Officials said Tuesday that production doubled at the room and pillar operation near Welch last month, compared to the average monthly totals it achieved during the first four months of the year.
The 6000 clean tons produced, paired with a price increase to $US125 per ton from $115 reported last year, means that revenue will exceed operating costs for the first time since the mine started.
Cobalt confirmed that crews are encountering improved mining conditions, with an increased coal seam thickness, and its prep plan is reporting an improved clean coal recovery. Those factors, along with the addition of more maintenance employees to improve uptime of its equipment, have all played a role in the increased production.
The producer also said that it is proceeding with the installation of electric power from the power grid, and that should be completed in late July or early August.
“We are on the way, and once power installation is finished in about two more months, we will be able to task additional machinery underground that cannot now be operated by power from the diesel generator that is limited and prone to overload tripping,” president and chief executive officer Mike Crowder said.
“We remain confident that once the power problems that have been plaguing us are solved, production volumes from Westchester can be further increased."
Publicly traded Cobalt Coal announced in March it had acquired 4900 acres in Virginia giving it mining rights to five tracts of land, each with at least four metallurgical coal seams, which will now offer the potential for it to develop multiple mines.
The news came just two weeks after property acquisitions in Kentucky and Virginia, including part of Virginia’s 1600-acre Mill Creek tract, which are now completely under the Cobalt’s control.
The Mill Creek tract has been permitted for production and the construction of a wash plant, a move Crowder said was a major accomplishment.
“One must keep in mind how difficult it is now to obtain regulatory approval for a wash plant and therefore how valuable this component of the acquisition is,” he said at the time.
“We look forward to quickly putting the first of numerous mines into production on these new lands.”
The company said it could already begin infrastructure improvements at Mill Creek which would allow metallurgical coal production to begin by the closing of the property lease transactions.
Cobalt’s Westchester operation was the subject of a 10-part documentary-reality series, “Coal”, which aired last year on US television station SpikeTV. No plans for another season of that series have been announced.
