Beckley Pocahontas Coal Mine

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

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Beckley Pocahontas Coal Mine is an operating coal mine in Raleigh County, West Virginia, United States.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Beckley Pocahontas Coal Mine	Raleigh County, West Virginia, United States	37.774351, -81.257788 (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	–	1983	–

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
1.2	0.8288121066	2025	Underground	Continuous	59.48	373*	367

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
24.7	2024	–	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
ICG Beckley LLC [100.0%]	Core Natural Resources Inc	USA

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

ROM or Saleable	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
–	1.01	1.02	1.04	1.0	1.08	1.0	1.08	–	0.83

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
21.658079999999998	1797.62064	2023	​	national government data

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

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
21.658	1797.621	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

Beckley Pocahontas Coal Mine (MSHA ID: 4605252) is an underground coal mining operation in Raleigh County, West Virginia. Opened in 2007 by Westmoreland Coal Company, the mine is currently operated by ICG Beckley under Core Natural Resources.

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
M0990.B1	mine boundary	underground	Beckley Pocahontas 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."
M0990.P1	ventilation system	shaft	ventilation shaft	extracted	2023-05-01 00:00:00
M0990.P2	ventilation system	vent	ventilation shaft	extracted	2023-05-01 00:00:00
M0990.P3	other	slope access or production shaft	possible mine production shaft	extracted	2023-05-01 00:00:00
M0990.P4	degasification system	gas well	possible gas drainage infrastructure	extracted	2023-05-01 00:00:00
M0990.P5	degasification system	gas well	possible gas drainage infrastructure	extracted	2023-05-01 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
M0990.B1	The boundary is the underground mining area polygon extracted from the West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey (WVGES) resource at https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://atlas.wvgs.wvnet.edu/arcgis/rest/services/Coal_Web_Mercator/All_Mining_WM/MapServer. This resource was filtered for mine_name like %BECKLEY POCAHONTAS%, and the resulting polygon for mine_name 'BAY HILL NO 1 / BECKLEY POCAHONTAS MINE' was deholed and simplified using distance-based simplification with a tolerance of 25m. The mine mines the Pocahontas_3 coal seam. The area of this boundary is 26 sq km. Important note: the following mine boundaries overlap the mine boundary and care should be taken when attempting methane source attribution: Eccles no 5 (Sewell coal seam), Eccles no 6 (Beckley coal seam), Sprague (Sewell coal seam), Crab orchard (Sewell coal seam), Crab orchard no 1 (Sewell coal seam), Crab orchard no 2 (Sewell coal seam) and 3 unknown mines.
M0990.P1	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M0990.P2	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M0990.P3	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M0990.P4	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M0990.P5	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
Beckley Pocahontas Mine Gas Sales to Pipeline - United States	utilization	Operational	2006

Methane Plumes Detected Nearby

Global Energy Monitor researchers analyze satellite-detected methane plumes in order to determine whether they have been observed at or near the site of GEM energy assets. The satellite data provider creates imagery of individual methane plumes and estimates their emission rates at the time of observation. GEM has reviewed many of these plume detections against Google Earth imagery and GEM’s own energy infrastructure tracker data. The following table lists methane plumes which are associated with the energy asset or facility based on distance and manual review. (A full description of the analysis process is available in the Global Methane Emitters Tracker methodology wiki page.)

Table M1: Plume details

For additional details on this individual plume identification and others, see the Global Methane Emitters Tracker.

Observation date	Satellite data provider	Location of plume origin	Methane emissions rate	Additional plume information
2023-03-26T20:42:24+00	CarbonMapper, emi20230326t204224p14007-B	37.76849, -81.2568	1795.811 kg/hr	West Virginia State Methane Observation 2023-03-26, 1
2024-04-22T16:15:14+00	CarbonMapper, emi20240422t161514p11022-A	37.76855, -81.2569	2111.52 kg/hr	West Virginia State Methane Observation 2024-04-22, 1
2025-02-28T16:37:14+00	CarbonMapper, tan20250228t163714c00s4001-A	37.7686, -81.2564	2314.62 kg/hr	West Virginia State Methane Observation 2025-02-28, 1
2025-04-27T16:57:05+00	CarbonMapper, tan20250427t165705c00s4001-A	37.76844, -81.2561	–	West Virginia State Methane Observation 2025-04-27, 1

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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.