Willow Lake Mine, an underground operation north of Equality in Saline County in Southern Illinois, first shipped coal in 2002. In 2009, the mine sold 3.5 million tons of coal to Midwest utility customers. The mine has 25 million tons of recoverable coal reserves.

 

The mine has a workforce of approximately 450 and operates year-round, seven days a week. Two production shifts per day operate four fishtail and one walk-through super section units to extract coal from the Springfield No. 5 seam. Coal is transported to the preparation plant via overland conveyor belt and radial stacker.

 

The Willow Lake Preparation Plant is a 1,400 raw-ton-per-hour heavy media plant with the capability to blend or segregate according to coal quality. The plant has a workforce of approximately 50 and washes coal for the Willow Lake Mine, the Cottage Grove surface mine and the Wildcat Hills underground mine. Washed coal is primarily shipped by barge down the Ohio River to the mine's utility customers.

 

Willow Lake Mine is a Peabody Energy operation. Peabody Energy is the world's largest private-sector coal company and a global leader in clean coal solutions. With 2009 sales of 244 million tons and $6 billion in revenues, Peabody fuels 10 percent of U.S. power and 2 percent of worldwide electricity.