Engineering & Mining Journal

MAY 2018

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NEWS - THIS MONTH IN COAL 24 E&MJ; • MAY 2018 www.e-mj.com Warrior Met Opens New Mine No. 7 North Portal Warrior Met Coal held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on May 2 to dedicate the com- pletion of the company's new No. 7 Mine North portal facility. The new $19 million North portal facility provides a new gate- way for 200 Warrior Met Coal miners to enter the northern sections of the mine. Designed for growth, it will accommodate up to 500 underground employees, add- ing to both the safety and productivity of Warrior employees as it is put into use. The new portal eliminates 5.1 miles of travel underground each way for miners and is located 45 minutes closer to the sections in the North, saving travel time each day. "The opening of our new portal speaks strongly to Warrior Met Coal's commit- ment to maintaining safe working condi- tions for all of our employees, as well as our confidence in the met coal market in the months and years to come," said Walt Scheller, CEO of Warrior. The celebration comes on the heels of the company's second anniversary and it was also just a year ago in April that it became a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange. The new 33,000-plus ft 2 portal fea- tures a bathhouse, two kitchen areas, 40 offices and training rooms in addition to a hoist system, which is double the ca- pacity of the hoist currently in use at No. 7 West mine. The new No. 7 North hoist features a 40-ton capacity, using the lat- est technology and operates at a speed of 900 feet per minute to traverse the 1,451-foot-deep shaft. The hoist will ac- commodate 70 people. "Our investment in this company has not only been in buildings and infrastruc- ture," Scheller said. "Our investment has also been in people. When we look back over the past year, the statistics show we've added 1,000 new people to our op- erations roster, and we are still hiring." "Our commitment to the industry and to the people who work in it does not end with the opening of the new por- tal facility," said Jack Richardson, COO of Warrior. "Our board has committed significant capital of $100 to $120 mil- lion to reinvest in our mine infrastruc- ture and equipment needs this year, positioning us well for future growth and improvement." Based in Brookwood, Alabama, War- rior Met produces steel-making coal from some of the deepest coal mines in North America. The company current- ly has the operational capacity to mine about 8 million tons per year (tpy) of coal from more than 300 million tons of recoverable reserves. Rocked by Scandal, South African Power Generator Faces Coal Shortages As of press time, South Africa has lit- tle more than 30 days of coal stocks as the country goes into winter peak de- mand, a situation complicated by the legal troubles of one of its largest pro- ducers. Supplies at six power stations in the Mpumalanga province, where most of the generation occurs, are espe- cially low, raising the possibility of load shedding — controlled blackouts hit- ting the country. National utility Eskom regularly has to run emergency diesel turbines to meet heightened demand, costing millions of dollars in fuel each month. Coal still accounts for more than 90% of the country's energy generation, state figures show. "The latest coal supply reports sug- gest that Eskom's current coal supply problems are as serious‚ if not worse‚ than those that existed in South Af- rica shortly before the load shedding of 2008‚" said Chris Yelland, an energy expert. At least three of the Mpumalanga sta- tions are supplied by Tegeta Exploration and Resources, an entity belonging to the Gupta brothers. Over the past decade, the three Indian-born siblings had come to dominate the local mining industry, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey cuts the ribbon on Wednesday, May 2 at 10 a.m., celebrating the completion of Warrior Met Coal's new No. 7 mine North portal facility. (Continued on p. 27)

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