Foresight Energy Topping Coal Industry Peers

Forbes reported that billionaire Chris Cline’s Foresight Energy Partners LP is a bright spot in the coal industry, having completed a $1.55-billion financing last Friday. The company’s costs are also much lower than its competitors.

As quoted in the market news:

It’s notable that a coal mining company is getting any kind of Wall Street love right now, given the EPA’s ongoing war on coal and fierce competition from cheap natural gas. But Cline, 55, and worth an estimated $1.2 billion at Forbes last count, is a real visionary.

Cline’s once-ignored mines still have big, easily dug seams. As a result his costs, at roughly $22 per ton, are significantly lower than the $50 per ton incurred at the average mine east of the Mississippi. Being the cheapest ton on the market means that even with the Obama administration and Environmental Protection Agency siding with the Sierra Club in a war on coal, Cline’s mines will probably end up being the last ones standing.

Click here to read the full Forbes report.