International demand for anthracite coal is spurring an uptick in surface mining in Northumberland County.
Nearly 90,000 tons of coal was extracted by four operators from four county surface mines in 2010, according to state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) mining activity reports.
And while that figure dwarfs the 20,000-plus tons reported in 2009, Mike Menghini, district manager of DEP's Pottsville office, said tonnage reporting discrepancies have more to do with the difference than actual mining. Still, output doubled from 2009 to 2010, representing a 100 percent increase.
Menghini said the increase in Northumberland County can be attributed to expansion of operations by both Mallard Contracting and Farragut Anthracite, which operate out of the same Mount Carmel office.
Farragut, Menghini said, operates a mine in the area that had once been home to "The Mile" stripping pit in Coal and Zerbe townships - a pit that no longer exists due to the mining operation.
46 employed
The county's four strip-mine operators, which also include D. Molesevich and Sons and Keystone Anthracite, employed 31 workers in 2010, with 61,697 hours worked at their mines.
In comparison, three Northumberland County underground mine operators - Bear Gap Coal, FKZ Coal and Robert Shingara - worked three mines and extracted more than 10,800 tons of anthracite last year, an increase over the nearly 7,800 tons reported in 2009.
The underground mines employed 15 who worked a total of 20,601 hours in 2010.
Neighbors up, too
The surface mining tonnage increase was shared to a varying degree in neighboring Schuylkill and Luzerne counties, where more than 907,000 and 1,524,000 tons were extracted in 2010. Those operations are clearly larger and operating mines more plentiful, with eight operators working 11 surface mines in Luzerne and 31 operators working 42 mines in Schuylkill.
Strip mining employed a combined 381 in those two counties.
'Demand strong'
And while the uptick should hardly be considered a hard coal renaissance, it at least reassures that the industry locally isn't a relic of coal region past.
"We expect demand to be strong for the next few years," said Duane Feagley, president of the Pennsylvania Anthracite Council.
Both Menghini and Feagley said a substantial amount of anthracite is exported to China, with Menghini citing steel markets in Quebec and Belgium and Feagley citing South America as another destination.
"There's less volatility in the market and more demand," Menghini said.
