The coal reserves reported herein are typically high-volatile bituminous coals with the exception of the Kittanning A, B, C, D and Eagle horizons, which exhibit some mid-volatile characteristics. The primary coal-bearing formations on these properties are Carboniferous in age, being in the Pennsylvanian system, which includes the base of the Conemaugh Formation; the Allegheny Formation; the Kanawha Formation; and the New River Formation. The average mineable seam thickness for coal horizons in these formations ranges from 2.5 to 6.0 feet, with the exception of the Peerless seam at Leaseco where the minimum is 2.25 feet. Within the subject properties coal zones can locally exceed 9.8 feet where individual coal beds merge to form a single mineable unit. Structurally, the strata on the subject Property exhibit a regional northeast southwest strike and a regional northwestward dip of approximately one to four percent, averaging about three percent and are flat-lying. The seams are generally continuous and non-complex but may vary in thickness and even locally be absent. Furthermore, the seams are unaffected by tectonic deformation.

The Maple underground coal mine operates in the Eagle coal seam and employs the room-and-pillar mining method with continuous miners to produce premium high volatile coking coal, which can be used in the steelmaking process.

All of the underground mining reserves can be accessed by drift entries from the Armstrong Creek watershed.

Production that requires washing will be prepared at Maple’s Katie Preparation Plant, which was refurbished in 2007 and began processing coal in July 2007.

Coal production delivered to the Katie Preparation Plant is placed in raw coal silos to await processing. Two raw coal silos are located on the south side of the plant. One of the silos is dedicated to Eagle seam production and the other is available for surface mine production. Raw coal is batched for washing; the Eagle production is washed for metallurgical sales and it is not co-mingled with production from other sources, unless metallurgical coal sales are not available. A truck dump is available to receive trucked coal.

A single silo is available for clean coal storage at the preparation plant. Plant production must be trucked from the clean coal silo to local markets or transferred to a storage location by truck or conveyor belt.

Nominal flow-sheet capacity of the coal preparation plant is 400 ........