The mine is extracted coal from Pocahontas No. 3 Seam. The Pocahontas No. 3 coal bed is within the Lower Pennsylvania Pocahontas Formation of the Pottsville Group. Where greater than 1.17 ft (14 in) in thickness, it underlies all or parts of Wyoming, McDowell, Raleigh, Summers, Mercer, Greenbrier, and Fayette Counties in West Virginia, and parts of Wise, Dickenson, Buchanan, Scott, Russell, and Tazewell Counties in adjacent Virginia, an area within the central part of the Appalachian Plateaus. The Pocahontas No. 3 coal bed is, in general, a high-rank, low-volatile bituminous (fig. 3), low-ash, low-sulfur coal that was once considered a standard for metallurgical coal (McColloch, 1995).

Buchanan Mine #1 is an underground coal mine located at the at Mavisdale, Buchanan County, Virginia.

Buchanan produces primarily a Low-Vol HCC, but it also produces a premium Low-Vol PCI product. The mine is extracted coal from Pocahontas No. 3. The seam is situated below drainage throughout the Property and is accessed by vertical shafts. The seam thickness averages 1.86 meters within the mining area.

The Buchanan mine extracts coal using a single longwall system supported by six continuous miner sections, which develop main entries and gate roads in preparation for the longwall. Each continuous miner section is equipped with one or two continuous miners, two roof bolters and two or three coal haulage units. After extraction, a series of conveyor belts deliver raw coal to an underground storage bunker. The Buchanan mine complex uses a skip hoist system to lift raw coal to the surface.

Four fans exhausting 2.4 million cubic feet of air per minute provide ventilation. Laboratory analysis of return air samples shows a methane liberation rate of 9.3 million cubic feet per day through the main mine fans. The development units are ventilated using a split system with exhausting line curtains or auxiliary fans and ventilation tubing.

Coal processing:

- ROM coal is transported to a skip hoist by conveyor belts, where the coal is then lifted to the surface for processing at the CPP;

- Two underground bunkers allow storage of up to 5,400 tonnes of coal, managing the flow of coal both from the face and to the coal CPP;

- ROM coal is washed in a CPP that has a nameplate capacity of 1,270 raw tonnes per hour (TPH). ROM coal processed through the CPP has an average yield of approximately 67%;

- Coal is then loaded on the NS rail on a FOR basis and customers arrange for access to rail and port capacity.