About Our Mines
In general terms, based on the rank, coal can be classified as either “thermal” coal or “metallurgical” coal. Thermal coal is lower in carbon content and calorific value, higher in moisture value, is the world’s most abundant fossil fuel and is primarily used to produce energy. Metallurgical coal is less abundant than thermal coal and is primarily used in the production of coke which is an important part of the integrated steel mill process.
Coal from the Westchester Mine is sold on contract to a buyer who supplies the coal primarily to steel mills.
Based on coal quality data provided by labs: The Westchester mine has the Sewell Seam that is a very high quality Met Coal with the following characteristics:
• The Dry basis clean coal Ash is 4.55 wt%;
• The average Yield is 76.2%;
• The Ash Fusion Temperature is high;
• The Free Swelling Index is consistently 9 (aka The Coke Button); and
• The volatile matter (VM cc DB) ranges from 20 wt% to 21 wt%.