RE: One Last Thing That's sound scarry. Everything you do in mining on a per ton basis. You calculate how much diesel you use by the ton, electricity, labor etc.
What Dennis may have been alluding to is TK wanted to paid the ton. Sounds normal, but here is the hitch. As a coal property owner, you only get paid on clean tons of coal sold. So you would want to pay your contractor based on clean coal mined.
But from the Contractors point of view, he may be mining a part of the seam, where he mines 10,000 tons, but only yields 3,000 of clean coal. Cost the same to the contract miner to mine the 10,000 tons, but why only get paid on clean tons.
Usually, there are ways of working out a decent contract based on minimums with an obvious incentive to get the most coal out.