Affinity Coal Mine

This article is part of the Global Coal Mine Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.

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Affinity Coal Mine is an operating coal mine in Midway, West Virginia, United States.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Affinity Coal Mine	Midway, West Virginia, United States	37.703959, -81.230477 (exact)

The map below shows the exact location of the coal mine:

Project Details

Table 2: Project status

Status	Status Detail	Opening Year	Closing Year
Operating	–	2011	–

Table 3: Operation details

Note: The asterisk (*) signifies that the value is a GEM estimated figure.

Capacity (Mtpa)	Production (Mtpa)	Year of Production	Mine Type	Mining Method	Mine Size (km2)	Mine Depth (m)	Workforce Size
–	0.47	2025	Underground	Longwall	–	373.0*	233.0

Table 4: Coal resources and destination

Total Reserves (Mt)	Year of Total Reserves Recorded	Total Resources (Mt)	Coalfield	Coal Type	Coal Grade	Primary Consumer/ Destination
34.0	–	–	Appalachia	Bituminous	Met	–

Table 5: Ownership and parent company

Note: To access more comprehensive data on energy ownership, please visit the Global Energy Ownership Tracker.

Owner	Parent Company	Headquarters
Pocahontas Coal Company LLC	Metinvest BV	The Netherlands

Table 6: Historical production (unit: million tonnes per annum)

ROM or Saleable	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
–	0.77	0.86	0.94	0.77	0.87	0.65	0.7	–	0.47

Reported Methane Emissions Data

Global Energy Monitor collates facility-scale methane emissions data reported by government and company sources collected in a systematic fashion. This mine is associated with the following methane emissions reports:

Table 7: Methane emissions

Reported Coal Mine Methane Emissions (thousand tonnes CO2 equivalent)	Reported Coal Mine Methane Emissions (thousand tonnes CH4)	Year of Reported Coal Mine Methane Emissions	Reported Coal Mine Methane Emissions (thousand tonnes) Reference	Reference type
2.951	244.951	2023	​	national government data

Note: The above sections were automatically generated and are based on data from the Global Coal Mine Tracker May 2026 release.

Ownership Tree

This ownership tree is part of the Global Energy Ownership Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.

Background

Affinity Mine is a coal mining operation near Sophia in Raleigh County, West Virginia. The mine was closed in 1985 but bought in 2010 by United Coal Company, which cited rising demand for metallurgical coal. United Coal planned to spend $115 million to rehabilitate the former Eastern Associated Coal company mine. The mine is operated by Affinity Coal Co., and is opened in 2010. Company officials believe the mine has enough reserves to produce coal for about 25 years. United Coal is a division of Ukraine-based Metinvest. The mine started operations in 2010 when United Coal Company(UCC) launched a subsidiary, Affinity Coal Company, in Raleigh county W. Virginia. UCC re-opened the mine which was idled in the 1980s, and built a new preparation plant on site with the purpose of producing metallurgical coal. The UCC's parent company, Ukraine based METINVEST, also owns a group of steel companies.

In 2019, the mine produced 0.9 million tonnes although the production dropped to 0.7 million in 2020.

224 workers are employed in the facility as of 2020.

• MSHA ID: 4608878
• Start Year: 2010
• Operator: Affinity Coal Co.
• Controller: United Coal Company
• Parent Company: METINVEST
• Total Reserves: 34 million tonnes
• County: Raleigh
• State: WV
• Latitude: 37.703959
• Longitude:-81.230477
• Production (short tons): 0.77 million tonnes
• Coal Type: Bituminous
• Mining Method:
• Mine Status: Operating
• Average No. of Employees: 220

Coal Mine Boundaries and Methane Sources

Global Energy Monitor researchers have identified coal mine boundary/boundaries and potential sources of coal mine methane (CMM) for this mine. These research results can be used to drive CMM attribution and mitigation efforts, particularly when combined with remotely sensed methane plume locations and mine ownership data. Explore the results with the embedded map at the top of this page by clicking on the mine boundary polygon or the CMM placemarkers to reveal more details. A detailed description of this research can be found in Coal Mine Boundaries and Methane Sources. This data is also available as a downloadable companion dataset to the Global Coal Mine Tracker and the Global Methane Emitters Tracker.

Table SMP1: Coal mine boundaries and methane sources data

ID	Mine feature category	Mine feature subcategory	Description	Coordinates precision	Data source date
M1596.B2	mine boundary	underground	Affinity coal mine detailed underground mining area boundary	extracted	Unclear - according to https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.wvgs.wvnet.edu/www/coal/cbmp/coalims.html, "Updates to the data set occur as new data becomes available."
M1596.P1	degasification system	flare	Affinity Coal Mine flare at Crab Orchard	extracted	2023-05-09 00:00:00
M1596.P2	degasification system	flare	Affinity Coal Mine flare at Main Gate	reported	2023-05-09 00:00:00
M1596.P3	other	shaft	Affinity Coal Mine shaft 1	extracted	2023-05-09 00:00:00
M1596.P4	other	shaft	Affinity Coal Mine shaft 2	extracted	2023-05-09 00:00:00
M1596.P5	ventilation system	shaft	Affinity Coal Mine shaft 3	extracted	2023-05-09 00:00:00
M1596.P6	ventilation system	shaft	Affinity Coal Mine shaft 4	extracted	2023-05-09 00:00:00
M1596.P7	ventilation system	shaft	Affinity Coal Mine shaft 5	extracted	2023-05-09 00:00:00
M1596.P8	other	slope access or production shaft	Affinity Coal Mine slope access	extracted	2023-05-09 00:00:00
M1596.P9	other	preparation plant	Affinity coal preparation plant	extracted	2023-05-09 00:00:00

Table SMP2: Coal mine boundaries and methane sources data (continued)

Coal mine boundaries and methane sources were last researched for this mine on Sep 18, 2025

ID	Notes
M1596.B2	The boundary is the underground mining area polygon extracted from West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey, Coal Bed Mapping Program GIS data: https://web.archive.org/web/20250220170452/https://atlas.wvgs.wvnet.edu/arcgis/rest/services/Coal_Web_Mercator/All_Mining_WM/MapServer, filtered for mine_name = AFFINITY. The resulting polygon was simplified using distance-based simplification with a tolerance of 25m, and holes deleted. The boundary area is 19.3 sq km. According to information in the same WVGES resource. The mine mines the Pocahontas_3 coal seam. Important note: the following mine boundaries overlap the mine boundary and care should be taken when attempting methane source attribution: Big Stick (Beckley coal seam), Lillybrook Coal, (Pocahontas_6 coal seam), Pemberton mine no. 1 (Beckley coal seam), Tams no 2 (Pocahontas_6 coal seam) and Glen White no 1 & 2 (Beckley coal seam).
M1596.P1	Enclosed flare at Crab Orchard identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery, and from approximate location indicated on Project Diagram Affinity Mine Methane Incineration Project on page 2 of the Keyrock Energy Affinity Mine Methane Incineration Project from Jan 24 2025: https://web.archive.org/web/20250515205032/https://acr2.apx.com/mymodule/ProjectDoc/Project_ViewFile.asp?FileID=50549&IDKEY=niquwesdfmnk0iei23nnm435oiojnc909dsflk9809adlkmlkf969707071
M1596.P2	Coordinates of flare at Affinity Main Gate reported in Project Diagram Affinity Main Gate Site Layout, page 3, of Keyrock Energy Affinity Mine Methane Incineration Project from Jan 24 2025: https://web.archive.org/web/20250515205032/https://acr2.apx.com/mymodule/ProjectDoc/Project_ViewFile.asp?FileID=50549&IDKEY=niquwesdfmnk0iei23nnm435oiojnc909dsflk9809adlkmlkf969707071
M1596.P3	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M1596.P4	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M1596.P5	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M1596.P6	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M1596.P7	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M1596.P8	Slope access identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery, and from ground-level photo at https://web.archive.org/web/20250515212550/https://www.flickr.com/photos/scm_photos/6045258351/sizes/z/
M1596.P9	Coal preparation plant identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery

Associated Coal Mine Methane Mitigation Projects

Some coal mines have installed infrastructure which can use and/or destroy some methane emissions associated with mining. In 2024, the Global Methane Initiative reported that this mine had a mitigation project associated with it. This methodology page describes how GEM classified these projects and linked them with coal mines in the Global Coal Mine Tracker.

Table MM1: Methane mitigation projects

Mitigation Project Name	Project Type	GMI Reported Status	GMI Reported Start Year
Affinity Mine Methane Incineration Project - United States	Flaring	Operational	2020

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Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of world coal mines, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Coal Mine Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.