Twin Pines includes four separate active surface mines, located in Alabama that each produce metallurgical, steam, and pulverized coal injection (PCI) coal.[web site]

The Shannon, LLC, Shannon Mine No. 4 is a proposed surface mine site and is located in southwestern Jefferson County and northeastern Tuscaloosa County.

The proposed mine site will occupy approximately 2039 acres.
Five (5) coal seams currently proposed to be mined, in descending order, are the Upper New Castle, Lower New Castle, Mary Lee, Blue Creek and Jagger Coal Seams. A rim cut has been taken on all seams within the proposed permit and adjacent areas. The Blue Creek Seam has been extensively underground mine within the proposed permit and adjacent areas.

Structurally, the proposed mine is located within the Cumberland Plateau Section of the Appalachian Plateau Physiographic Region. The proposed permit area is located within the southeastern most section of the Warrior Coal Basin know as the Blue Creek Basin. The Blue Creek Basin is a relatively narrow, canoe-shaped synclinal area approximately 12 miles long and up to 4 miles wide and is separated from the main Warrior Basin by the steeply dipping strata of the Blue Creek Anticline. The general structure of the Blue Creek Basin is dominated by several northeast-southwest trending folds that plunge to the southwest. The proposed permit area is influenced by two (2) prominent regional structure features, the Blue Creek Anticline approximately 0.25 miles to the northwest and the Blue Creek Syncline which centers the proposed permit area. Both the Blue Creek Anticline and the Blue Creek Syncline have a northeasterly trend and are generally parallel to the southeastern boundary of the Warrior Coal Basin. The Blue Creek Syncline is an asymmetrical syncline that plunges to the southwest. Along the northwestern limb of the syncline the strata dips 15 degrees to 18 degrees to the southeast and along the southeastern limb strata dips 9 degrees to 12 degrees to the northwest.

Local structural features in the proposed permit area consist of five (5) normal faults which have a northwesterly trend. The northwesterly trending faults have vertical displacements of 15 feet to 125 feet or more. The strata which underlies and outcrops in this region is of the Pottsville Formation of the Pennsylvanian Age. The Warrior Basin is the southern most of a series of Pennsylvanian basins of the Appalachian Plateau. The Pottsville Formation in this area consists of thin to thick bedded sandstones, siltstones, shales, clays, and coal seams. Structurally, the Warrior Basin is formed by a large gentle syncline that extends from north-central Mississippi in the west to north-central Alabama in the east. The syncline is tilted southwestward with a regional dip of 30 to 200 feet per mile. Toward the interior of the Warrior Basin, the regional southwest dip of Pottsville strata is modified by a series of three synclines and two anticlines. Of these, the major structures are the Warrior and Coalburg synclines, and the Sequatchie anticline. The fold axes are parallel to the Appalachian system in a northeast-southwest direction and plunge to the southwest with the regional dip.

Locally, the strata which outcrops in the immediate vicinity of the proposed mine site is the coal-bearing Pennsylvanian aged Pottsville Formation which includes siltstones, shales, sandstones, underclays, and coal seams associated with the Mary Lee Coal Group. According to 'Depositional Settings of the Pottsville Formation in the Black Warrior Basin', the Mary Lee Group lies approximately 40 to 130 feet above the Black Creek Coal Group and from 140 to 400 feet below the Pratt Coal Group.

As stated earlier there are five (5) mineable coal seams located within the proposed permit area. The entire permit area has been rim cut and reclaimed. None of the seams outcrop within the proposed permit area. The overburden above the Upper New Castle ranges between 113 to 353 feet, the innerburden between the Upper New Castle and Lower New Castle ranges between 30 to 46 feet, the innerburden between the Lower New Castle and the Blue Creek ranges between 35 to 84 feet, the innerburden between the Blue Creek and Lower Blue Creek ranges between 3 to 17 feet, and the innerburden between Blue Creek and Jagger ranges between 18 and 48 feet within the proposed permit area. The thickness of the Upper New Castle Seam averages approximately 14 inches. The thickness of the Lower New Castle Seam averages approximately 38 inches thick. The thickness of the Blue Creek Seam averages approximately 84 inches. The thickness of the Lower Blue Creek Seam averages approximately 15 inches thick and the Jagger Seam averages approximately 30 inches. The Upper New Castle, Lower New Castle, Mary Lee and Jagger Coal Seams are solid within the proposed permit area. The Blue Creek Coal Seam has been extensively underground mined. Only pillars of Blue Creek Coal that were not recovered by the previous underground mining operations will be surface mined at this site.

Twin Pines includes four separate active surface mines, located in Alabama that each produce metallurgical, steam, and pulverized coal injection (PCI) coal. The coal is mined using truck/shovel fleets.