In its first full year of operations, the reorganized Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company has increased production from near zero to 30,000 tons a month of raw coal. During this period, its employment grew from a start-up crew of 43 employees to 80 employees.
“We are shipping coal like crazy,” said president Sean Curran. “We can load 100 23-ton triaxel trucks full of anthracite coal on a good day—we are selling as fast as we can make it.”
LC&N’s sales are roughly divided: 50 percent to the steel market, and 25 percent each to the home and commercial heating markets. The high oil prices over the past three years have helped generate a “nice increase” in coal prices,” said president Curran. “The rule of thumb is that anthracite coal in heating value is about 50 percent of what oil costs.
While LC&N supports research on coal liquefaction and gasification, they have no need to turn to these technologies. According to Sarah Curran - vice president of industrial relations, “For now, we are focused on getting the coal out of the ground, onto the breaker, and out to the customer.”
The breaker she is referring to is the Greenwood Breaker; a legacy breaker that last year was reconstructed to meet modern production and environmental standards.
“We started reconstruction in November of 2006, and it was completed at the end of May 2007,” said Sean Curran. “We used the core structure which we gutted and modernized with modern coal processing technology - high frequency vibrators, cyclones, a belt press, and a closed circuit management system. All the water and fines in the processing are reclaimed and reused. The new breaker has been well received by our regulators.”
The rebuilt breaker is rated to process 300 tons of coal per hour. The breaker is still in a start-up mode and is being operated on one production shift and one maintenance shift. Once the bugs are out, LC&N plans to start a second production shift.
Asked if they are hiring from the local workforce, Sarah Curran turned to administrative assistant, Beth Seymour – a Coaldale resident. “I hear nothing but good things about LC&N in Coaldale,” Seymour said. “It is generating jobs. I'm a prime example of that. I live across the street.”
LC&N has hired: laborers, breaker operators, welders, equipment operators, mechanics, electricians, a mining engineer, a chief accountant, and a director of human resources.
Today, Sarah Curran was meeting with Committeemen Bill Godanis, Jack Praskac, and Dan Novak of Local 4004 of United Mine Workers of America. Godanis, a Barnesville resident with 31 years at the LC&N mines, is the union president. He’s been with the new LC&N for two years.
“The company and the union have a good relationship,” Godanis said. “We have two meetings every month. They are willing to hear our problems and we are willing to hear theirs. We can talk things out with them.”
“They are trying to change things, trying to move ahead, and trying to make a better product. We’re working to be the biggest producer of anthracite in the region.”
“The company is basically still on start-up,” added Praskac - a 35-year veteran from Hometown at LC&N. “There are a lot of employees and they expect to expand in the coming year.”
Novak enjoys being a miner in LC&N’s strip mining business. “I like working outdoors. I like running equipment. I like what I do,” he said. “It has been slow improvement but it is improving. We could see a future here now.”
