Shay No. 1 Mine (photo/Foresight Energy)
Shay No. 1 Mine between Gillespie and Carlinville is scheduled to be shut down due to its inability to operate profitably and ongoing issues with coal quality.
The disclosure was announced last week when Murray Energy released more documents related to its ongoing Chapter 11 bankruptcy and reorganization. Among the documents released included an internal company presentation from January that included the grim news about Shay No. 1 mine. Murray Energy is an Ohio-based coal producer that owns a controlling stake of Foresight Energy.
According to Foresight Energy’s website, the company is a leading coal producer in the Illinois Basin Region of the U.S. with nearly 2.1 billion tons of coal reserves currently supporting four mining complexes. In addition to Shay No. 1 mine, the other three complexes are located in Montgomery County, Franklin County, and Williamson County.
Shay No. 1 Mine began production in 2009 under Foresight operating two continuous miner sections with a Flexible Conveyor Train, one of the only ones used in the industry.