August 8, 2025 - US coking coal producer Core Natural Resources is idling most of its Itmann mine in West Virginia, the firm said this week, citing higher production costs at the site.

The firm will pause operations at two of the mine's three units. The site produced 292,500 short tons (265,000t) of coal in the first half of this year, according to data from the Mine Safety and Health Administration, suggesting it was operating at 65pc of its total production capacity before the pause.

Itmann is a low-volatile coking coal mine that was owned by Consol Energy before it merged with Arch Resources at the start of this year.

With fellow West Virginia mine Leer South still out of production, Core will operate at well below its normal capacity for the coming months. Leer South is one of the firm's most important assets, usually producing 500,000-800,000 st/quarter of high-volatile coking coal.

The mining firm paused production at the site when a fire broke out in mid-January and had aimed to restart operations this summer. But workers resealed the site last month after detecting high levels of carbon monoxide inside.

Core now plans to repair the affected longwall by October, with production to start "shortly thereafter", it said this week.

The firm's production guidance remains unchanged despite the delay, at 7.5mn-8.0mn t/yr of coking coal. Almost none of this will enter the spot market, the firm said, with 7.5mn t of committed sales so far.

The mining company sold 1.9mn t of coking coal from April-June, down by 20pc from Consol and Arch's combined coking coal sales in the second quarter of last year.