Coal & Hard Minerals

Natural Resource Partners L.P. (NRP) owned more than 1.7 billion tons of coal reserves at December 31, 2016 and collects royalties, overriding royalties, wheelage fees, and coal-related processing and transportation fees. Our reserves are geographically diverse and cover a broad range of heat and sulfur content, making them highly desirable to customers in multiple markets across the country. In addition to coal, NRP also owns hard minerals reserves and collects royalties similar to the coal business.

Quick Facts

  • Owns 1.7 billion tons of coal reserves
  • 28% of reserves are metallurgical
  • 83% of reserves are underground

Coal - Illinois Basin

Natural Resource Partners has a diverse range of assets in the Illinois Basin, a 400-mile producing region that covers most of Illinois, the southwestern part of Indiana, and western Kentucky.

We began to increase our exposure in the area in 2005 and today own and lease approximately 300 million tons of steam coal reserves. Because of convenient access to shipping infrastructure, this high-heat coal can be efficiently delivered to domestic utilities or for export. Additionally, we also own load-out and other transportation assets located at our properties in the basin.

Coal - Appalachia

Natural Resource Partners has a significant presence in the Northern, Central, and Southern Appalachia regions. Spanning eight states, our interests in Appalachia include mineral and royalty interests on approximately 1.4 billion tons of coal reserves.

We offer both metallurgical and steam coal in the region. This makes our reserves marketable to a diverse customer base and enables our lessees to adjust to changing markets. Additionally, by having reserves in different geographic areas of Appalachia with various types of coal reserves, our lessees can serve a broader number of markets and take advantage of changing customer preferences.

Coal - Northern Powder River Basin

Natural Resource Partners owns 35 million tons of low-sulfur surface reserves in the Northern Powder River Basin in southeastern Montana.

The Powder River Basin, which also includes northeast Wyoming, is the largest source of coal mined in the United States. Coal from the region is considered to have significant appeal because of its low sulfur and fly ash content.

Coal - Gulf Coast

Natural Resource Partners owns about 95,000 net mineral acres of coal rights in the Gulf Coast region. Of this, approximately 4,800 acres are leased in Louisiana, Alabama and Texas.

Hard Minerals Royalties & Other

In addition to NRP’s aggregate operations, we also own approximately 250 million tons of aggregates reserves located in a number of states across the country. We lease a portion of these reserves to third parties in exchange for royalty payments. These reserves, located from coast to coast, generate either royalty revenues or overriding royalty revenues on items such as sand and gravel, frac sand, silica sand, limestone and other aggregates.