As the owner of the New Elk mine in Colorado, Cline said it would appoint New Elk’s senior management team to take full control of the mine’s operations from next month.

The news comes after the company was recently given the green light to extract additional coal from the mine’s Blue seam.

Operational responsibility for the opening and initial development of the mine has up until now been provided by TK Mining Services, under a mining services agreement.

Cline said it did not anticipate any changes with regards to the status or security of its miners because it was expected the miners would remain on the New Elk team with no changes to their personal employment arrangements.

Cline said it was pleased with TK Mining’s contribution to New Elk’s development.

“The company expresses its thanks to TK for its contribution to the mine project, including the provision of experienced coal miners and for the development and training of new miners from our mine city of Trinidad, in southern Colorado,” the producer said.

New Elk is estimated to contain 191.2 million tons of measured and 197.3Mt of indicated in-place low-sulfur, high-volatile, B bituminous coking coal.

Production from 2012 onwards is expected to be 3 million tons per annum.

Cline has metallurgical coal properties in Canada’s British Columbia and in Colorado.