Tuscaloosa County Celebrates Billion-dollar Blue Creek Mine Launch
The ribbon was cut today to mark Warrior Met Coal's completion of the Blue Creek Mine project. The Brookwood headquartered company invested approximately $1 billion to develop the longwall mine and completion will add more than 300 new jobs to Tuscaloosa County.
The Blue Creek Mine is a single longwall mine and is expected to have the capacity to produce an average of 6.0 million short tons annually of metallurgical coal over the first ten years of production from one of the largest untouched metallurgical coal reserves in North America. Metallurgical coal is primarily used to produce coke, a crucial ingredient for making steel in blast furnaces
Company executives, state and local elected officials, a federal delegation, Bureau of Land Management leadership, and industry partners turned out for the ceremony.
Since the Blue Creek project was re-launched in May 2022, Warrior has made several meaningful operational and technological improvements that have had a positive impact. Today's ribbon cutting builds on that.
Completion of the project doesn't impact just Tuscaloosa County. Norfolk Southern Railroad is investing over $200 million in its 3B Corridor, strengthening the connection between northern and central Alabama and the Port of Mobile. The Alabama Port Authority is also investing over $200 million to modernize and improve efficiency at its McDuffie Coal Terminal, supported by an additional $20 million in funding from the Alabama Legislature. Additionally, Tuscaloosa's Parker Towing Company has invested over $20 million in capital equipment to ensure efficient barge transportation.
Blue Creek also includes a rail load-out facility located in Fayette County, a barge load-out facility located in Walker County, and a state-of-the-art curved overland belt to deliver coal to the rail load-out facility. The belt is a unique feature to Blue Creek that will allow clean coal to be transported to a rail facility. The belt reduces truck traffic and limits the impact on local communities according to the company.
“This transformational growth investment reinforces Warrior’s position as the premier U.S. pure-play producer of premium metallurgical coal products,” commented Walt Scheller, CEO of Warrior. “From inception to completion, this project has been a collaborative effort with vendors, transportation partners, and state and federal agencies to ensure success for a project with an economic impact to rural Alabama for the next 40 years.”
Last October, Warrior Met had the highest bid for a federal coal lease to expand Blue Creek by 8,346 acres with about 36.3 million tons of coal.
Warrior Met surprised the coal industry by launching longwall operations at its Blue Creek mine eight months ahead of plan and on budget. "That resulted in record quarterly sales volumes, a notable jump in production, and strengthened cost control measures," according to a company press release.
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