Roundup coal mine seeks to expand exports to Asia, South America
"BILLINGS - An international commodity company has bought into a major central Montana coal mine in a $400 million deal designed to ramp up exports of the fuel to markets in Asia and South America.
FirstEnergy Corp. and Boich Companies, Ohio-based owners of the underground Signal Peak Energy mine near Roundup, announced the deal with Cyprus-registered Gunvor Group, Ltd., on Tuesday.
The companies say they plan to ship less coal in future years to FirstEnergy's Midwestern power plants and instead route the fuel to potential markets in Japan, China, Korea and Chile.
Production at the Montana mine would increase to about 15 million tons per year. That's more than triple the volume extracted from Signal Peak's Bull Mountain mine last year and would entail surface mining in addition to the current underground operations."
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