Leer Coal Mine

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

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Leer Coal Mine is an operating coal mine in Thornton, Taylor County, West Virginia, United States.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Leer Coal Mine	Taylor County, West Virginia, United States	39.340407, -79.975285 (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	–	2007	–

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
–	4.805357356	2025	Underground	Longwall	–	373*	501

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
33	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
ACI Tygart Valley LLC [100.0%]	Core Natural Resources Inc [100%]	USA

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

ROM or Saleable	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Saleable	3.2	3.5	4.1	4.2	4.6	3.9	4.3	–	4.81

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
11.55721	959.24843	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
11.557	959.248	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

The Leer Coal Mine is an underground operation, owned by Arch Resources, located in Barbour County, West Virginia, United States. The mine is owned and operated by Arch Resources.

• Operator: Arch Resources
• Parent company: Arch Resources
• Location: Barbour, West Virginia, United States
• GPS coordinates: 39.340407, -79.975285 (exact)
• Mine status: Operating
• Start year:
• Mineable reserves: 45.6 Million tonnes (Proven and Probable, 2020)
• Coal type: Bituminous (Met)
• Mine size:
• Mine type: Underground, Longwall
• Production: 3.08 mtpa (3.4 million short tons)
• Number of employees:

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
M1036.B1	mine boundary	underground	Leer coal mine boundary	extracted	2022-02-11 00:00:00
M1036.B2	mine boundary	underground	Leer 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."
M1036.P1	other	slope access or production shaft	Possible production shaft	extracted	2022-02-11 00:00:00
M1036.P2	ventilation system	shaft	Sharp bleeder shaft	extracted	2022-02-11 00:00:00
M1036.P3	ventilation system	shaft	Hardesty intake shaft	extracted	2022-02-11 00:00:00
M1036.P4	ventilation system	shaft	District 5 bleeder shaft	extracted	2022-02-11 00:00:00
M1036.P5	ventilation system	shaft	Intake air shaft	extracted	2022-02-11 00:00:00
M1036.P6	ventilation system	shaft	possible Return air shaft	extracted	2022-02-11 00:00:00
M1036.P7	ventilation system	shaft	possible ventilation shaft	extracted	4/2023 - 8/2023
M1036.P8	ventilation system	shaft	ventilation shaft	extracted	4/2023 - 8/2023

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

Coal mine boundaries and methane sources were last researched for this mine on Apr 03, 2025

ID	Notes
M1036.B1	The 'Leer Mine Area' is shown in Figure 1.1-1 General Location Map on page 2 and the 'LEER MINE AREA' is show in Figure 7.5-1 Drillhole Collar Locations, on page 35 of Technical Report Summary, Exhibit 96.1, from February 11, 2022, https://web.archive.org/web/20250507102925/https://minedocs.com/25/Leer-Mine-TR-02112022.pdf. The boundary was extracted from Figure 7.5-1 and has an area of 12,967 acres (52.5 sq km). This area very closely matches the area given in 1.1 PROPERTY DESCRIPTION on page 2, "The Leer Mine permit area includes approximately 12,635 acres of controlled mineral property". The mine mines the Middle Kittanning coal seam. Important note: the following mine boundaries overlap the mine boundary and care should be taken when attempting methane source attribution: MINE NO. 1 (Upper Freeport coal seam)
M1036.B2	The boundary is the detailed 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 = LEER MINE, and the resulting polygon was deholed and simplified using distance-based simplification with a tolerance of 25m. The area of this boundary is 27.9 sq km. The mine mines the Middle Kittanning coal seam. Important note: the following mine boundaries overlap the mine boundary and care should be taken when attempting methane source attribution: MINE NO. 1 (Upper Freeport coal seam)
M1036.P1	The shaft location is based on information found in Figure 15.7-1 Mine Infrastructure on page 87 of Technical Report Summary, Exhibit 96.1, from February 11, 2022, https://web.archive.org/web/20250327161838/https://minedocs.com/25/Leer-Mine-TR-02112022.pdf
M1036.P2	The shaft location is based on information found in Figure 15.7-1 Mine Infrastructure on page 87 of Technical Report Summary, Exhibit 96.1, from February 11, 2022, https://web.archive.org/web/20250327161838/https://minedocs.com/25/Leer-Mine-TR-02112022.pdf
M1036.P3	The shaft location is based on information found in Figure 15.7-1 Mine Infrastructure on page 87 of Technical Report Summary, Exhibit 96.1, from February 11, 2022, https://web.archive.org/web/20250327161838/https://minedocs.com/25/Leer-Mine-TR-02112022.pdf
M1036.P4	The shaft location is based on information found in Figure 15.7-1 Mine Infrastructure on page 87 of Technical Report Summary, Exhibit 96.1, from February 11, 2022, https://web.archive.org/web/20250327161838/https://minedocs.com/25/Leer-Mine-TR-02112022.pdf
M1036.P5	The shaft location is based on information found in Figure 15.7-1 Mine Infrastructure on page 87 of Technical Report Summary, Exhibit 96.1, from February 11, 2022, https://web.archive.org/web/20250327161838/https://minedocs.com/25/Leer-Mine-TR-02112022.pdf
M1036.P6	The shaft location is based on information found in Figure 15.7-1 Mine Infrastructure on page 87 of Technical Report Summary, Exhibit 96.1, from February 11, 2022, https://web.archive.org/web/20250327161838/https://minedocs.com/25/Leer-Mine-TR-02112022.pdf
M1036.P7	Identified visually from Bing Maps satellite imagery.
M1036.P8	Identified visually from Bing Maps satellite imagery.

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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.