations to focus on efficiencies, safety and environmentalism and reposition its assets to leverage the needs of a more modern-day economy.
The PCR complex will employ more than 170 workers with stable well-paying jobs after it reaches its targeted capacity of 1 million tons to 1.5 million tons of coal per year (tpy).
Additionally, the company has deployed a development and maintenance crew to its McCoy Elkhorn (MEC) complex to prepare the complex to be brought back online. The crew is performing maintenance work at its Carnegie No. 1 mine and Bevins Branch processing facility as well as development work at its Carnegie No. 2 mine.
The Carnegie mines will serve as the company’s baseload production at its McCoy Elkhorn complex able to produce 350,000 to 500,000 tons of high-quality metallurgical coal for the domestic and international steel making markets. It will then look to at bringing additional capacity online.
American Resources expects its McCoy Elkhorn complex to add an additional 140 initial jobs to the region through the operations of its Carnegie mines and Bevins Branch processing facility.
Maintenance and development capital expenditures at MEC is expected to be approximately $1.2 million. The company said it is currently evaluating the coal and steel markets to commence operations at MEC during the second to third quarter of 2021.
