A 600 ton per hour heavy media, spiral and flotation plant near Gilbert restarted in 2022 and now washes both toll coal and feed from the rehabilitated No. 8 mine.
Active Resources, Inc. controls bituminous coal deposits on two properties in southern West Virginia: the Hampden Property in Mingo and Logan Counties, near Gilbert, and the Lanes Branch Property in Wyoming County. The June 30, 2025 pre-feasibility technical report prepared by Marshall Miller & Associates describes an operating preparation plant at Hampden that has run since 2022. At the effective date, the No. 8 deep mine in the No. 2 Gas seam was rehabilitating its entries to reach its reserve block, with production planned to begin in late 2025. There were no active mines at Lanes Branch. The coals are sold into metallurgical and thermal markets.
Critical Data
| Parameter | Value | Unit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plant feed rate capacity | 600 | raw tons per hour | Gilbert Preparation Plant |
| Plant construction | Early 1990s | Not applicable | Idled in 2019, restarted February 2022 |
| Coal reserves | 22.2 | million tons | Moist, marketable, proven and probable |
| Proven share of reserves | 36 | % | Probable share is 64% |
| Measured and indicated resources | 111.6 | million tons | Coal resource estimate |
| Permitted reserve tons | 6.9 | million tons | Remaining 15.3 million tons not permitted |
| Peak annual sales | 1.8 | million tons | 2029, 2030 and 2032 in the mine plan |
| Rail loadout capacity | 150 | cars | Unit trains on Norfolk Southern |
| Plant to loadout haul | 4.8 | miles | Clean coal trucked to Gilbert Creek |
| Refuse haul round trip | 4.2 | miles | 930 vertical feet of elevation gain |
| Refuse area remaining life | 20+ | years | Before new construction at the downstream toe |
| Power supplier | AEP | Not applicable | Water from public sources or rivers |
Overview
The Gilbert Preparation Plant was built in the early 1990s. It went idle in 2019 when Rhino Resources entered bankruptcy, and Active Resources bought the assets and brought the plant back into service in February 2022. Marshall Miller & Associates visited on March 5, 2025 and found the plant running.
Today the plant does two jobs. It washes coal for outside customers on a toll basis, and it receives coal from Active Resources' affiliated mining operations. During the site visit, raw coal from a highwall miner and from a nearby surface mine sat in separate stockpiles. Each product was washed to its customer's specification before shipping. The surface mine was also sending coal straight to the rail loadout without washing.
The plant site holds raw coal storage, clean coal storage, a railroad loadout and a refuse disposal area. The report describes the processes and equipment as typical of the coal industry and in use at nearly all plants in the Central Appalachian Basin.
Key Process Stages
Raw coal receiving
Two raw coal stockpiles feed the plant. The downstream stockpile sits on the RCD No. 3 mine bench and takes coal by conveyor from underground mines. The RCD No. 8 mine overland conveyor was built to deliver run-of-mine coal to this pile so the operation could use existing infrastructure instead of trucking. Its structure needs rehabilitation, although the No. 8 belt had been repaired by March 2025 and was carrying material from the deep mine rehabilitation work. A reclaim tunnel with feeders and belts under this pile delivers coal to the plant feed belt.
The RCD No. 3A portal lies across Donaldson Branch from the stockpile. That mine has been closed since 2015, its portals are sealed and backfilled, and earlier operators removed its drives, belting and fans. The report says the old conveyor route could one day carry coal from the RCD No. 3B mine, a proposed Hernshaw seam underground mine and possible surface mines on that watershed.
The upstream stockpile sits on a mine bench above the plant. Trucks enter the Hampden Property from US Route 52, cross the truck scales and dump on the ground as the wheel loader operator directs. Different coals are kept apart. The loader then feeds a conveyor to twin silos, which give the plant an even feed rate instead of batch feeding from the loader.
Washing
The washer building follows the usual Central Appalachian layout. Feed is split into three size ranges. Coarse coal goes to a heavy media vessel. The middle size goes to a heavy media cyclone circuit. Fines report to classifying cyclones and a spiral circuit, and the plant also runs froth flotation cells. Screens, sumps, pumps and distribution systems support each circuit.
Mechanical centrifugal dryers dry the clean coal. The flowsheet in the report's appendix has since changed: one EBR-36 dryer was removed and an EBR-40 dryer added, and a split now sends part of the froth flotation stream to the refuse sump.
Clean coal handling and loadout
Washed coal can go to either of two clean coal stockpiles. A wheel loader fills highway trucks that haul the coal 4.8 miles to the Gilbert Creek Railroad Loadout. That loadout, also built in the early 1990s, has two truck dumps and three stockpiles with reclaim tunnels and conveyors. It loads unit trains of up to 150 cars on the Norfolk Southern system.
Refuse disposal
Refuse collects on the bottom floor of the plant. Belts carry the coarse material to a truck bin, and company articulated haul trucks take it to the disposal area just upstream of the plant. The round trip is 4.2 miles with a climb of 930 vertical feet. Fine slurry travels by pipeline to cells built from the coarse refuse. The current area has room for more than 20 years of disposal before the downstream toe needs more construction, and all reclamation permits for future disturbance are approved.
Additional Interesting Data and Summary
The No. 8 mine first ran in 2006 and last produced in the third quarter of 2019. Over its life it has shipped 3.4 million clean tons from the No. 2 Gas seam. Its rehabilitation is the main source of company coal for the plant in the near term.
Active Resources' reserves stand at 22.2 million moist, marketable tons after mining and preparation factors. About 86% of those tons are underground-mineable, 6% surface-mineable and 8% highwall-mineable. Some Hernshaw and No. 2 Gas Rider seam reserves are classed as probable because metallurgical coal quality data is limited. In the mine plan, sales climb from 0.01 million tons in 2025 to a peak of 1.8 million tons, then fall to between 0.3 and 0.6 million tons from 2044 to 2048.
Workers have come from Mingo, Logan and Wyoming Counties in West Virginia and Pike County in Kentucky, where mining experience is common. Local service firms supply parts, repairs and fabrication. AEP provides electricity, and water comes from public sources or rivers.
Key Processes
- Truck and conveyor delivery of raw coal to two stockpiles, with silos for even plant feed
- Three-way size split ahead of separate cleaning circuits
- Heavy media vessel for coarse coal
- Heavy media cyclones for intermediate coal
- Classifying cyclones, spirals and froth flotation for fines
- Centrifugal drying of clean coal
- Truck haulage to a 150 car unit train rail loadout
- Combined coarse refuse and fine slurry cell disposal
Source: Pre-Feasibility Technical Report on the Coal Resource and Coal Reserve Controlled by Active Resources, Inc., West Virginia USA, June 30, 2025.
Project website: Active Resources Hampden Property and Gilbert Preparation Plant
