“This is a terrific publication that is a valuable tool for people in our industry and people that want to know about our industry," said WVCA president Bill Raney last month when the report was released in print and on the group’s website.
“We do our best to make sure Coal Facts contains just about anything a person would want to know about coal production in our state."
The 34th edition of the 48-page document lists information on production, manpower and coal companies throughout the state of West Virginia. It also breaks down production by county and company throughout the state and the entire US and worked in tandem with the West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training as well as the Energy Information Agency to compile the results.
In 2005, the state’s coal industry provided work to 42,744 individuals at 574 mines owned by 270 operators, according to the report. Of those workers just over 12,000 worked underground. And nearly 25,000 worked as contractors in the industry.
The top producing county in the state was again Boone, which reported production of 30.6Mt in 2005. The top operator in the state is Consol Energy with 31.7Mt statewide last year.
Also within the pages of the report are the top power plants using coal (John Amos), the top counties transporting coal and by what method, production by seam, original mineable tons/estimated recoverable tonnage in the state’s coal-producing counties and severance tax receipts.
Mining permits issued in 2005 are also included, and show 22 underground and 16 surface requests. Totalling over 300 acres, the underground permits come from companies such as Eastern Associated, Consolidation, Catenary Coal and Kanawha Eagle.
“All of these statistics reveal the overwhelmingly positive impact our people have on West Virginia, its economy and its people," said Raney in a statement.
“It is tremendous testimony to their work ethic and their accomplishments."
The magazine-style compilation, which is produced each year in limited numbers, is available at the WVCA website as a PDF at www.wvcoal.com and will be available in hard copy form at the group’s annual WVCA Symposium January 10-12, 2007 at the Charleston House Holiday Inn.
