While merchandise in many stores in the United States bears the “made in China” label, the tables are turned in China where a group of Southwest Virginia entrepreneurs are now actively mining coal.
  With partners in Thailand and in China, Jim Bunn, of Abingdon, formerly of Grundy and Red Robertson, of Deel, have been mining coal in the Shan Xi region of China, west of Bejing, since 2001 and as that venture continues to be successful, their company -- Asian American Coal Inc. (AACI)  -- is actively working to develop the coalbed methane gas industry in China as well.
  The Daning mine they operate produces Anthracite coal and its primary market is to power plants in China. The company has captured methane since 2003 -- the first company in that country to do so -- and uses it to heat its offices and run generators. Now, the company is looking at ways to expand the use of that methane. Annual methane production by the end of 2007 is estimated to be 10 billion cubic feet annually.
  Bunn notes he first heard about the opportunities in China in 2000 when Morgan Massey called him one evening at home. From there, he says, he and Roberston met with Massey and Marshall Miller and began looking at the project and how to implement it.
  Bunn made his first trip to China to look at the mine and the country firsthand later that same year.
  Ron Hite, who joined AACI in China in April 2001, is the mine’s general manager. He hails from Syracuse, N.Y., and went to West Virginia University. He spent most of his mining career in West Virginia before going to work on the China project with Bunn, Robertson and the other partners.
  “The first year or so was spent getting the 40 different approvals necessary for the company to get ready to operate,” Hite says.
  The Daning mine had been idled before AACI came in and Robertson notes the mine was then rehabilitated and reopened.
  The hardest part, they all agree, was figuring out which categories applied to the venture, since in China, as Hite explains, there are basically three types of mines -- the small community-company mine; the city-owned mine; and state-owned enterprises.
  However, once all the paperwork was completed, the mine began operating in November 2002 as the first Joy miner was put into operation.
  “People in this area of China were used to shovels when it came to mining coal,” Hite says.
  The American venture brought longwall mining to that basin and was the first to use longwall mining equipment there, Robertson says
  “So far it’s been successful,” he adds.
  The mine now operates on a 24-hour per day, three-shift basis, with closures set only for the Chinese New Year and a spring festival.

   While attending an annual Virginia League of Postmasters Convention in Roanoke in June, Mavisdale Postmaster Stephanie Jones was surprised to discover she had been nominated the Virginia Postmaster of the Year. 
   Voted for by fellow members of the National League of Postmasters, Jones said she became a postmaster in January 2005, which is why she was so amazed to have been named the state postmaster of the year.
  "I was really shocked to get it," she said.
   The biggest surprise, however, was when her family appeared in the crowd -- her husband, Arnold Toby Jones; daughters, Tiffany and Megan; and father, Jimmy Easterling.
   "They wanted my father and my husband to escort me tot he stage, but I ran off and left them," she said, laughing. "I was just so surprised."
    Jones began working for the U.S. Postal Services in July 1995. At the age of 18, she started out as a window clerk at the Big Rock Post Office.

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    Consol Energy Inc. delivered the first installment in a $50,000 pledge for Buchanan Basketball Foundation’s new gym project last week when company officials presented the foundation with a check for $25,000.
  CONSOL has supported the program in the past with general donations, but after learning of the gym project, offered to help on a larger scale.
  “The donation and pledge we received from CONSOL Energy really helped to get our project off the ground,” said gym project coordinator Robert Simpson.
  BBF President Ronnie Prater agreed, adding, “the CONSOL monies helped up to leverage other funding to make the project a reality for the many boys and girls served through our program.”
  Until this past March, the foundation had gym space in the former Garden Elementary school. However, when the University of Appalachia College of Pharmacy acquired the space to renovate into its campus, the foundation, which readily expressed its support of UACP and its efforts to establish the campus in the Oakwood area, agreed to relocate and ultimately began planning for construction of a new gymnasium.
  Incorporated into the project were plans of two other boosters organizations in the community. The new gym will also provide meeting space for the Twin Valley football program; and an indoor batting and pitching facility for the Twin Valley baseball program.
  CONSOL was one of the first major corporate contributors to step forward on the project.
  Annually, the company makes contributions in excess of $35,000 to local charities and other organizations in southwest Virginia.
  In Buchanan County, CONSOL operates Buchanan No. 1 and controls CNX Gas Corporation, one of the largest gas producers in Virginia.
  The Buchanan mine produces some 4.5 million tons of coal annually and employs more than 400 with an annual payroll and benefits of approximately $40 million. Purchased goods and services are approximately $95 million annually and total taxes (federal, state, local, severance, property and sales) are approximately $13 million annually.

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