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United States

Black Warrior Mine

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Summary

Mine TypeOpen Pit
StatusCare and Maintenance
Commodities
  • Coal (metallurgical)
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
Production Start... Lock
SnapshotAllegiance Coal USA Ltd., a subsidiary of its Australian parent Allegiance Coal Ltd. (collectively referred to as Allegiance Coal), filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on February 21, 2023.

Allegiance Coal Limited was removed from the official list of the Australian Securities Exchange effective 28 August 2023.

According to the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), mining operations at the Black Warrior Mine continued only through the second quarter of 2023, after which the mine was placed into care and maintenance.

Allegiance Coal was unable to either reorganize their business or find a going-concern buyer.

With their material assets sold and lacking sufficient available funds to continue their bankruptcy cases, they moved to dismiss the cases in early February 2024.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Allegiance Coal Ltd 100 % Indirect
Black Warrior Minerals Inc. (operator) 100 % Direct
Allegiance Coal USA Ltd., a subsidiary of its Australian parent Allegiance Coal Ltd., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on February 21, 2023.

On February 22, 2023, Shaun Fraser and Jason Ireland of McGrathNicol was appointed as Voluntary Administrators of Allegiance Coal Limited and its subsidiaries.

Allegiance Coal Limited was removed from the official list of the Australian Securities Exchange effective 28 August 2023.

Black Warrior Minerals, Inc. is the operator of the Black Warrior Mine.

Allegiance Coal Ltd. and its subsidiary, Allegiance Coal USA Ltd., were unable to either reorganize their business or find a going-concern buyer. The mining equipment liquidation efforts in August and September 2023 generated proceeds of $6.2 million.

With their material assets sold and lacking sufficient available funds to continue their bankruptcy cases, they moved to dismiss the cases in early February 2024.

Deposit type

  • Sedimentary

Summary:

The coal deposits are Carboniferous in age, being of the Pennsylvanian system, located within the Black Warrior Coal Basin. The regional structure is typically characterized by gently dipping strata to the southeast at less than 2 degrees towards the axis of the Coalburg Syncline. Seams of economic significance typically range between 0.5 feet and 3.1 feet of coal thickness, with relatively little structural deformation.

Due to the relative structural simplicity of the deposits and the reasonable continuity of the tabular coal beds, the principal geological interpretation necessary to define the geometry of the coal deposits is the proper modelling of their thickness and elevation. Both coal thickness and quality data are insufficient to categorize all of the resource as measured and indicated. Additional exploration will be required to convert areas that are currently classified as inferred into measured and/or indicated status. Therefore, there is a reasonable level of confidence in the geologic interpretations required for coal resource determination based on the available data and the techniques applied to the data.

The Mine comprises the highly regarded Mary Lee, Blue Creek, and Newcastle coal seams.

The major structural feature within the Black Warrior coal basin is the Sequatchie anticline trending northeast to southwest through the center of the study area. The Warrior syncline lies to the west of the Sequatchie anticline and the Coalburg syncline lies to the east. Faulting is widespread in the Warrior basin with high-angle faults predominating and fault grabens common.

The faults in the Warrior basin range up to 6 miles in length. The maximum vertical displacement reported by Sernrnes (19) - is about 200 feet; however, displacement of more than 100 feet is rare.

The seam height for all three coals vary across the deposit:
- Newcastle is very thin and ranges from 0.5 foot to 1 foot seam height;
- Mary Lee ranges from 1.25 foot to 3 foot seam height; and
- Blue Creek ranges from 1.25 foot to 2.75 foot seam height.

The Newcastle sits around 20 foot above the Mary Lee and the Mary Lee is around 2 foot above the Blue Creek.

Reserves

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Mining Methods

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Heavy Mobile Equipment

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

Milling equipment has not been reported.

Processing

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Commodity Production

CommodityUnits2023202220202019201820172016
Coal (metallurgical) t  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe276,912352,807356,053313,259
All production numbers are expressed as clean coal.

Production Costs

Commodity production costs have not been reported.

Aerial view:

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