Charolais head Don Bowles told Platts Coal Trader last week construction has begun on a coal prep plant along the Green River while permitting is completed. The prep plant will have a capacity of 1,200 tons of raw coal per hour and will serve the new mine and two existing surface mines in nearby Muhlenberg County.
The company hopes to have the new mine in production by the summer of 2006 or September 2006 at the latest.
Bowles expressed concern about finding trained, skilled employees for the new mine. The company has two surface mines and an underground operation in Kentucky that currently produce about 2 million tons annually.
