Jerry Fork Eagle Coal Mine

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

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Jerry Fork Eagle Coal Mine is an operating coal mine in Drennen, Nicholas County, West Virginia, United States.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Jerry Fork Eagle Coal Mine	Drennen, Nicholas County, West Virginia, United States	38.296714, -80.990225 (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	–	1999	–

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
–	0.6014634561	2024	Underground	–	–	373*	176

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
–	–	9.08	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
Nicholas Contura LLC [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
–	0.52	0.55	0.56	0.83	0.84	0.8	0.69	0.6	–

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
0.57383	47.62789	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
0.574	47.628	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

Jerry Fork Eagle is an underground coal mining operation in Nicholas County, West Virginia, operated by Nicholas Contura LLC and owned by Alpha Natural Resources. Jerry Fork Eagle mine began production in 1999, a Massey Energy's Alex Energy Inc as its operator. In June 2011, Alpha Natural Resources acquired Massey Energy, making Alex Energy and Alpha subsidiary. After Alpha declared bankruptcy in 2016, Contura Energy was formed to acquire some of its assets, including the Jerry Fork Eagle Mine. A new subsidiary called Nicholas Contura LLC took over the mine's operation. In 2021, Contura changes its name to Alpha Metallurgical Resources.

In 2020, the mine produced 0.8 million tons, and had 146 employees.

• MSHA ID: 4608787
• Operator: Nicholas Contura LLC
• Controller: Alpha Metallurgical Resources
• Location: Drennen, Nicholas County, VW
• Coordinates: 38.296714, -80.990225 (Exact)
• Production (short tons): 827,027(2020)
• Coal Type: Bituminous
• Mining Method: Underground
• Mine Status: Active
• Average No. of Employees: 146(2020)

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
M1614.B1	mine boundary	underground	Jerry Fork Eagle 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."
M1614.P1	ventilation system	vent	ventilation system	extracted	2025-02-06 00:00:00
M1614.P2	other	slope access or production shaft	production shaft	extracted	2023-11-07 00:00:00
M1614.P3	other	preparation plant	coal preparation and handling plant	extracted	2024-02-06 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 Dec 05, 2025

ID	Notes
M1614.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 = JERRY FORK MINE. This name is synonymous with Jerry Fork Eagle mine, with Eagle referring to the coal seam being mined. The resulting polygon was simplified using distance-based simplification with a tolerance of 25m. The area of this boundary is approximately 14 sq km. Two other mining boundaries found in WVGES overlap with this boundary: Sugarcamp No. 1 mine, having a small overlap on the southern edge of the boundary; Coalburg No A5, with a relatively small 0.1 sq km boundary that is completely enveloped by the Jerry Fork boundary. Numerous other mines are also closely adjacent to this mine boundary making infrastructure assignment challenging.
M1614.P1	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery. The ventilation system may be shared with other mines.
M1614.P2	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery. The shaft may be shared with other mines.
M1614.P3	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery. The shaft may be shared with other mines.

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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.