{"id":21687,"date":"2014-10-23T02:32:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-23T07:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=21687"},"modified":"2014-10-23T09:43:19","modified_gmt":"2014-10-23T14:43:19","slug":"eastern-oklahoma-coal-mining-comeback-stalls-along-with-demand-from-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2014\/10\/23\/eastern-oklahoma-coal-mining-comeback-stalls-along-with-demand-from-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Eastern Oklahoma Coal Mining Comeback Stalls as Demand From China Falls"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Steel<\/a><\/p>\n

Sonya Song \/ Flickr<\/p>\n

Steel Plant, Anshan, Liaoning, China, February 2009.<\/p>\n<\/div>

In May of last year, it looked like impoverished areas of eastern Oklahoma would be getting a lifeline. Coal mining, once a vital industry there, appeared to be headed for a comeback thanks to booming international demand.<\/p>

Local residents were excited about the prospect of hundreds of new jobs when StateImpact first visited Heavener<\/a>, but the mining project has stalled.<\/p>

<\/p>

Ouro Mining Company\u2019s massive Heavener Project along the Oklahoma-Arkansas border <\/a>was supposed to be producing coal \u2014 and jobs \u2014 by now. In April 2013, locals in Heavener, like waitress Leslea Absire, couldn\u2019t wait.<\/p>

\u201cI know it\u2019s a hard, dirty job, but it pays good money,” she said. “And that\u2019s what everybody is looking for, something to \u2014 to make it a little better than paycheck to paycheck.”<\/p>

Or, as lifelong Le Flore County resident Jesse Benson puts it: \u201cSome of us so poor we have to milk the cat to feed the dog. That\u2019s pretty poor, ain\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Swing and Seam<\/h4>

The mine still hasn\u2019t opened, and probably won\u2019t for some time. What happened?<\/p>

\u201cBasically, the coal market crashed,” says Andrew Moore, managing editor for Platts Coal Trader, which follows coal prices and industry trends.<\/p>

\u201cU.S. coal prices and international coal prices are essentially at multi-year lows because of a massive oversupply,\u201d Moore says.<\/p>

Countries like Indonesia, the world\u2019s largest exporter of coal, Moore says, have ramped up coal production. “The U.S. has always been sort of a swing supplier.\u201d<\/p>

Most of Oklahoma\u2019s coal is too high in sulfur<\/a> to be of much use domestically because of federal environmental regulations. It\u2019s generally too dirty to burn at power plants, but it works great in the steel-making process.<\/p>

With China booming<\/a> and the global economy recovering from the 2008 collapse, the price of coking coa<\/a>l \u2014 as it\u2019s called \u2014 nearly doubled between the fall of 2010 and spring 2011. That was apparently enough to spark Ouro\u2019s interest in eastern Oklahoma\u2019s hard-to-reach coal seams.<\/p>\n

\"Waitress<\/p>\n

Logan Layden \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Waitress Leslea Abshire stands next to a case of pies at the Southern Belle Restaurant in Heavener, Okla., in May 2013.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘Not profitable to mine’<\/h4>

Bob Blackburn with the Oklahoma History Center sees some parallels between Oklahoma\u2019s first coal rush in the late 1800s and what\u2019s happening now.<\/p>

\u201cSo as once we talked about getting it from McAlester to Muskogee, now we\u2019re talking about getting it from Sallisaw to Peking,\u201d Blackburn says. \u201cBut the dynamics are the same. What does it cost to get it? What\u2019s the cost to get it from here to there? And what is the market? Is the demand high enough to cover what it costs to get it?\u201d<\/p>

The answer earlier this decade was a clear \u2018yes\u2019. That\u2019s when the coal was selling for more than $300 per ton. Now, a ton of coking coal sells for about $100 on the Asian market, according to information from Platts. Those economies have cooled at the same time they\u2019ve ramped up their own coal production, leaving the U.S oversupplied.<\/p>\n

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