Tom,
Those were some excellent questions that you asked and I don't even begin to know what I am talking about, but I am going to at least partially try and answer you anyway. That way, if I'm totally wrong, then one of the experts (like Eric) can come in and correct me.
My answer is going to be based on my observations of West Virginia. I hope my observations don't offend anyone but they are my honest opinions based on what I saw there.
You asked about the recoverable reserves and why haven't they been recovered yet? First of all, thanks for pointing out that the amounts still left to uncover are huge.
Are they hard to get to? I don't think so. The terrain in West Virginia is not that difficult. There are some mountains, but they aren't that tall. But I would need a confirmation or a denial on the difficulty of extracting the reserves. To my very untrained eye, it just didn't look like it would be that difficult.
If it's not difficult, then my hypothesis is this. West Virginia is a very depressed state and has been for quite a while now. Many people have left it and have gone to other states. They don't have much money there from what I could see....and even worse, their attitude seemed to be one of sort having given up.
For any who might be from West VA, please forgive me if that is not correct, but that is just how I saw it. West Virginians seem to make wonderful employees...some of the best in the country....but overall, they don't seem to have as much drive.
I just think that those reserves haven't been recovered yet for just the simple reason that nobody has done it.
Now that MTEI is going to come in and start developing those reserves, I don't think they'll have too much trouble getting to them.
West Virginia is incredibly rich in natural resources. I don't know why the people there are not as well off as they are in other states.
It's been a puzzle to me for a long time.
Anyway, sorry for the long drawn-out totally non-expert reply. But maybe it'll begin a discussion where we can all find out some answers.
Thanks again!
Juanita
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