Knight Hawk Coal

Knight Hawk Coal Co. is a coal company in Percy, Illinois, that extracts and sell 3.6 million tons of coal annually from five coal mines in Illinois. In August 2006, Arch Coal acquired a 1/3 interest in Knight Hawk in exchange for cash and coal reserves, and by 2011 owned a 42% stake in Knight Hawk.

Coal Mines

 * Creek Paum Mine
 * Hawkeye Mine
 * Prairie Eagle Surface Mine
 * Red Hawk Mine
 * Royal Falcon Mine

Coal Transport
Knight Hawk sends 200,000 tons of coal per year to its rail facility which sits along the Canadian National Railway/Illinois Central main line in Carbondale, Illinois. The facility includes a 20-car siding and train cars are loaded through a hopper that has a 500,00 tpy capacity.

Golden Eagle Mine
Knight Hawk is pursuing a 160-acre strip of land to expand coal mining near Pyramid State Park, Illinois' biggest state park. During their spring session 2011, Illinois lawmakers signed off on a plan for the state to lease the strip at the edge of Pyramid State Park to Knight Hawk, who hope to use the land as a staging ground for a 240-acre strip mine just outside the 20,000-acre park, if a deal can be worked out with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The company also would carve for coal underneath the public area.

In August 2011, Illinois Gov. Quinn approved H.B. 390, allowing the company to lease a 160-acre strip of land in the park for its new Golden Eagle surface mine. The land is privately owned and the first time in Illinois that mining has been approved for a state park. Knight Hawk said it will begin the permitting process for Golden Eagle, which is projected as an approximately 500,000 tpy operation. Mining could commence by summer 2012.

Related SourceWatch articles
To see a listing of coal mines in a particular state, click on the map:
 * Coal and jobs in the United States
 * Coal phase-out
 * Headquarters of U.S. coal mining companies
 * Global list of coal mining companies and agencies
 * Illinois and coal
 * Proposed coal mines

