The company said in a statement late last week that it is in the “final stages” of preparing the rehabilitated Kentucky complex for production commencement.

“With the installation of new 4 OTT cable and the 15KVV power centre, we intend to move our Fletcher DD-13 double-headed roof bolter and Joy 14-10 continuous miner into the mine by week’s end,” general mining president Rodney Robinson said in a statement.

“This will put us on the coal face by early next week."

Quest said it will conduct core drilling ahead of mining to realise seam thickness prior to actively working in an area. The core drilling already done has reflected a 40-inch seam, it said.

“We will also test the Taylor seam within our boundary in this core program,” said company president Eugene Chiaramonte Jr.

“Based on a T&J Engineering report in 2003 there is over 1.7 million tons of Taylor in place.”

Company officials said that testing done recently at the site proved Btu values exceeding 13,000 and sulfur below 0.6%, classifying the reserves in the “super compliance” category – good news for the company’s market prices.

“The completion of the rehabilitation of our Gwenco mine at Slater Branch marks a further step in the comeback of the company to enter a strong energy market,” said Chiaramonte.

“Recent enquiries by large coal buyers place the market value of this run of mine product (with premiums) in the low $60 per ton range.”

Quest and its wholly owned subsidiary, Gwenco, currently lease nearly 13Mt, 9Mt of which are proven reserves.