About Us - OVCC

Director, Robert E. Murray, of The Ohio Valley Coal Company stated following his last day as president and CEO of The North American Coal Corporation in 1987, "My career at The North American Coal Corporation began with a scholarship when I was 16 years old and ended 31 years later when someone to whom I didn't even report told me only these words: 'This is your last day; you're done.' In retrospect, it was the best thing ever to happen to me career-wise, and many said that I should have begun building my own coal company 15 years earlier. Parting company with North American Coal was very difficult, but it was the nudge I needed to go on, to reach down within myself, to use my knowledge, experience, and energy to build something new."

Acquired in May of 1988 from North American Coal Corporation, the Ohio Valley Coal Company was the acorn of the Murray organization. At the time of the 1988 acquisition, it's Powhatan No. 6 Mine (formerly owned by a subsidiary company of The North American Coal Corporation) employed 292 people and produced slightly more than 1 million tons per year. Today, the Powhatan No. 6 Mine employees nearly 500 people and produces 5 millions tons per year.

According to Art Sanda, Associate Publisher and Editor of COAL AGE magazine, when referring to Bob Murray, stated: ""the individual is so much the company, and the company so much the individual....." That was part of the explanation for the November 1999 coverage of the Murray companies, which began with The Ohio Valley Coal Company in 1988. Mr. Sanda continued by referring to Mr. Murray as a "maverick". Murray expresses his loyalty as "the employees know that our relationship is for a lifetime.......work here until retirement because that will mean you will have worked safely---and worked, period---and made it to retirement." Murray says, "Coal is my life, not a financial opportunity."

President and General Manager John R. Forrelli, has been with Ohio Valley Coal since it's beginning. Forrelli believes that extensive coal reserves located adjacent to the No. 6 Mine could give it an extended life, providing several current obstacles now hindering the future of the mine are eliminated. These include resolving permitting problems to give Ohio Valley full use of the coal reserve for longwall mining, successfully competing cost-wise with several large underground mines operating in the Pittsburgh No. 8 seam, and a consistent, pragmatic National Energy Plan, that will allow the continued use of coal for electric power generation, the lowest cost alternative.