By Bob Matyi and Valarie Jackson

June 18, 2018 - Knight Hawk Coal approaches mid-year on track to post record annual production in excess of 5 million st, with exports playing an increasingly important part of its sales mix, a company official said Friday.

"Production is going well. We had a good first quarter and a pretty good second," Andrew Carter, vice president of marketing for the family owned company, said in an interview.

Knight Hawk was only minimally affected by heavy rains that doused the region earlier this year and southern Illinois now appears to be settling into an extended period of hot summer weather. 

The company expects to begin bringing coal out of its new Prairie East portal by the end of this year at its flagship Prairie Eagle underground mine. Prairie Eagle produced nearly 1 million st in Q1 2018, according to the US Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Knight Hawk is in the process of awarding bids for construction of a five-mile-long overland conveyor belt to transport coal from the new portal to the Prairie Eagle prep plant.

"We are hoping for completion of the overland conveyor in the first quarter of 2019," Carter said. "It will allow us to basically seal the old works at Prairie Eagle and move over all of our infrastructure for use at Prairie Eagle East, which sets it up as a brand new, one-year-old mine."

Carter said the company's several surface mines are running well.

Although not a major exporter historically, Knight Hawk this year expects to send about 1 million st of 11,200 Btu/lb coal into the overseas market, mainly Asia and South America, Carter said. That would double its 2017 exports of 500,000 st and, in fact, equal total exports for the past several years.

Having "sold out" its 2018 production in February, the company is starting to prepare for 2019.

"Right now, we're looking at a similar book as this year, hopefully," he said. 

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