This was on the Evansville Western RR list today. Sounds like big coal sales in Southern Illinois.
This falls under the I’ll believe it when I see it category. If it does
happen though 15 million tons of coal, if all moved by rail, would equal
roughly 4 trains a day, 365 days a year.
http://www.mcleansborotimesleader.com/local/local_story_296150821.html
White Oak files mining permit
By PAUL LORENZ
McLEANSBORO — White Oak Resources LLC has taken another step toward
the startup of a coal mining operation here — the filing of a mining
permit with the state.
Calling it a “major milestone,” Mike Tracy, White Oak’s
chief executive officer, announced Oct. 9 that the company filed a
permit last month with the Illinois Department of Mines and Minerals for
White Oak Mine No. 1.
Tracy made the announcement outside Hamilton County Court House with
company, local and state officials in attendance.
“We’ve always said Southern Illinois will be king again in
coal,” state Rep. Brandon Phelps said, “and this is the first
step of it.”
Permitting is expected to be complete in the second quarter of 2009, at
which time construction will begin on the shaft, slope and surface
facilities, a White Oak news release stated.
The company will start mining coal in “mid-2010,” Tracy said.
White Oak plans to build two longwall mines, one northwest and a second
northeast of McLeansboro, and the company has a third mine area set up
southeast of the city, Tracy said last month.
The company anticipates bringing more than 300 construction jobs to the
area next spring, and approximately 375 permanent jobs per mine at full
production. White Oak is projecting an annual payroll in five years of
more than $5 million a year, Tracy said.
Regarding White Oak’s lease agreement with Hamilton County for
reserves under the county’s control, the company projects that the
county will receive $6.2 million in royalties over the first five years,
Tracy said.
“Also, a lot of individuals will be receiving royalties,” he
said.
Talking about the “spinoff” jobs that new mines in the area
would create, Tracy announced that Joy Manufacturing would be making
equipment to go in the mine and would be providing a service center
— probably in Mt. Vernon — for the equipment.
“We have service centers all around the world, strategically located
to accommodate our customers,” Joy Manufacturing Midwest America
Sales Manager Billy Kirkpatrick said.
Details on equipment and servicing were still being negotiated as of
last week, and it was too early in the process to disclose any details,
Kirkpatrick said.
White Oak is also working closely with Rend Lake College, which is
building a coal mine training facility, “to make sure we get people
from this area into that program,” Tracy said.
Each White Oak mine will have a designed production capacity of 7
million tons of salable coal per year, and an estimated life of more
than 40 years, the news release said.
The company has been acquiring reserves in Hamilton County for about two
years. It will have access to approximately 106,000 acres and more than
1.8 billion tons of coal reserves in and around Hamilton County, the
news release said.
White Oak is “fortunate to have identified and acquired this
reserve,” Steve Rowland, the company’s general manager of
operations, said in the news release.
“It is a 6- to 8-foot coal seam which is ideal for modern mining
techniques,” Rowland said. “We are also fortunate to be in
Southern Illinois, where there is an experienced workforce and a coal
mine heritage that goes back a hundred years.”
White Oak has “several committed investors, some of whom have close
ties to the project area,” the news release said. More than $400
million will be invested for the first mine, the release said.
