It is reported that Alliance Resource Partners has started construction of new River View Mine and will complete within a couple of years. Alliance is investing between USD 250 million and USD 275 million to develop River View and related facilities.
By 2011, River View should be the biggest mine in western Kentucky, with more miners producing more coal than any other, surpassing both Alliance's Dotiki mine near Providence as well as Patriot Coal's Highland Mine near Waverly.
It's the biggest evidence of the resurgence of western Kentucky's high sulfur coal industry, which had dwindled for a generation because of issues with sulfur dioxide air pollution. But so many power plants have installed scrubbers to remove emissions that high sulfur coal is in demand again. That prompted Alliance in 2006 to acquire 117.1 million tonnes in coal reserves and other assets for River View.
Now, some 130 workers for construction contractor Frontier Kemper Constructors Inc and Alliance employees are busy constructing a 16 degree angle slope entrance to the mine, which will be used to lower mining equipment and haul out coal by conveyor, a 30 foot diameter shaft that will hold elevators for miners and provide air intake, an electrical substation, bathhouse and permanent office and material handling facilities.
Workers also will construct a 3 mile long conveyor belt from the mine to a coal preparation plant Alliance near Uniontown and a 2,200 foot conveyor from the prep plant to a barge loading facility on the Ohio River just downstream from Uniontown at the site of the former Island Creek Coal Hamilton Mine barge facility.
Mr Heath Lovell GM of Alliance Resource said that "100% of our coal will go to the river. We still believe we are on schedule to produce coal by the middle of next year. By the end of 2009, everything will be complete in terms of construction."
The River View mine eventually will feature 6 room and pillar mining units in the Kentucky number 11 coal seam, which is about 59 inches tall and lies 270 to 330 feet below the ground and the Kentucky number 9 coal seam, which is about 60 inches thick and located about 450 feet deep.
