Davy Branch Coal Mine

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

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Davy Branch Coal Mine is an operating coal mine in Holden, Logan County, West Virginia, United States.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Davy Branch Coal Mine	Holden, Logan County, West Virginia, United States	37.79972222, -81.94666667 (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	–	2019	–

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
–	0.5225157076	2025	Underground	Bord and Pillar	–	373*	107

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
2.93	2024	12.75	–	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
Aracoma Coal Co [100.0%]	Alpha Metallurgical Resources Inc	USA

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

ROM or Saleable	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
–	–	–	–	0.07	0.63	0.74	0.78	–	0.52

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
0.013	1.079	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
0.013	1.079	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

Davy Branch Coal Mine (also known as Davy Branch Upper Chilton) is a 1.2-million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) coal mine in Logan, the state of West Virginia, United States. Aracoma Coal Company, LLC submitted a mine application for Davy Branch mine in November 2019.

The mine has since become operational.

Mine Accidents

In 2021, the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration found that the Aracoma Coal Company didn’t sufficiently assure safe underground haulage at the Davy Branch mine when mobile equipment traveled through a flypad (a transparent ventilation curtain) and shuttle cars shared a common intersection. On February 21, shuttle car operator Justin L. Lafferty, 38, died as the result of injuries he sustained at 7:44 a.m. on Jan. 22, when another shuttle car struck his own, according to the agency.

The mine operator has been issued 36 violations by the West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training since the start of 2021 totaling $7,400 in fines. According to local reporting, "Repeat violations have included unpermitted parking of mining equipment, improper ventilation of working sections of the mine and failure to effectively insulate and seal permanent splices in training cables."

• Operator: Aracoma Coal Company
• Owner: Contura Energy
• Location: Logan, the state of West Virginia, United States
• Coordinates: -28.0567, 30.1136 (exact)
• Mine status: Operating
• Start year:
• Production capacity (Mtpa): 1.2
• Total reserves (Mt):
• Coal type: Bituminous
• Mine type: Underground
• Mine size (Km2):
• Workforce size:
• Primary consumer:
• Source of financing:

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
M2346.B1	mine boundary	underground	Davy Branch coal mine boundary 1	reported	No source date information found
M2346.B2	mine boundary	underground	Davy Branch coal mine boundary 2	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."'
M2346.P1	ventilation system	shaft	Ventilation shaft	extracted	Bing 10/2020 - 3/2021 and Google 11/2023

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
M2346.B1	One open permit U00500319 for this mine was found on page 92 of FY2024 ANNUAL REPORT AND DIRECTORY OF MINES, https://web.archive.org/web/20250327210504/https://minesafety.wv.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/FY2024-Annual-Report.pdf.pdf. The permit is owned by ARACOMA COAL COMPANY, LLC issued November 2019 and expires November 2029. Other open permits for this mine were searched for but no others were found. The permit boundary polygon was extracted from permit boundaries found in the permit boundary shapefile in https://web.archive.org/web/20250319210132/https://tagis.dep.wv.gov/home/gis%20data. The area of this boundary is 0.19 square kilometers (or 47 acres). The mine mines the Powellton Chilton coal seam. Important note: the following mine boundaries overlap the mine boundary and care should be taken when attempting methane source attribution: Lynn Branch No. 2 mine (Eagle seam).
M2346.B2	This boundary was 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 = DAVY BRANCH MINE, and the resulting polygon was simplified using distance-based simplification with a tolerance of 25m. The area of this boundary is 0.8 sq km. Satellite imagery for the area including this boundary was scanned for PPSEs - no additional ones were found. The mine mines the Powellton Chilton coal seam. Important note: the following mine boundaries overlap the mine boundary and care should be taken when attempting methane source attribution: Dehue Mine (Eagle seam).
M2346.P1	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro and Bing Maps satellite imagery.

Articles and Resources

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.