BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA – Drummond Company, Inc. will not renew its permit to mine coal at the Shepherd’s Bend mine project. With the drop in the price of coal worldwide, the Company finds that the development of Shepherd’s Bend mine would not yield an acceptable rate of return to justify the investment. This decision comes not because of the attack on the viability of protecting the environment during the process of mining at Shepherd’s Bend. The Company would have mined the coal in an environmentally safe manner. As stated, this was brought about by economic reasons, not environmental concerns.

Drummond Company would like to thank the people who have worked tirelessly in trying to bring this project to fruition, including members of the UMWA who were trying to protect their jobs. The Company regrets that so many potential jobs have been lost including the benefits those jobs would have brought to Alabama families, but unfortunately the economics have changed since the Company first started working on this project.