Marion County Coal Mine

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Marion County Coal Mine is an operating coal mine in Metz, Marion County, West Virginia, United States.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Marion County Coal Mine	Metz, Marion County, West Virginia, United States	39.61, -80.29 (exact)

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

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Project Details

Table 2: Project status

Status	Status Detail	Opening Year	Closing Year
Operating	–	1950	–

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
–	6.414703014	2025	Underground	Longwall	–	373*	406

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
–	–	–	Appalachia	Bituminous	Thermal	–

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
Marion County Coal Resources Inc [100.0%]	American Consolidated 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
ROM	6.11	6.13	5.96	3.87	6.18	6.81	6.83	–	6.41

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
83.34124000000001	6917.32292	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
83.341	6917.323	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 Marion County Mine, formerly known as the Loveridge Number 22 Mine, is an underground coal mine, operated by Marion County Coal Company, a subsidiary of Murray Energy Corporation, producing 6.1 million short tons per annum, in Fairview, West Virginia, United States.

2011: Consol to pay over $200 million in Clean Water violations at six operations

On March 14, 2011, CONSOL Energy announced it will spend $200 million on a treatment system for wastewater from three West Virginia coal mines, and pay the state and federal governments a total of $6 million to settle hundreds of alleged violations of the Clean Water Act. The federal fines, which will be split between the EPA and the state, totaled $5.5 million. Consol also agreed to pay the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources $500,000 for the damage to Dunkard Creek, a Monongahela River tributary that runs for 43 miles along the Pennsylvania-West Virginia border.

Though it denies its operations were responsible for the fish kill, Consol stopped discharging wastewater from its Blacksville 2 Mine after a September 2009 bloom of toxic golden algae killed countless fish, mussels, salamanders and other aquatic life. Investigators concluded that pollutants called total dissolved solids created conditions that helped that algae bloom flourish, choking off oxygen to the aquatic creatures. Although high levels of TDS have not been labeled a threat to human health, they can affect the taste and smell and drinking water.

EPA Region 3 Administrator Shawn Garvin said Consol's new network of pipelines and the reverse osmosis treatment plant it is building near Mannington will keep nearly 100 million pounds of TDS, including salts, out of the watershed each year. The system will treat water from the Blacksville 2 Mine, Loveridge 22 Mine and Robinson Run 95 Mine, and improve the overall health of rivers and streams. Consol's treatment plant must be online by May 2013 under the agreement. When finished, the plant should be able to treat 3,500 gallons of mine water per minute, eliminating an anticipated 95 percent of the pollutants. Consol is also planning to build a similar $100 million treatment facility for its Buchanan Mine 1 in Virginia.

The settlement covers alleged violations at six Consol operations over the past four years. The government cited chronic problems with chloride discharges into the Monongahela watershed from the Blacksville, Loveridge, Robinson Run and Four States mines, and into the Ohio River from the Shoemaker and Windsor mines.

Pennsylvania sues Consol over discharges

On September 7, 2011, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission filed a complaint against Consol Energy over discharges from two coal mines in West Virginia - Blacksville 2 Mine and Loveridge 22 Mine - saying the discharges killed thousands of fish, mussels, salamanders, and other wildlife along a 30-mile stretch of the tributary, Dunkard Creek, in 2009. The commission is seeking compensatory damages for lost aquatic life and angling opportunities as well as punitive damages to deter future pollution.

Dead fish began surfacing on Sept. 8, 2009, after illegally high levels of total dissolved solids and chlorides turned Dunkard Creek brackish and fostered a toxic golden algae bloom that is more common to southern coastal waters. About 42,997 fish representing 40 species, from black bass to muskellunge, were killed along with 15,382 freshwater mussels, including the rare snuffbox variety, and 6,447 mudpuppies, the complaint states. People who lived along the creek recounted watching fish bleed to death from their gills and mussel shells pop open. Because so many adult fish were killed, it will take years for aquatic populations to recover, according to the claim.

In March 2011, the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the state of West Virginia reached a $5.5 million settlement with Consol that covered violations at six of the company’s mines, including those relating to the fish kill in Dunkard Creek. Although most of the damage occurred in Pennsylvania’s portion of Dunkard, the state was not party to the federal suit because Consol’s discharge permits were issued in West Virginia.

• MSHA ID: 4601433
• Operator: Marion County Coal Company
• Controller: Murray Energy Corporation
• Location: Marion, West Virginia, United States
• GPS coordinates: 39.61, -80.29
• 2018 Production (short tons): 6,133,349
• Coal Type: Bituminous
• Mining Method: Underground
• Mine Status: Operating
• Average No. of Employees: 525
• Union: United Mine Workers of America

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
Loveridge #22/Marion County - United States	utilization	Shut down	2005
Marion County Heaters Flare 1 - United States	Flaring	Operational	2020

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
2022-10-09T18:11:44+00	CarbonMapper, ang20221009t181144-A	39.62323, -80.2904	–	West Virginia State Methane Observation 2022-10-09, 1
2022-10-24T17:37:30+00	CarbonMapper, ang20221024t173730-C	39.62216, -80.2789	702.0675 kg/hr	West Virginia State Methane Observation 2022-10-24, 1
2022-10-24T17:49:02+00	CarbonMapper, ang20221024t174902-C	39.62211, -80.2789	395.3971 kg/hr	West Virginia State Methane Observation 2022-10-24, 2

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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.