Knight Hawk Coal

From SourceWatch
Jump to navigation Jump to search

{{#Badges: CoalSwarm}} Knight Hawk Coal Co. is a coal company in Percy, Illinois, that extracts and sell 3.6 million tons of coal annually from five coal mines in Illinois. In August 2006, Arch Coal acquired a 1/3 interest in Knight Hawk in exchange for cash and coal reserves,[1] and by 2011 owned a 42% stake in Knight Hawk.[2]

Coal Mines

Coal Transport

Knight Hawk sends 200,000 tons of coal per year to its rail facility which sits along the Canadian National Railway/Illinois Central main line in Carbondale, Illinois. The facility includes a 20-car siding and train cars are loaded through a hopper that has a 500,00 tpy capacity.[3]

Proposed Coal Mines

Golden Eagle Mine

Knight Hawk is pursuing a 160-acre strip of land to expand coal mining near Pyramid State Park, Illinois' biggest state park. During their spring session 2011, Illinois lawmakers signed off on a plan for the state to lease the strip at the edge of Pyramid State Park to Knight Hawk, who hope to use the land as a staging ground for a 240-acre strip mine just outside the 20,000-acre park, if a deal can be worked out with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The company also would carve for coal underneath the public area.[4]

In August 2011, Illinois Gov. Quinn approved H.B. 390, allowing the company to lease a 160-acre strip of land in the park for its new Golden Eagle surface mine. The land is privately owned and the first time in Illinois that mining has been approved for a state park. Knight Hawk said it will begin the permitting process for Golden Eagle, which is projected as an approximately 500,000 tpy operation. Mining could commence by summer 2012.[5]

Articles and resources

Related SourceWatch articles

To see a listing of coal mines in a particular state, click on the map:

<us_map redirect="Category:Existing coal mines in {state}"></us_map>

References

  1. "About" Knight Hawk Coal Website, accessed June 2011.
  2. "Illinois Governor Signs Power Holdings, Knight Hawk Coal bills" Coal Age, August 30, 2011.
  3. "Rail Loadout" Knight Hawk Coal Website, accessed June 2011.
  4. Jim Suhr, "Mining plan near southern Illinois park has environmentalists wary of other, similar projects" Daily Journal, June 17, 2011.
  5. "Illinois Governor Signs Power Holdings, Knight Hawk Coal bills" Coal Age, August 30, 2011.