ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 9, 1997 TAG: 9703100061
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
A Southwest Virginia mining company has won a key recommendation toward opening the first new coal mine on public land in Virginia in decades.
If approved, Magic Mountain Coal Co. of Scott County could dig for coal in the Jefferson National Forest.
The company hopes to begin exploration this month on a site three miles south of Big Stone Gap, said Jim McIntyre, the assistant Jefferson ranger who recommended to the forest supervisor that Magic Mountain get the go-ahead.
A company representative said Magic Mountain is examining the site for someone who retains mineral rights to the property. The U.S. Forest Service acquired the land in 1940.
Private individuals own mineral rights to about two-thirds of the 90,000 acres in the forest's Clinch District.
``The coal beds tend to be very thin on the national forest lands and they tend to be tilted at an angle, which makes it difficult to mine,'' said Tom Collins, geologist for the Jefferson and George Washington National Forests.
But Myron McCoy, the engineer hired by Magic Mountain to assess the site, said company officials were optimistic.
``We've found good coal on private property right next to this site, and there's good coal all around this site. So there's reason to believe there's good coal there as well,'' McCoy said.
Magic Mountain plans to scrape an embankment 40 feet long into a hillside and dig up to 40 holes 6 feet deep to remove coal for analysis.
If mining the site is practical, the company would build a mine entrance on private land next to the site and use existing gravel roads built by the Forest Service, McCoy said.
``There's very minimal effect to the Jefferson National Forest,'' he said.
The mineral-rights clause in the deed for the property prohibits strip-mining, McCoy said.
If Magic Mountain decides to mine the site, its plans must be approved by the Forest Service and the state Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy, said department spokesman Mike Abbott.
Jim Loesel, a conservationist and spokesman for the private Citizens Task Force on National Forest Management, said gas wells and timber cutting already have given the Jefferson a reputation as an industrial center. A coal mine would further establish that reputation, he said.
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