U.S. Miners Are Trying to Get Out of the Thermal Coal Business

U.S. Miners Are Trying to Get Out of the Thermal Coal Business

A miner walks next to mantrip shuttle tracks after exiting the newly opened Ramaco Resources Inc. Stonecoal Alma mine near Wylo, West Virginia, U.S., on Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2017. From 2008 to 2016 production from West Virginia's southern coalfields fell from 117 million tons to 36.6 million, now, the trend is reversing. With prices tripling over the last year for metallurgical coal, which is used in steel-making and hard to find elsewhere in North America, through mid-April of this year, coal output rose 9 percent in southern West Virginia compared with a year ago, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

U.S. coal miners are searching for an exit from the power business, or getting pushed there.Activist investors are urging Contura Energy Inc. to accelerate its plan