The Pike County operation, which mines from the Lower Alma seam, has completed its redevelopment and expansion of its production infrastructure, which was the focus of its now-complete first phase. It is now ready to operate its walking supersection during two shifts with an additional supportive maintenance shift.

For the restart to begin, crews are waiting on the completion of the proximity detection system installation on the second continuous miner; the first continuous miner is on-site and currently producing coal.

Officials said that the initial production range with both units producing will be 12,700-18,144t per month.

In phase 2, which American Resources said should occur in June and July, Carnegie 1's production will be boosted again to about 16,329-19,958t monthly as the walking supersection becomes a full supersection.

In the October-November timeframe, the mine will expand once more to two separate sections under phase 3. One of those will be a full supersection and the other a walking supersection. It will operate on two production shifts and one maintenance turn and produce between 29,030-28,100t per month.

Once the plan is completely implemented, American Resources said it will continue to develop additional metallurgical coal mines, Carnegie 2 and Carnegie 3, under Carnegie 1's permit. These underground operations will extract from both the Lower Alma and Upper Alma seams. Also part of its plan is additional expansion at the Carnegie site to for surface mining from both seams.

All production will continue to be trucked to its McCoy Elkhorn Coal facility for processing and rail loading.

Mark Jensen, CEO of American Resources, said the first phase of this growth has been wrapped up on time and on budget, setting it up well for its continued work.

"This is an important milestone in our overall growth as it enables us to further deliver on our commitment to our customers, employees, and shareholders to being the fastest growing company in our industry," he commented. "The quality of our Carnegie coal enables us to expand the metallurgical coal sales price and volumes at our McCoy Elkhorn complex, further increasing the company's revenues and margins."

American Resources began its initial development production at Carnegie 1 in the (northern hemisphere) spring of 2017 with the goal of determining the appropriate mining style and equipment for its production and efficiency goals.