Arch Resources, Inc. announced that it recently commenced production at its new Leer South longwall mine in Barbour County, West Virginia. When fully ramped, the mine is projected to produce up to four million tons per year of premium-quality, High-Vol A metallurgical coal for sale into global steel markets. The state of West Virginia played a pivotal role in the development of the project, according to Lang. Arch commenced work on the new mine just two-and-a-half years ago and invested approximately $400 million on the buildout. As anticipated, the Leer South longwall started up at the end of August following a planned 30-day outage that accommodated the upgrading of the material handling system, and is currently in the process of system testing and integration, with the expectation that ramping will continue throughout the month of September. Arch expects Leer South to make a significant contribution to production volumes in the fourth quarter of 2021, and to ramp to full production mode by the start of 2022.