SOMERSET, Colo. (AP) — It's a cloudless early March morning with the sun glistening off new-fallen snow in the upper North Fork Valley.
For the workers producing coal inside the West Elk Mine, however, it's another day of working in the dark underground, under the beams of headlamps and other artificial lights.
Six miles under the earth, things have been looking a little brighter lately for what is now the only coal mine still operating in the valley. The unexpected election of Donald Trump, who promised during his campaign to restore lost coal mine jobs, has raised hopes. Mine owner Arch Coal emerged from bankruptcy. Some improvement in market conditions has boosted the mine's prospects from over a year ago.
"Markets were down this time last year. It wasn't looking good," said Kathy Welt, environmental engineer at West Elk.
But after having to lay off miners in June, the mine was able to bring back 20 miners before year's end as things picked up again. And then there was that Trump victory.
"Right away, as soon as he got elected, we got contracts" from coal customers, said miner David Baca.
"We had good news right away," he said as he and several co-workers ate lunch in a small break room in the underground coal seam being mined at West Elk.
While the mine's improved situation recently can't entirely be ascribed to Trump's election, Arch Coal has said in its latest quarterly earnings news release that the new administration should prove positive for the company, and it expects the administration "will constructively address the regulatory burden that has pressured the industry in recent years."
Baca and his co-workers said they voted for Trump. They're hopeful about what he might do for the coal industry after campaigning in support of changing the energy policies of his predecessor, Barack Obama, who they believe did serious harm to the coal industry.
Their concerns with Obama include his Clean Power Plan, which aims to cut carbon emissions from power plants. Trump has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider the plan as part of a broader executive order designed to boost coal, oil and gas jobs.
A range of factors, from utilities' increased use of cheap natural gas for power production, to state and federal regulations targeting coal power, all have dealt setbacks to the coal industry in recent years. And the industry has been hit hard locally. A persistent mine fire stranded expensive longwall equipment and forced the idling of Oxbow Mining's Elk Creek Mine in Somerset by late 2013, and with the market outlook for coal still poor last year, the company decided to permanently close the mine.
Meanwhile, Bowie Resource Partners idled its Bowie No. 2 Mine near Paonia early last year because of deteriorating market conditions. A valley that had seen three mines employing nearly 1,000 people as of the end of 2012 was down to one operating mine.
That mine employs more than 220 people, with a pay and benefits package exceeding $100,000 per miner. Welt said a lot of local businesses supply goods and services to the mine, and West Elk pays more than $16 million in taxes and royalties. Miners and their families patronize local businesses and are involved in local communities and schools.
With all of that in mind, "we're striving really hard to be a survivor and to remain an important part of this community," Welt said.
Operations at the mine have plugged along now for 35 years, with coal giant Arch Coal buying it from ARCO (Atlantic Richfield Co.) in 1998. Over the years, Arch Coal was able to further expand on efficient longwall mining production there.
But last year started out as a bleak one, with Arch Coal filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January and business conditions for West Elk grim.
"I think everybody up here was pretty worried," miner Adam Chaffin said. "It was a pretty uncertain time. We had really no coal sold at all. Everybody knew layoffs were coming. You didn't know if your name was on the list or not. You didn't know if they were going to shut the door the next day."
The layoffs came, 80 in number, in June. But then business picked up later in the year. Although the mine was no longer getting long-term purchase contracts, spot-market sales opportunities were arising. The mine ended the year with about 4.1 million tons of production, but it was producing in the latter part of the year at a pace of 6 million tons a year, an encouraging note for a mine that has had some previous annual production levels of 6 million to 7 million tons a year.
Arch Coal also was able to exit from bankruptcy in October with far reduced debt levels. And in an earnings conference call, the company indicated that West Elk has benefited from improved overseas prices for exported coal and has locked in "significant international commitments" from buyers for its coal for the first half of this year.
With so much about the coal industry outside the control of the West Elk Mine and its workers, they focus on things they can control, like the day-to-day work of extracting coal. Workers drive some six miles underground to locations that can range from 500 to 1,500 feet below the sloping mountains above. Key to production is the longwall panel, currently 1,100 feet wide, where 162 hydraulic shields support the ceiling as twin shearers each 6 or 7 feet in diameter cut into the coal surface and a series of conveyors move product out of the mine. Water is sprayed against the coal face to minimize the dust that miners inhale and that can pose an explosion hazard.
Elsewhere, crews undertake tasks like using remote controls to operate continuous mining machines, which are used for work such as excavating new sections for longwall mining. Others drill holes and install bolts into ceilings to help secure them.
All of it is done with an emphasis on safety, say the mine and its employees. Welt speaks proudly of the numerous safety and environmental awards West Elk has received from Arch Coal and regulators.
"It's something we have in mind every day, to make sure that we have safe operations as part of our goals, objectives, just the way we do business," she said.
"You get a crew like this together, they look out for each other all the time," said Paul Mc Robbie, supervisor of the group who spoke with The Daily Sentinel during that early March lunch break.
"You have each other's back, that is very true," said Rich Chermak, director of process improvement at the mine. He loves the camaraderie of miners, and loves being underground, away from the hustle and bustle of the outside world. He also says coal mining is far safer than it once was.
"Before I became a coal miner everybody told me, 'You don't want to become a coal miner, it's black, it's ugly, it's dirty, it's dusty.'" Mc Robbie said. "When I got under here, you know, I didn't see that."
"Sure, there's a little dust, yeah," he concedes as an afterthought. There's also other drawbacks, like having to work graveyard shifts, which mean spending less time with families.
But jobs with this kind of pay are hard to find in the North Fork Valley. And when miners lose jobs, even when those miners have worked at other mines like Bowie or Elk Creek, the West Elk miners have felt for them. The camaraderie between miners extends beyond any one mine.
"Everybody pulls for each other. . Even though they were competitors, I don't think any of us wanted to see those guys lose their jobs," Chermak said.
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Information from: The Daily Sentinel, http://www.gjsentinel.com