It’s often sold as “West Virginia coal owned by West Virginians” — but the reality is very different. For more than a century, most of West Virginia’s coal mines, mineral rights, and large landholdings have been owned by out-of-state corporations and absentee landowners — not local families or communities. 📌 In many southern WV counties, outside companies historically owned over half of all land and mineral rights — extracting resources while wealth left the state. 📌 Modern coal operators are