American Resources Corp., through its wholly owned subsidiary Quest Energy Inc. and Deane Mining LLC, has shipped its first unit train of thermal coal from its previously idled Mill Creek coal preparation plant.

Operation of Deane Mining’s Mill Creek preparation plant, located in Letcher County, Kentucky, is made possible in part through the start of the Access Energy underground mine, which belts directly to the plant’s raw coal stockyard.

The 800 tph preparation plant is serviced by the CSX railroad and uses a batch-weight rail loadout. Mill Creek preparation plant also has the ability to load processed coal directly to truck for transportation to regional customers. The Mill Creek plant has the ability to handle significantly more tonnage from American Resources’ additional mines in the area that the company intends to restart, alongside the potential to handle third party tonnage as a profit centre.

“We are very pleased with our team and the efforts made to efficiently get the Mill Creek preparation plant, as well as our Access Energy mine, up and running while focusing on production, productivity, and safety,” stated Mark Jensen, CEO of American Resources Corporation. “Furthermore, we are encouraged to see utility customers focused on providing a stable, low-cost base load of energy generation for their customers, which will hopefully help expand the coal processing and loading at Mill Creek. Given the steady improvements in the coal markets, we have begun the development or evaluation of three additional mines in the area that are anticipated to be profitable and could be producing in short-order with only a modest amount of additional working capital.”

Deane Mining’s Mill Creek preparation plant and nearby Access Energy mine is one of only a few coal mining complexes to open in Central Appalachia since the coal downturn. Furthermore, American Resources Corporation will continue to leverage its organic growth through its 36 controlled permits while also looking for supplemental, strategic acquisitions.