October 9, 2025 - Jimmy Brock is back at the helm of one of the nation’s largest coal companies, Core Natural Resources, which formed from the January merger of Cecil-based Consol Energy Inc. and St. Louis-based Arch Resources.

At the time of the merger, Brock, who was CEO of Consol, transitioned to the role of executive chairman of the board of Core while Arch’s former CEO Paul Lang became the merged company’s chief executive.

On Oct. 6, however, Lang “separated from service with the company and resigned as a member of the board,” according to a public filing released on Wednesday.

The board of directors, which continues to be chaired by Brock, appointed him as CEO.

Lang will walk away with $7,950,553 in cash, plus extended health and life insurance premiums, upon signing a letter in which he agrees to a “general release and waiver of claims against the company” and to consulting services through the end of this year.

He will also receive his base salary through the end of the year, and moving expenses, in addition to his previously negotiated stock and severance awards.

No reason was given for the sudden and immediate transition.

Brock has been with Consol since 1979, working his way up from underground into the C-suite. In a statement on Wednesday, he said he’s “excited to take on this expanded leadership role at a pivotal time in Core's innovation and growth.”

The coal industry is going through a bumpy time, which has been the status quo for the past 15 or so years.

On a call with analysts in August, Core’s executives discussed the volatile coal markets abroad, where a lot of the company’s coal is exported, as tariff uncertainty has slowed deals.

Domestically, coal-fired power plants are expected to increase the rate at which they run, spurred by high electricity prices and rapidly increasing demand. But with so many coal units that have shut down in the past decade, and no new coal power plants under construction, that market is finite.

Core’s stock lost about a third of its value in the first three months after the merger, but it has recovered some of that ground and now sits about 12% lower than at the start of the year. 

Brock has been through four decades of the commodity roller coaster, undeterred. This isn’t his first time postponing a planned retirement.

In December 2017, a few days after Consol Energy Inc. split from its former natural gas business, CNX Resources, Mr. Brock fired the company’s president and assumed the role himself, in addition to his CEO duties.

The former president, Katharine Fredriksen, who later sued Consol for gender discrimination, claimed that the board of directors promised she could have a shot at the top job when Brock retired, in a few years.

Brock was subsequently expected to retire in 2022, but the board kept extending his contract beyond that date.

In early 2023, the company named its CFO Mittesh Thakkar as president as part of “long-term succession planning.”

At that time, Brock said in a call with analysts that “the board has asked, and I have accepted to extend my employment term by an additional year to December 2024 to ensure our long-term succession plan.”