ICG Tygart Valley, LLC, wholly owned subsidiary of Core Natural Resources, Inc., operates the Leer mine.
On January 14, 2025, CONSOL Energy and Arch Resources closed an all-stock merger of equals. Arch survived as a wholly owned subsidiary, and CONSOL was renamed Core Natural Resources, Inc., which began trading as “CNR” on January 15, 2025.
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Summary:
The strata of the Tygart Valley River in Barbour, Harrison, Preston, and Taylor Counties, West Virginia consists of Pennsylvanian Aged sedimentary strata of the Monongahela Group, the Conemaugh Group, and the Allegheny Formation. The Monongahela Group includes the Sewickley, Redstone, and Pittsburgh coal seams. The Pittsburgh Seam has been extensively surface and underground mined at higher elevations in the Tygart Valley River region. The Conemaugh Group coal seams include the Elk Lick, Harlem, Bakerstown, and Brush Creek. No known large-scale mining has taken place within the Conemaugh Group coal seams in the Tygart Valley River region. The Allegheny Formation includes the Upper Freeport, Lower Freeport, Upper Kittanning, Lower Kittanning, and Clarion coal seams. The Johnstown Limestone is situated between the Upper Kittanning and the Lower Kittanning coal seams. The Upper Freeport, Upper Kittanning, Lower Kittanning, and Clarion coal seams have been previously mined in the Tygart Valley River region. All other coal seams of the Allegheny Formation in the area occur in limited areal extent and are generally of insufficient thickness for mining.
Property Geology
The principal minable coal seam on the Leer Complex is the Lower Kittanning Seam, which both Leer and Leer South are actively mining. The Lower Kittanning Seam occurs in a larger area, with a higher seam thickness than all other listed seams. Leer South has also mined the Clarion Seam in the past and transports the mined Lower Kittanning Seam through the Clarion Seam to the preparation plant. The Lower Kittanning Seam reserve extends from Grafton, West Virginia south toward Phillippi, West Virginia. The Leer Complex reserve area is approximately 17 miles in length and approximately 18 miles wide.
The Lower Kittanning Seam consists primarily of a single horizon of coal with a bone coal parting, except in eastern areas of Leer where thick coal is mined due to a rider coal seam merging with the main bench. Drillholes show seam thickness ranging from 0.0 to 10.5 feet within the Leer Complex. The seam thins (< 3.0 feet) locally in pockets, to the south and east of the Leer LOM Plan and to the north and east of the northern extension of the Leer LOM Plan, as well as the western extent of both the Leer South and Leer West LOM Plans. The mineable coal seam is typically a low-ash, high thermal content, High Vol A bituminous metallurgical coal product. Parting does occur within the property and generally is between one and three feet thick. The parting does not affect the clean coal product since the coal is washed. The seam is generally continuous but is absent in areas outside the Leer Complex LOM Plans and in an area that was mined around in Leer.
Leer Mine
The Leer Mine (Leer), an active longwall mine that is developed in the eastern portion of Leer Complex, and is separated from Leer West Mine (Leer West) by the Tygart River. The extent of its Lower Kittanning Seam reserve area is situated between the towns of Grafton and Thornton, West Virginia and covers an area of approximately 26 square miles (approximately 16,640 acres). Across the reserve, the Lower Kittanning Seam consists of primarily a single bench of coal (4.7 feet average thickness) but can include a rider coal. When a rider coal is present, total seam thickness can reach approximately 10.5 feet. Exploration within Leer’s reserves show that the Lower Kittanning Seam thins to less than 3.0 feet to the south, east, and locally northward.