Westmoreland Coal Company began mining in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania in 1854 as a Pennsylvania corporation. In 1910, we incorporated in Delaware and continued our focus on underground coal operations in Pennsylvania and the Appalachian Basin. We moved our headquarters from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Colorado in 1995. Today, we are an energy company with 17 coal mines in the U.S. and Canada, a stake in an activated carbon plant and char production facility and two coal-fired power generation units. Our headquarters are located in Englewood, Colorado and we have approximately 3,100 employees.
We believe we are now the sixth largest North American coal producer (as measured by 2013 production of nearly 52 million tons, including Sherritt 2013 production), and we believe that we are the largest dragline operator among North American coal producers with 29 draglines owned or operated. We produce and sell thermal coal primarily to investment grade power plants under long-term cost-protected contracts, as well as to industrial customers and barbeque briquettes manufacturers. We operate 13 surface mines and a 50% interest in an activated carbon plant and char production facility. Our U.S. coal operations are located in Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota and Texas. Our Canadian coal operations are located in Alberta and Saskatchewan. We own a thermal coal export mine with production capacity of three million tonnes per annum and with established sales to the Asian markets. We also operate two coal-fired power generating units in North Carolina with a total capacity of approximately 230 megawatts.
Westmoreland is publicly traded on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol WLB and has over 16 million shares of common stock outstanding.