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To: eric deaver who wrote (4385)	7/1/1998 4:18:00 PM
From: Scott Kleinhans	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 11684

From RB By: steven+craig Reply To #629 by lsmorrison Wednesday, 1 Jul 1998 , 3:58 PM EDT Post # of 630 To ALL: I just received a callback from Jack Uselton. Let me tell you that Laracca email from aol was the straw that broke this camel's back. He is absolutely livid and is taking appropriate measures. He is also looking into all legal avenues to create shareholder value. That's all I will say. Steve Angelil can someone post this on SI? Thanks (Voluntary Disclosure: Position- long; ST Rating- strong buy; LT Rating- strong buy)

To: eric deaver who wrote (4385)	7/1/1998 4:54:00 PM
From: chip	Respond to of 11684

I don't remember the post (it was from a few weeks ago), but in someone's conversation with Jack Uselton he said that was their plan verbatim. Chip >Seems to me, this would be the way to go. Outsource the mining and stay away from the euipment inventory problems plaguing the likes of Arch, Amax, Peabody and others who are doing their own mining.<

To: eric deaver who wrote (4385)	7/1/1998 6:26:00 PM
From: Thomas C. White	Respond to of 11684

"I just got off the phone w/ the WV Mining and Reclamation Association (btw, they said the figures I cited are probably in the ball park). I was asking them about contract mining. He said that as a property owner, I would take a reserve study to several contract mining companies and bid them against each other for extraction. Seems to me, this would be the way to go. Outsource the mining and stay away from the euipment inventory problems plaguing the likes of Arch, Amax, Peabody and others who are doing their own mining. This is definitely what oil corporations are doing - they outsource everything as I can attest to (I am an independent contractor under contract to one of them). This is what they do with landmen, with drilling services, with oil field services and on." No problem there -- mining companies usually try to do this when they can, and it makes a lot of sense if there are contractors in that area. However, you have to remember that any contract bidder is going to have to price his cost of doing business into the bid, certainly including depreciation. He can't price based upon variable cost or he won't be able to replace his own plant over time. You'll see that happen sometimes if there are too many contractors around, someone will start taking bids at variable cost plus, but eventually they go out of business. The same logic applies if you lease equipment instead of purchase. You're not writing off your own equipment, since you don't own it, you're expensing depreciation indirectly, and someone else prices in their depreciation. You can't usually ever escape depreciation cost (unless it's temporarily a buyer's market), only the risk of having fixed assets you can't use. Again, I don't take issue with the business decision, only with a net margin of $10 a ton. If that's the margin after "variable" cost, you'll hand a good piece of that margin to someone else for his cost of doing business. PS, although I'm now in telecom sales, I started out my professional life as a sedimentary geologist. I invest in O&G/service quite a bit (holdings right now: EVI, UCL, NBL, thinking about TEPUF)