Announcing the third-quarter results yesterday, ICG president and CEO Ben Hatfield said strong results at some of the company's operations failed to counteract poor results at others.

"A combination of regulatory issues and short-term mine plan constraints created significant production shortfalls and inflated costs at the Hazard, Raven, Sentinel and Vindex operations, essentially offsetting strong performances by the Eastern, Illinois, ADDCAR and Knott County operations," Hatfield said.

During the first nine months of 2007, ICG sold 13.9Mt of coal, compared to 14.6Mt in the same period of 2006.

Coal production during the first nine months of 2007 totalled 12.5Mt versus 12.4Mt in 2006.

As of September 30, 2007, ICG controlled approximately 958Mt of coal reserves located primarily in Illinois, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland and Virginia.

Additionally, the company controls approximately 533Mt of non-reserve coal deposits, which may be classified as reserves in the future as additional drilling and geotechnical work is completed.

Hatfield said the positive coal market and the ramping up of production at the company's Beckley operation in West Virginia are expected to be pivotal to get the company back on track.

At full production - which is anticipated to be achieved by the second half of 2008 - the Beckley complex is expected to produce 1.4Mt annually of high-quality, low-volatile metallurgical coal for both domestic and export steel markets.

ICG estimates that the Pocahontas No. 3 seam currently being mined contains approximately 30Mt of recoverable coal reserves.

"The recent and dramatic escalation in market pricing for both metallurgical and utility coals provides cause for optimism," Hatfield said.

"Our sales group has received significant interest in ICG's 2008 metallurgical production, including Beckley's low-volatile and Sentinel's high-volatile products.

"We are in active negotiations with domestic and international customers for both of these products. Prices for metallurgical coal have been steadily increasing over the last several months."

ICG anticipates coal production for the year will total 17 - 18Mt and coal sales will reach 18.6 - 19Mt.