James River Coal Company mines and sells bituminous, steam, metallurgical and industrial-grade coal through six operating subsidiaries located throughout Eastern Kentucky, Southern West Virginia and Southern Indiana. We are the sixth largest coal producer in Central Appalachia and the fifth largest in the Illinois Basin.James River Coal Company was formed in 1988 through the purchase of General Energy Corporation. McCoy Elkhorn and Bell County were the original operating companies. In 1992 we acquired the operations of Johns Creek Coal Company which added 33,000,000 in coal reserves and the Bevins Branch Preparation Plant, both of which are now operated under McCoy Elkhorn. In June of 1995 the Leeco and Bledsoe operating companies were acquired through Transco Coal Company. The Blue Diamond operating company was purchased in 1998. In 1999, we acquired Shamrock Coal Company, which added mines, reserves, and a preparation plant and the Clover loadout facility to the Bledsoe complex. Triad was purchased in May of 2005. In April 2011 we acquired International Resource Partners (IRP). IRP adds high quality metallurgical and steam coal production and reserves to our portfolio. Logan and Kanawha, IRP’s global marketing group, provides an immediate footprint into the global seaborne steam and metallurgical coal markets.

The Company's operations are located in the Central Appalachian coal basin, which contains some of the highest quality reserves in the region. James River Coal Company ("James River" or "Company") was formed in 1988 to acquire certain coal mining operations (McCoy Elkhorn Coal Corporation ("McCoy Elkhorn") and Bell County Coal Corporation ("Bell County")) and a coal sales company (Blue Crystal Coal Sales Company, now James River Coal Sales, Inc.) from Transco Coal Company. Since 1988, the Company has established a very competitive position in eastern Kentucky through a series of acquisitions, including that of Johns Creek Coal Company (1992), Kinney Branch Mining, Inc. (1994), Leeco, Inc. ("Leeco") and Bledsoe Coal Corporation ("Bledsoe") (1995), Blue Diamond Coal Company ("Blue Diamond") (1998), Shamrock Coal Company (1999) and Triad Mining ("Triad") (2005). The Company expanded into southern West Virginia with the acquisition of IRP ("Hampden") (2011) which also added metallurgical coal to their portfolio.