American Resources Corporation Begins Engineering and Planning for Restart of Company’s West Virginia Metallurgical Carbon Complex

• Company's Wyoming County Coal (WCC) represents one of the last fully permitted, virgin "mid vol" metallurgical carbon complexes in the world
• Complex includes onsite carbon processing, rail load out and controlled, premium mineral reserve for two permitted underground mines and one surface mine

FISHERS, IN / ACCESSWIRE / October 19, 2021 / American Resources Corporation (NASDAQ:AREC) ("American Resources" or the "Company"), a next generation and socially responsible supplier of raw materials to the new infrastructure and electrification marketplace, today announced that it commenced engineering and planning for the restart of its wholly owned Wyoming County Coal mining complex, near the town on of Oceana, West Virginia. The complex is unique in that it is one of the last fully permitted complexes accessing premium, "mid vol" metallurgical carbon for steel production.

Thomas Sauve, President of American Resources Corporation commented, "We acquired Wyoming County Coal in late 2018 for approximately $20 million due to its access of the world's most premium steelmaking carbon and potential for attractive growth and substantial margin. Now that we have re-activated two of our Kentucky complexes, McCoy Elkhorn and Perry County Resources, it makes complete sense to now focus on planning and development of our Wyoming County complex, given the substantial price appreciation of this product in the market since our acquisition. We have recently been approached by numerous parties that desire to work with us on carbon production from this complex given the growing demand of the market, the expectations of prolonged, constrained supply and the fundamental long-term horizon for this quality of metallurgical carbon. Additionally, we feel this complex offers significant value for us based on our owned assets and controlled premium reserves, but it also offers substantial potential value given the vast number of nearby, stranded reserves that could be acquired or strategically folded into the complex given its processing and logistics capabilities."

The WCC complex is strategically located within one of the last substantial mid vol carbon deposits and, with direct access to the Norfolk Southern Railway, provides favorable transportation logistics to the United States' east coast ports. Additionally, WCC is surrounded by a number of high-value metallurgical carbon reserves that would otherwise be considered "stranded" without access to its processing and logistics complex. The Company's focus will initially be to bring the two underground mines into production via a "walking super section" mine plan which will produce an estimated 55,000 tons of carbon per month, with further expansion potential as the mines are developed. American Resources will also look to upgrade and expand WCC's carbon processing plant's capacity, from its current 350 tons per hour rate, to approximately 700 ton per hour, while also repurposing certain infrastructure from its Kentucky-based assets to keep the capital expenditures to a minimum and to expedite this restart.