Warrior Met Coal, Inc. celebrated the completion of the Blue Creek Mine project, a world-class longwall mine located in Tuscaloosa County. Warrior invested approximately $1 billion to develop the Blue Creek Mine, which will add more than 300 new jobs to the area. Company executives were joined by state and local elected officials, federal delegation staff, Bureau of Land Management leadership, and industry partners to celebrate the project and the significant impact it will have on the local and state economy.
The Blue Creek Mine is a single longwall mine and is expected to have the capacity to produce an average of 6.0 million short tons annually of metallurgical (met) coal over the first ten years of production. This will increase Warrior's annual nameplate capacity by approximately 75%. The Blue Creek Mine project also includes a rail load-out facility located in Fayette County, a barge load-out facility located in Walker County, and a curved overland belt to deliver coal to the rail load-out facility.
The curved overland belt is a unique feature to Blue Creek that will allow clean coal to be transported to a rail facility. This significantly reduces truck traffic and limits the impact on local communities. In addition to Warrior's investment substantial commitments from other stakeholders across the state are supporting the growth of the Blue Creek project and related developments in Alabama.
Norfolk Southern is investing over $200 million in its 3B Corridor, strengthening the connection between northern and central Alabama and the Port of Mobile. The Alabama Port Authority is also investing over $200 million to modernize and improve efficiency at its McDuffie Coal Terminal, supported by an additional $20 million in funding from the Alabama Legislature. Further enhancing logistics capacity, Parker Towing Company Inc. has invested over $20 million in capital equipment to ensure efficient barge transportation.
The Blue Creek Mine will provide access to one of the largest untouched metallurgical coal reserves in North America. Met coal has unique physical properties and is used solely to produce steel, and is shipped around the world for this purpose.
