The company that acquired three coal mines from Vectren Fuels last week has idled production at one of those operations — Prosperity Mine in Pike County.
Effective Friday, Terre Haute-based Sunrise Coal acquired Vectren’s coal mining subsidiary for $320 million. The deal, first announced in July, included three mines: Prosperity in Pike County; and Oaktown 1 and Oaktown 2 in Knox County.
Sunrise is a subsidiary of Denver-based Hallador Energy. On Thursday, Hallador hosted a conference call to review acquisition details.
Hallador’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Brent Bilsland, said the company idled production at Prosperity on Friday and is moving that mine’s equipment to the Oaktown mines.
The company is in the process of deciding the best use of that property going forward, Bilsland said.
“We do see that being idled for an extended period of time,” the executive said.
“We’ve got a couple ideas, but they’re going to take a little time to make happen.”
Regarding the Oaktown operations, Bilsland said those mines were “a big driver of our decision” to acquire Vectren Fuels because of the mines’ proximity to existing Sunrise Coal facilities.
The Oaktown mines are situated between Sunrise’s Carlisle Mine to the north and its War Eagle coal reserve to the north.
Now that Sunrise owns the Oaktown properties, Bilsland said, they can be operated as a single complex with a total coal reserve of 230 million tons. Access to War Eagle will be through Oaktown 2’s existing portal.
Purchase of the Vectren mines makes Sunrise the second largest coal producer in Indiana, Bilsland said.
“We have a very large, very low-cost production stream that’s going to last many, many years, in a state that still has a strong coal market,” he said.
“We’re thrilled with our purchase.”
Vectren Fuels ran Prosperity and Oaktown using contract miners from Black Panther Mining and Five Star Mining.
Those contracts ended with the change in mine ownership. Last month, Vectren reported that more than 670 of the former contract miners had been offered jobs with Sunrise, but another 120 were not offered positions.