Corporate History
JRL Coal, Inc. (JRL) is a vertically integrated coal enterprise. JRL invested significantly in its turn-key capacity to extract clean coal using advance technology, efficiently cleanse and prepare coal in our state-of-the-art coal processing plant, responsibly store overburden in self-maintained refuse impoundment, and timely load and deliver coal through our new tipple and CSX rail loadout.
JRL recently acquired the assets and mining reserves, known as the Coalgood Operations, from Alpha Natural Resources. These assets and operations are located Southeast of the city of Harlan in Harlan County, Kentucky. The coal reserves located at this operation lie within the Middlesboro Syncline, a prominent geologic feature in the Southeast Kentucky. This region is known to possess high quality thermal and high vol metallurgical grade bituminous coal. This region is also known for producing coal with very low chlorine content (average of 200ppm or less).
The operations located at Coalgood have a long history. Coal mining began at the operation in the early 1920’s in the Harlan coal bed. Underground mining continued at the operation through the 1960’s in the Harlan and Limestone coal beds. Surface mining began in the 1960’s in the Harlan, Creech, Wallins, and Limestone coal beds. Underground mining continued in the Creech, Whitesburg, Wallins, Smith and Limestone coal beds until 1990’s. The operation has been idle since 2012, but JRL has recently reactivated surface and deep mining operations in the Whitesburg, Wallins, Smith, Wax, and Limestone coal beds.