The central Appalachian coal producer produced 800,000 tons of metallurgical coal last year from a total reserve base of 57 million tons.

"With raw material costs continuing to soar, increasing our upstream self sufficiency in primary raw materials is a critical component of ArcelorMittal's growth strategy,” said ArcelorMittal group management board member Sudhir Maheshwari.

He said Concept's proximity to the operations of Mid Vol, which ArcelorMittal acquired last month, allowed it to “draw on the strengths of both companies” and enhance the combined production capacity of the two.

“Whilst Mid Vol's expertise is in surface mining techniques, Concept's expertise rests with underground mining methods. However, both operations have the potential to combine both practices. We look forward to integrating Concept's operations into the ArcelorMittal Group," Maheshwari said.

Mid Vol produced 1.5Mt of metallurgical coal in 2007 and holds more than 85Mt of reserves.

With more than 310,000 employees in 60 countries, ArcelorMittal’s revenue in 2007 was $US105.2 billion, including crude steel production of 116 million tonnes.