Hamilton Mine No. 1

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

Download full dataset

Report an error

Sub-articles:

Global coal mines Coal mines in China Coal mines in India Coal mines in the United States Coal mines in Australia Coal mines in Russia Coal mines in Indonesia

Related-articles:

Largest coal mines in the world Coal mine impacts from Covid-19 Environmental issues of coal Coal mining Coal reserves Coal terminals

Hamilton Mine No. 1 is an operating coal mine in Dahlgren, Hamilton County, Illinois, United States.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Hamilton Mine No. 1	Dahlgren, Hamilton County, Illinois, United States	38.1702261, -88.6013872 (exact)

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

Loading map...

{"type":"SATELLITE","minzoom":false,"maxzoom":false,"types":["ROADMAP","SATELLITE","HYBRID","TERRAIN"],"mappingservice":"googlemaps3","width":"600px","height":"500px","centre":false,"title":"","label":"","icon":"","lines":[],"polygons":[],"circles":[],"rectangles":[],"copycoords":false,"static":false,"visitedicon":"","wmsoverlay":false,"zoom":16,"layers":[],"controls":["pan","zoom","type","scale","streetview","rotate"],"zoomstyle":"DEFAULT","typestyle":"DEFAULT","autoinfowindows":false,"resizable":false,"kmlrezoom":false,"poi":true,"cluster":false,"clustergridsize":60,"clustermaxzoom":20,"clusterzoomonclick":true,"clusteraveragecenter":true,"clusterminsize":2,"imageoverlays":[],"kml":[],"gkml":[],"searchmarkers":"","fullscreen":false,"scrollwheelzoom":false,"locations":[{"text":"","title":"","link":"","lat":38.1702261,"lon":-88.6013872,"icon":"","inlineLabel":"Operating Mine\n"}]}

Project Details

Table 2: Project status

Status	Status Detail	Opening Year	Closing Year
Operating	–	2014	–

Table 3: Operation details

Capacity (Mtpa)	Production (Mtpa)	Year of Production	Mine Type	Mining Method	Mine Size (km2)	Mine Depth (m)	Workforce Size
–	5.102006753	2023	Underground	–	31	305	362

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
125.9	2022	–	Illinois Basin	Bituminous	Thermal	–

Table 5: Ownership and parent company

Owner	Parent Company	Headquarters
Hamilton County Coal LLC	Alliance Resource Partners LP [99.0%]; other unknown/mixed entity types [0.0%]	USA

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

ROM or Saleable	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
ROM	6	6	5	2	4	4	5

Note: The above section was automatically generated and is based on data from the Global Coal Mine Tracker April 2024 release and the September supplement.

Background

Mine No. 1, formerly known as White Oak Mine is an underground coal mine, operated by Hamilton County Coal, LLC, a subsidiary of Alliance Resource Partners, producing 6.2 million short tons per annum, in Hamilton County, Illinois, United States. White Oak Mine (now Mine No. 1) is an underground mine located near the city of Dahlgren in Hamilton County, Illinois, in southern Illinois.

According to the McLeansboro Times Leader archives, Jim Lindsey of Energy Plus negotiated a deal with Hamilton County in 2006, representing the McLeansboro and North Hamilton County coal associations as a coal broker. Lidsey was able to negotiate a contract with Hamilton County for 7,700 acres in coal reserves it received from Exxon Coal USA in 1992. In early 2008, it was announced that Hamilton County would have two coal mines with a third in the planning stages by White Oak Resources LLC.

Governor Pat Quinn announced approval of the White Oak mine on October 23, 2010. White Oak Resources invested more than $400 million in construction of the mine, which opened in fall 2014 with a projected annual production of 7.5 million tons of coal. At that time, White Oak Mine No. 1 was the first of four mines proposed for the area by White Oak Resources.

White Oak CEO Mike Tracy said the company was looking to market its coal to “high-volume users” such as Ameren and other large utilities; eventually, the company looks to market its coal overseas, he added.

On Sep. 22, 2011, Alliance Resource Partners said it would invest $400 million to $525 million over three or four years in the coal-mining operation. The deal included coal producer Alliance taking an ownership stake in White Oak Resources. Alliance invested $69.5 million at closing, and committed $140 million to acquire coal reserves, which it planned to lease back to White Oak for royalty payments.

Alliance also committed up to $110 million to buy coal-handling facilities, and it planned to give White Oak up to $100 million in backstop financing for mining equipment. Alliance said the deal would add to earnings and distributable cash flow once mining production began.

While initially owned by White Oak Resources LLC, Alliance Resource Partners acquired the mine in 2015 when it bought the entire equity interest in White Oak Resources. Upon acquiring the mine, Alliance Resource Partners renamed it Hamilton Mine No. 1.

• MSHA ID: 1103203
• Start Year: 2014
• Owner: Hamilton County Coal, LLC
• Parent Company: Alliance Resource Partners
• Location: Hamilton County, Illinois, United States
• GPS Coordinates: 38.1702261, -88.6013872
• Production (short tons): 6,298,997 (2018)
• Coal type: Bituminous (high-sulfur)
• Mine Type: Underground
• Equipment: Longwall
• Number of employees:
• Mineable Reserves: 545.8 million tons (as of 12/31/18) (300.8 million tons proven).
• Mine Size: 7,700 acres
• Status: Operating

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.