New Henderson Mine Ready to Hire Hundreds-Corydon, KY

New Henderson mine ready to hire hundreds ‘now,’ but will market for coal be there?

Chuck Stinnett, Special to the Courier & Press

CORYDON, Ky. − The start of construction of Alliance Coal’s new Henderson County Mine south of Corydon is months away, and coal mining won’t begin until 2025 — but the company is eager to start hiring new miners.

“We’re going to start a recruiting campaign for Henderson County now,” General Manager Bill Adelmansaid following a ceremonial groundbreaking on Thursday morning.

Mining experience isn’t required.

“We’ll train them,” Adelman said.

While the new underground mine isn’t expected to begin production until January 2025, Alliance wants to start hiring now to train new miners at its River View Mine in Union County so they will have experience when the Henderson County Mine is ready to start operations.

Hundreds of miners will be hired. A news release put the number at 260, but Adelman said the mine would need 450 employees to achieve its production goal of 3 million tons of coal per year — and the mine’s bathhouse will be big enough to accommodate 500 workers.

Wages will range from $30 to $35 per hour, Adelman said. Including benefits, total compensation will average $49 an hour, the company said last year.

In all, the Henderson County Mine “will create an annual impact in the community of approximately $300 million,” Missy Vanderpool, executive director of Henderson Economic Development, which helped recruit Alliance and secure economic development incentives for it, said in a statement.

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“It’s a great day in Henderson County,” Vanderpool told the groundbreaking ceremony audience.

“I couldn’t be more thankful,” Henderson County Judge/Executive Brad Schneider declared.

Among the economic benefits the new mine will provide is coal severance revenue for the county that Schneider said will help avoid the need to raise local taxes.

Dozens of community officials, Alliance representatives and supporters turned out for the ceremony on the 56-acre future site of the new mine along Sulphur Springs Road, just off Kentucky 145 in the rural Little Dixie community of Henderson County, approximately 3½ miles south of Corydon.

At that site, Alliance will construct a 30,000-square-foot building that will serve as the main office, warehouse and bathhouse for the Henderson County Mine. A man shaft will be dug to transport miners down 330 feet to the No. 9 coal seam. Construction is expected to begin in October. The company will invest $35 million in the operation.

 

Mined coal will be transported by underground conveyor about 4½ miles to the former Highland Mine in Union County, which Alliance acquired several years ago. From there, coal will be carried by an existing above-ground conveyor some 11 miles to the company’s coal terminal on the Ohio River near Uniontown.

River View has begun underground mining of coal from the No. 11 coal seam near Highland and is moving southeasterly toward the site of the Henderson County Mine. Once there in late 2024, a slope will be constructed down to the No. 9 seam, providing the underground connection between the Henderson County and Highland mine sites.

River View Coal LLC, a subsidiary of Alliance Coal LLC, operates the River View Mine near Waverly and will serve as operator of the Henderson County Mine.

However, the River View and Henderson County mines will operate under separate mining permits. That will enable either mine to continue operations should circumstances, such as a major fire, force one to be permanently closed.

Joseph Craft, chairman, president and CEO of parent company Alliance Resource Partners LLP, said just such an event forced the closure of a competitor’s mine in Illinois.

Subsequently, “Some of our customers came to us,” Craft told the crowd at the ceremony. “They wanted to give us more business” but asked that Alliance operate the new mine under a separate permit from River View.

Alliance produces coal for sale to electric utility companies that operate coal-fired power plants.

Craft said America needs more electricity for multiple reasons.

“The federal government has made the decision to electrify America,” he said, referring to the push to electric cars that he said every automaker in the world has embraced.

That means that not only is more electricity needed to charge e-vehicles, but also to power the mammoth, multi-billion-dollar e-vehicle battery plants being built by Ford Motor Co. and SK Innovation at Glendale, Kentucky, and by Envision in Bowling Green.

“I believe in that story,” Craft said. “… I’m a believer. I think the governor (Andy Beshear) is a believer. They have to build out that charging network. The demand for energy is just going to be larger and larger and larger.”

He cited the $600 million Pratt Paper complex under construction along the Kentucky 425/South as another customer that will require vast amounts of electricity around the clock.

“We are talking to utilities as we speak on (prospective) three-year contracts,” Craft said. “We’re confident we will be able to sell the coal.”

He said the Henderson County Mine has sufficient reserves to last 25 years or longer, which potentially means it could operate until 2050 or beyond.

Craft commended state Sen. Robby Mills (R-Henderson) for his support of legislation that passed this year that will slow or halt the retirement of coal-fired power plants in Kentucky, although many such plants (including Henderson’s Station One and Station Two, among others) have already been permanently shut down around the state.

“To meet electricity needs, it makes no sense to close a coal plant,” he said.

Various electric utilities that have retired aging coal-fired plants, including Henderson Municipal Power & Light, have said such plants were no longer economically competitive and that cheaper power could be purchased from other sources.

That trend has suppressed demand for coal in recent years. U.S. consumption of coal fell from 716.9 million tons in 2017 to 512.6 million tons in 2022, a decline of 28.5%, according to the federal Energy Information Administration.

However, Adelman remarked that the Henderson County Mine’s reserves have “good coal that’s marketable for domestic use and international use,” and global consumption of coal is on the rise, thanks largely to growing economies in south Asia such as in India.

The International Energy Agency reported that global coal demand surpassed 8 billion metric tons for the first time last year, and it is forecasting that it “will remain at similar levels in the following years in the absence of stronger efforts to accelerate the transition to clean energy” internationally.

“People who don’t believe in the future of coal aren’t paying attention,” Schneider said.

He emphasized that Henderson County officials have a healthy working relationship with Alliance.

“I want to make sure everybody understands that while this mine is new, Alliance is not new to Henderson County,” Schneider said, recalling that when he was first appointed judge/executive in 2016, “some of the first people I met with” were Alliance officials, including Kim Humphrey, the company’s Union County-based director of community and employee programs. (And, as was evident at the ceremony, local officials are on a first-name basis with CEO Craft, repeatedly referring to him as “Joe.”)

Other officials lauded Alliance as well.

Mills said having Alliance develop a mine in Henderson County “is tremendous.”

“Anytime you can welcome new jobs to Henderson County it is a great day,” state Rep. Jonathan Dixon (R-Henderson) said.

He said he grew up in the Little Dixie area of Henderson County and noted there “were some concerns in the community” over increased traffic and other issues when the mine was first announced last September.

“Joe and Kim are top-notch and they addressed those concerns,” Dixon said.

He also commended Henderson Economic Development, including Vanderpool and Whitney Risley, its director of existing industry and workforce development.

River View Mine began operations in 2009 and is the largest room-and-pillar underground mine in North America. It produces about 9½ million tons of coal annually and employs approximately 900 people, according to Adelman.

Tulsa-based parent company Alliance Resource Partners reported a record year in 2022 with $2.4 billion in revenue and $577 million in net profits.

Persons wanting to apply for a job with the Henderson County Mine can fill out an employment application in person at River View Coal at 835 Kentucky 1179 in Union County between Waverly and Uniontown.

Thanks, KE