Illinois Mine Ships Millionth Ton of Coal

By CAROL WERSICH, Courier & Press staff writer 464-7452 or wersichc@courierpress.com

Workers at Friendsville Mine in Mount Carmel, Ill., reached a major production milestone Thursday mining and shipping the mine’s 1 millionth ton of coal to Alcoa’s Warrick Operations power plant at Yankeetown in just more than a year in operation.

“The success we have achieved at Friendsville Mine is a direct result of the partnership between Vigo Coal Company, Inc., Alcoa, and the Mount Carmel community,” said Mike Schiele, chief executive officer of Vigo which manages the process of coal mining at the site.

It was a little more than a year ago that the ribbon was cut on Friendsville Mine, unveiling the $55 million investment by Alcoa in one of the Tri-State’s newest mines.

Alcoa purchased the mining rights to the mine from long- established Vigo.

Vigo, in turn, was retained by Alcoa on a long-term contract to be the mine manager.

According to Schiele, Friendsville provides about 45 percent of Alcoa’s coal, which uses an average of about 2.3 million tons a year.

Alcoa also gets coal from other mines in Indiana and elsewhere in the Midwest and from as far away as Wyoming.

Alcoa uses the coal to power its electric plants.

Electricity produced by the plants is then used to smelt aluminum, which is turned into rolled aluminum for use by the food and beverage-can industries.

“The community continues to extend a warm welcome to our business, and the location has allowed us to find the complement of high-quality employees needed to operate the mine,” Schiele said.

“We are also pleased with the impressive safety record achieved by the workers and leadership at Friendsville Mine,” he added.

Since January 2006, Vigo’s Friendsville Mine will have worked a grand total of more than 214,000 consecutive hours without a lost time injury or a recordable injury as defined by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).

For all Vigo mines, including Friendsville, Cypress Creek, Range Line and Red Brush, employees have worked nearly 669,213 consecutive hours without a lost time injury and only two MSHA recordables, Schiele said.

Alcoa’s $55 million investment in Friendsville has included $30 million in infrastructure and buildings and $13 million in mobile equipment.

The mine employs 55 people and contributes more than $10 million to the regional economy each year through payroll, purchases and taxes, said Sally Rideout Lambert, Alcoa’s media spokeswoman.

Alcoa is among the Tri-State’s biggest users of coal, along with Vectren Energy Delivery.

Both are examples of how companies have found a somewhat unique way to help meet their strong reliance on coal and help minimize the cost by having their own coal mines.

Vectren Fuels, a wholly owned coal mining operations subsidiary of Evansville-based Vectren Corp., currently has two mines, including Cypress Creek Mine, north of Boonville, Ind., and Prosperity Mine, west of Petersburg, Ind.

Together, the two mines produce nearly 4.5 million tons of coal a year, according to Vectren officials.

Vectren Energy Delivery consumes a little more than 3 million tons of coal a year in producing electricity.

Coal produced by Vecten mines is expected to reach 8 million tons a year by 2010 with the addition of two new mines that Vectren Fuels is currently planning for sites near Vincennes, Ind.

(c) 2007 Evansville Courier & Press. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.