CHARLESTON, W.Va. — “Don’t burn coal, it’s too valuable.”
It’s one of the mantras of Ramaco Carbon which plans a research facility in Charleston.
Gov. Jim Justice announced plans for the facility during his State of the State Address this week. Ramaco already has mining operations in West Virginia with about 400 employees.
Ramaco CEO Randy Adkins said the West Virginia facility is aimed at speeding up development of non-combustible coal based products. Speaking on MetroNews “Talkline” Friday, Adkins said the federal government is pushing for the stepped up research.
“The National Lab encouraged us to proceed quite quickly on the research and the government is starting to focus on it with a lot more interest than it ever has,” Adkins said.
The company is already developing a research lab in Sheridan, Wyoming which will not be on line until later this year. They’re also partnering with the U.S. Department of Energy research facility in Pittsburgh and the Oak Ridge National Laboratories in Tennessee. The encouragement by the government to quicken the pace led to the plans for another facility, this one to be located in the heart of the eastern coal country.
“Our facility in Wyoming is not going to be ready until sometime this summer. I told the folks at the National Labs we will try to search out a place to get started a little sooner and what better place than West Virginia. It’s got a lot of great people, a lot of coal, and our operations are already here,” he said.