Summit Engineering’s Phillip Lucas was retained to review the exploration, development and production activities for the actively operating Straight Creek and the Redbird reserves in Harlan, Leslie, Clay, Knox and Bell counties and to develop a technical report that was NI 43-101-compliant.

The documentation was completed on March 15 and indicated that the property contained proven and probable reserves of about 42.9Mt, edging Xinergy’s total portfolio to more than 114Mt.

While company officials said a previous reserve estimation was provided as part of the acquisition announcement in January and a technical report for Straight Creek was filed in 2009, the new figures superseded those estimations.

“Our active exploration and acquisition program has more than doubled the size of our Kentucky thermal operations,” Xinergy president Bernie Mason said.

“The previously announced Red Bird acquisition, along with proving up of additional reserves at Straight Creek, pushes the company's total proven and probable reserves to over 114Mt.

“As one of the lower cost producers in our region, the incremental reserves subject of this 43-101 position the company well to participate in a thermal market recovery.”

Mason spoke earlier this year about Xinergy’s opportunity to expand in central Appalachia with the purchase of Straight Creek, which it obtained from an unnamed seller for $13.4 million.

“The close proximity of the reserves, which are immediately to the north of Straight Creek, will allow us to take advantage of certain synergies, including transporting the coal directly through Straight Creek utilizing our existing facilities and utilizing Straight Creek's excess productive capacity,” he said.

In addition to the reserve leases and permits, the company also acquired other assets in the Straight Creek deal, including a 600 ton per hour heavy media preparation plant with a fully permitted refuse storage facility, a batch weigh unit train loadout on the CSX railroad and miscellaneous surface and underground mining equipment including two highwall miner units.

Xinergy's other key producing asset, aside from the Straight Creek complex in Bell County and Harlan County, Kentucky, is the Raven Crest complex in Boone County, West Virginia.