Stites & Harbison, PLLC

Stites & Harbison's Mining and Natural Resources attorneys have extensive national experience in representing extractive and associated industries. These include companies engaged in mining, producing, transporting and selling energy resources such as coal, waste coal, oil and gas, and in the hardrock production of limestone, sand and gravel.

Our team also represents businesses and groups involved in all aspects of natural resource development and protection. This includes timber management, land reclamation, land conservation and mitigation of environmental impacts associated with resource development.

The mining industry is heavily regulated. That is why our lawyers are involved in nearly all aspects of regulatory compliance—at the local, state and federal levels—as well as many real estate and commercial transactions involving mineral development and production facilities. Our lawyers' involvement in state and federal rulemaking as well as providing legislative assistance on behalf of clients helps keep us sharply focused on the industries' emerging issues. We also have a well-earned reputation for litigating "takings" claims in the Court of Federal Claims involving mining and other property.

Members of this group include former environmental and mining consultants, a Ph.D. biologist, another who served with the Interstate Mining Compact Commission, an attorney who was chief counsel for a state agency that oversees mining, and a member of the prestigious American College of Real Estate Lawyers.

For more than three decades, Stites & Harbison attorneys have been representing clients in leasing, development, acquisitions and dispositions of mineral reserves and mineral processing and coal transportation facilities. The firm also has an unparalleled depth in natural resources tax issues. The group's lawyers have also worked closely with both coal producers and utilities to negotiate coal supply contracts.

Few firms in the nation can boast of the depth and breadth of experience in the mining and use of coal than Stites & Harbison. The firm is a member of the Tennessee Mining Association (TMA), Energy & Mineral Law Foundation (EMLF), and an associate member of The National Mining Association (NMA) and the Kentucky Coal Association (KCA).