The Leer Mine reserve is a relatively flat lying, sedimentary deposit of Pennsylvanian Age. The Leer Mine is actively mining a single coal seam, the Lower Kittanning.

The Monongahela Group strata is not present on the Leer Mine Property due to the lower elevations of the property. The strata present on the property consists of the Conemaugh Group and the Allegheny Formation. The Conemaugh Group coal seams consist of the Harlem, Bakerstown, and Brush Creek. All coal seams of the Conemaugh Group are thin and discontinuous. The Allegheny Formation coal seams consist of the Upper and Lower Freeport, Upper and Lower Kittanning, and Clarion. The Upper and Lower Freeport, Upper Kittanning and Clarion coal seams are discontinuous and of limited extent on the Leer Mine Property.

The principal minable coal seam on the Leer Mine Property is the Lower Kittanning Seam. The Lower Kittanning Seam occurs in a larger area, with a higher seam thickness than all other listed seams. The Leer Mine is actively mining the Lower Kittanning Seam. The Lower Kittanning Seam reserve extends northeast from Grafton, West Virginia toward Thornton, West Virginia. The reserve area is approximately 6.5 miles in length and approximately 4.0 miles wide. The Lower Kittanning Seam consists primarily of a single horizon of coal with a bone coal parting. Drillholes show seam thickness ranging from 0.0 to 10.5 feet. The seam thins (< 3.0 feet) to the south and east of the Leer Mine LOM Plan and to the north and east of the northern extension of the Leer Mine LOM Plan. The mineable coal seam is typically low-ash, high thermal content, high volatile 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 end product since the coal is washed. The seam is generally continuous but is absent in areas outside the Leer Mine LOM Plan. The Lower Kittaning Seam is thin or missing in areas adjacent to the Leer Mine reserve. The missing coal areas are due to non-deposition of the Lower Kittaning coal seam.

The Leer Mine is a permitted underground longwall mine that extract coal from Lower Kittanning Seam and parting interval within the seam utilizing continuous miners to develop longwall panels to be mined using a longwall mining system.

There are six openings to the surface from the Leer Mine. These openings consist of the slope, dual intake and elevator shaft, return shaft, two bleeder shafts (District 5 and Sharp), and the Hardesty intake shaft.

Currently, there are three longwall development (gate road) continuous miner sections and one continuous miner supersection developing mains and production panels.

Projected continuous miner productivity is 105 feet per shift for gate road development and 144 feet per shift for the continuous miner supersections. Supersections are continuous miner sections with split ventilation that allows two continuous miners to operate simultaneously. Longwall projected productivity is typically 52 feet of retreat per day (26 feet per shift).

The longwall and continuous miner production crews work nine-hour shifts, two shifts per day, with hot seat change at the section face. A third shift per day for the longwall and continuous miner units is utilized for maintenance. Each continuous miner crew works a fiveand one-half day schedule (every other Saturday). There are four longwall crews that work a five days on, three days off schedule, rotating shifts every six weeks to provide longwall production seven days per week.

Production from the longwall mining unit is projected to range from 135,162 to 480,312 clean tons per month, except for months having a longwall move or holidays. Annual longwall production will vary depending on coal seam thickness, mining height and the number of longwall moves each year. A production delay of 12 days is projected for all longwall moves.

Production from the continuous miner units is projected to range from 6,167 to 94,668 clean tons per month, depending on the number of shifts required to develop main entries and gateroads to support longwall mining. Planned mining height for the continuous miners is 9.0 feet.

The longwall panels will typically be 1,185 feet wide, with panel lengths ranging from 4,310 feet to 16,906 feet in the LOM Plan. Several of the longwall panels are narrower than 1,185 feet, having widths ranging from 788 feet to 1,104 feet to accommodate resource geometry and seam thickness variations.

The preparation plant consists of two identical processing circuits, with primary and secondary heavy media cyclones, classifying cyclones, spirals, reflux classifiers, and column flotation.

The Leer Preparation Plant, built by Powell Construction, is a well designed and constructed, state-of-art technology preparation plant. The preparation plant was designed with two identical processing circuits, which can be operated simultaneously or one at a time. Each circuit can process 700 ROM tph of raw coal for a total design feed rate of 1,400 ROM tph, although the preparation plant typically operates at 1,500 ROM tph (750 to 775 ROM tph per circuit). The preparation plant feed rate is adjusted based on the desired product quality, which often results in the preparation plant’s processing rate to be higher than the design rate.

ROM material is conveyed from the slope belt conveyor to the Raw Coal #1 or Raw Coal #2 stacking tube. The ROM material is reclaimed from the s ........