In an updated April 12 submittal to the federal agency, Foresight, with headquarters in St. Louis, disclosed the revised amount. The company filed for an IPO shortly after being formed by Cline, who owns four underground mining complexes in Illinois: Williamson, Sugar Camp, Hillsboro and Macoupin.
According to the filing, Foresight generated more than $500 million in coal sales in 2011, earning an $82.1 million profit in the process. The company produced 7.2 million tons of coal in 2010 and 10.4 million tons in 2011. The coal is sold to electric utilities in the U.S. as well as the “seaborne thermal coal market.”
In recent years, the company has exported approximately 33% of its coal to Europe, South America, Africa and Asia.
Foresight described itself as a low-cost producer of “high Btu thermal coal” that operates longwall mining systems at three of its complexes, Williamson, Sugar Camp and Hillsboro. Macoupin is a continuous miner operation. During 2011, Foresight said its consolidated cash costs of production were $19.85/ton, “which we believe makes us the lowest cost underground producer in the United States.”
Foresight has invested more than $1.6 billion in the four mining complexes, which all have “long reserve lives which we believe will provide us with significant sustainable free cash flow.” The complexes are designed to support up to eight longwall systems, giving them a combined productive capacity of up to 65 million tons a year. That essentially would double the current output from all Illinois coal mines.
For 2012, 2013 and 2014, Foresight has secured coal sales commitments for approximately 14.5 million tons, 13.8 million tons and 11.3 million tons, respectively, of which all in 2012, 9.3 million tons in 2013 and 6.9 million tons in 2014 is priced. The respective prices for the three years are: $58.32/ton in 2012, $59.80/ton in 2013 and $63.53/ton in 2014.
Foresight said it currently operates one longwall each at Williamson and Sugar Camp. It plans to begin operating a longwall at Hillsboro in the third quarter of this year, “having already invested most of the expansion capital necessary to develop these mines.”
The company said it plans to use IPO proceeds to make a contribution to Foresight Reserves. Morgan Stanley and Citigroup Global Markets are serving as joint book-running managers for the IPO.
