Birmingham, AL 35234
Phone 205-241-4324
Located in Alabama, McWane Coal is the company’s natural resources division. It manages the mining of McWane's coal reserves producing both metallurgical and steam grade coals. In addition, it manages McWane's substantial timber plantations that supply the local paper and lumber industries.
In 1962, McWane Cast Iron Pipe Company, in Birmingham, Alabama, acquired Empire Coke Company, a foundry coke producer in Holt, Alabama, and the owner of significant coal and timber lands near Sipsey, Alabama. Empire Coke’s plant was built in 1903 and operated the last Semet-Solvay coke ovens in the world until its shutdown, in 2004, after 101 years of service to the foundry industry. The McWane Coal Sales Division has continued to conduct contract coal mining and timber operations that primarily supply products to the local Alabama markets.
McWane Coal produces two grades of coal: the Jefferson coal, which is used by the electric utility industry and industrial products producers (paper, cement, lime) to generate steam for their manufacturing processes; and the Black Creek coal, which is used by the coke industry and activated carbon producers as a base raw material, and used by alloy metal producers (silicon, ferrosilicon, silicon carbide) as a specialized fuel and chemistry agent in their furnace melting processes.
We also have natural mixed timber stands and pine plantations, growing hardwood and pine for the paper and lumber industries.
McWane Coal maintains a reputation for quality products and compliance with all environmental regulations. Our coal mining operations perform reclamation that restores the land to a useful condition amenable to pastures and hunting, and we replant harvested timber lands for a sustainable future.