Keystone preparing to import South American coal to Jacksonville

[thelakelander]

Now with the JaxPort eminent domain issue out of the way, Keystone Coal is moving forward with a $20 million, 70-acre terminal on the old Jefferson Smurfit paper mill site.  The project will include the construction of a rail track loop, a 1,000-foot berth, silos to process lime and the reconstruction of an existing kiln.  When complete, the terminal will be capable of handling petroleum coke, grain and lime.

Keystone preparing to import South American coal to Jacksonville

JACKSONVILLE â€" A new coal terminal at the Port of Jacksonville could open Southeast and Midwest markets to cheaper South American coal.

Construction of Keystone Coal Co.’s $20 million terminal at the northern end of Talleyrand Avenue was stalled for about two years as its owner, Tom Scholl, fended off the Jacksonville Port Authority’s attempt to take the land by eminent domain.

By 2011, the terminal’s 1,000-foot berth will be able to handle breakbulk shipments, said Bill Harris, the company’s project coordinator.

Scholl, who owns a mine in West Virginia and mining rights in Colombia, said work on the terminal will begin in the spring with the clean-up of the site’s 12-acre landfill, which was part of the former Jefferson Smurfit paperboard plant.

http://jacksonville.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/stories/2009/01/26/story1.html

[BridgeTroll]

Did someone previously note that JEA burns imported South American coal because it is cleaner than the stuff mined to our north?

[Jason]

That is what I've been told. 

Sounds like good news for JEA and other municpalities around us.  Cheaper coal means cheaper power in the short-term.

[Ocklawaha]

PREMO-COLOMBIAN!

VIVA!

OCKLAWAHA

[thelakelander]

This must be good news for Norfolk Southern.  Things haven't been the same on that line since the paper mill and phosphate terminal next door shut down.