<SEC-DOCUMENT>0001558370-22-010826.txt : 20221004
<SEC-HEADER>0001558370-22-010826.hdr.sgml : 20221004
<ACCEPTANCE-DATETIME>20220719152509
<PRIVATE-TO-PUBLIC>
ACCESSION NUMBER:		0001558370-22-010826
CONFORMED SUBMISSION TYPE:	CORRESP
PUBLIC DOCUMENT COUNT:		1
FILED AS OF DATE:		20220719

FILER:

	COMPANY DATA:	
		COMPANY CONFORMED NAME:			ALLIANCE RESOURCE PARTNERS LP
		CENTRAL INDEX KEY:			0001086600
		STANDARD INDUSTRIAL CLASSIFICATION:	BITUMINOUS COAL & LIGNITE SURFACE MINING [1221]
		IRS NUMBER:				731564280
		STATE OF INCORPORATION:			DE
		FISCAL YEAR END:			1231

	FILING VALUES:
		FORM TYPE:		CORRESP

	BUSINESS ADDRESS:	
		STREET 1:		1717 SOUTH BOULDER AVENUE
		CITY:			TULSA
		STATE:			OK
		ZIP:			74119
		BUSINESS PHONE:		9182957600
</SEC-HEADER>
<DOCUMENT>
<TYPE>CORRESP
<SEQUENCE>1
<FILENAME>filename1.htm
<TEXT>
<!--Enhanced HTML document created with Toppan Merrill Bridge  9.14.0.96--><!--Created on: 7/19/2022 07:07:22 PM (UTC)--><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"><html><head><meta charset="UTF-8"><title></title></head><body><div style="margin-top:30pt;"></div><div style="max-width:100%;padding-left:11.76%;padding-right:11.76%;position:relative;"><div style="clear:both;max-width:100%;position:relative;"><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;margin:0pt;">July 19, 2022</p><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:12pt;line-height:1.19;margin:0pt;"><font style="font-size:10pt;visibility:hidden;">&#8203;</font></p><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;margin:0pt;"><font style="font-style:italic;font-weight:bold;">Via EDGAR</font></p><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:12pt;line-height:1.19;margin:0pt;"><font style="font-size:10pt;visibility:hidden;">&#8203;</font></p><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;margin:0pt;">Securities and Exchange Commission</p><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;margin:0pt;">Division of Corporation Finance</p><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;margin:0pt;">100 F Street, N.E.</p><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;margin:0pt;">Washington, D.C. 20549</p><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:12pt;line-height:1.19;margin:0pt;"><font style="font-size:10pt;visibility:hidden;">&#8203;</font></p><div align="left"><table style="border-collapse:collapse;font-size:16pt;height:max-content;padding-left:0pt;padding-right:0pt;width:100%;"><tr style="height:1pt;"><td style="vertical-align:top;width:7.69%;margin:0pt;padding:0pt;"><div style="height:1pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;position:relative;"><div style="position:absolute;top:0pt;width:100%;"></div></div></td><td style="vertical-align:top;width:92.3%;margin:0pt;padding:0pt;"><div style="height:1pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;position:relative;"><div style="position:absolute;top:0pt;width:100%;"></div></div></td></tr><tr><td style="vertical-align:top;width:7.69%;margin:0pt;padding:0pt;"><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt;">Attn:</p></td><td style="vertical-align:top;width:92.3%;margin:0pt;padding:0pt;"><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt;">Karl Hiller</p></td></tr><tr><td style="vertical-align:top;width:7.69%;margin:0pt;padding:0pt;"><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:12pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt;"><font style="font-size:10pt;visibility:hidden;">&#8203;</font></p></td><td style="vertical-align:top;width:92.3%;margin:0pt;padding:0pt;"><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt;">Branch Chief</p></td></tr><tr><td style="vertical-align:top;width:7.69%;margin:0pt;padding:0pt;"><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt;">&#160;</p></td><td style="vertical-align:top;width:92.3%;margin:0pt;padding:0pt;"><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt;">Office of Energy &amp; Transportation</p></td></tr><tr><td style="vertical-align:top;width:7.69%;margin:0pt;padding:0pt;"><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt;">&#160;</p></td><td style="vertical-align:top;width:92.3%;margin:0pt;padding:0pt;"><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt;">&#160;</p></td></tr><tr><td style="vertical-align:top;width:7.69%;margin:0pt;padding:0pt;"><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt;">Re: </p></td><td style="vertical-align:top;width:92.3%;margin:0pt;padding:0pt;"><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt;"><b style="font-weight:bold;">Alliance Resource Partners, L.P. </b></p></td></tr><tr><td style="vertical-align:top;width:7.69%;margin:0pt;padding:0pt;"><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt;">&#160;</p></td><td style="vertical-align:top;width:92.3%;margin:0pt;padding:0pt;"><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt;"><b style="font-weight:bold;">Form 10-K for the Year Ended December 31, 2021</b></p></td></tr><tr><td style="vertical-align:top;width:7.69%;margin:0pt;padding:0pt;"><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt;">&#160;</p></td><td style="vertical-align:top;width:92.3%;margin:0pt;padding:0pt;"><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt;"><b style="font-weight:bold;">Filed February 25, 2022</b></p></td></tr><tr><td style="vertical-align:top;width:7.69%;margin:0pt;padding:0pt;"><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt;">&#160;</p></td><td style="vertical-align:top;width:92.3%;margin:0pt;padding:0pt;"><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt;"><b style="font-weight:bold;">File No. 000-26823</b></p></td></tr></table></div><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:12pt;line-height:1.19;margin:0pt;"><font style="font-size:10pt;visibility:hidden;">&#8203;</font></p><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;margin:0pt;">Ladies and Gentlemen:</p><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;margin:0pt;">&#160;</p><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;text-indent:36pt;margin:0pt;">This letter sets forth the responses of Alliance Resource Partners, L.P. (the &#8220;<font style="font-style:italic;font-weight:bold;">Partnership</font>&#8221;) to the comments provided by the staff (the &#8220;<font style="font-style:italic;font-weight:bold;">Staff</font>&#8221;) of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the &#8220;<font style="font-style:italic;font-weight:bold;">Commission</font>&#8221;) in its comment letter dated June 30, 2022 (the &#8220;<font style="font-style:italic;font-weight:bold;">Comment Letter</font>&#8221;) in connection with our June 14, 2022 response to the Staff&#8217;s Comment Letter dated May 3, 2022 with respect to the Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 (the &#8220;<font style="font-style:italic;font-weight:bold;">Form 10-K</font>&#8221;) filed by the Partnership on February 25, 2022. </p><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;text-indent:36pt;margin:0pt;">&#160;</p><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;text-indent:36pt;margin:0pt;">For your convenience, we have repeated each comment of the Staff exactly as given in the Comment Letter in bold and italics below and provided our response below each such comment.</p><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;text-indent:36pt;margin:0pt;">&#160;</p><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt;"><u style="text-decoration-color:#000000;text-decoration-line:underline;text-decoration-style:solid;">Summary of Coal Mineral Resources and Reserves, page 58</u></p><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt;">&#160;</p><div align="left"><table style="border-collapse:collapse;font-size:16pt;height:max-content;padding-left:0pt;padding-right:0pt;width:100%;"><tr><td style="vertical-align:top;width:3.84%;margin:0pt;padding:0pt;"></td><td style="vertical-align:top;width:3.84%;margin:0pt;padding:0pt;"><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;margin:0pt;">1.</p></td><td style="vertical-align:top;width:92.3%;margin:0pt;padding:0pt;"><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt;"><font style="font-style:italic;font-weight:bold;">We understand from your response to prior comment 1, that you will disclose the coal pricing assumptions for the Illinois and Appalachian basin resource and reserve estimates. However, you indicate that the pricing range utilized for the Illinois basin resource estimate was from $36.27 to $51.26 per short ton, while the pricing range utilized for the same location reserve estimate was $36.08 to $44.01 per short ton.</font></p><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:12pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt;"><font style="font-size:10pt;font-style:italic;font-weight:bold;visibility:hidden;">&#8203;</font></p><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt;"><font style="font-style:italic;font-weight:bold;">Tell us the reasons for having different price assumptions when estimating resources compared to reserves and provide a similar explanation in your disclosures.</font></p></td></tr></table></div><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 36pt;">&#160;</p><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 36pt;"><u style="text-decoration-color:#000000;text-decoration-line:underline;text-decoration-style:solid;">Response</u>: We acknowledge the Staff&#8217;s comment and in response note that the sales price for coal will vary depending on coal quality, access to transportation and other factors at each location. &#160;In the Illinois Basin, we have coal resources that are not contiguous to our coal reserves and therefore have different factors affecting the coal sales price. </p><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:12pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 36pt;"><font style="font-size:10pt;margin-left:0pt;visibility:hidden;">&#8203;</font></p><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 36pt;">We have modified our proposed disclosure for prices utilized for each coal basin or market region associated with our resource estimates presented in our prior comment 1 to include an explanation for the different price assumptions used for resources as compared to reserves: </p><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:12pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 36pt;"><font style="font-size:10pt;margin-left:0pt;visibility:hidden;">&#8203;</font></p><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 72pt;">At December 31, 2021, we had approximately 1.165 billion tons of coal mineral resources. &#160;Tonnages are reported on a clean recoverable basis with pricing based on available third-party forecasts and historical pricing adjusted for quality at the end of 2021 in a range from $36.27 to $51.26 per short ton in the Illinois Basin and from $42.68 to $66.27 per short ton in the Appalachian Basin, which are the prices used by RESPEC to estimate the amount of coal mineral resources. 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However, as the exhibits are required with the annual report and considering the nature of the content deficiencies, we believe that you should amend your annual report with the amendments to these exhibits.</font></p></td></tr></table></div><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 36pt;">&#160;</p><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 36pt;"><u style="text-decoration-color:#000000;text-decoration-line:underline;text-decoration-style:solid;">Response</u>: We acknowledge the Staff&#8217;s comment and will include the revised technical report summaries from our engineering consultants through an amendment of our annual report upon the completion of the Staff&#8217;s review of our Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021. </p><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:12pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 36pt;"><font style="font-size:10pt;margin-left:0pt;visibility:hidden;">&#8203;</font></p><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt;"><font style="visibility:hidden;">&#8203;</font></p><div align="left"><table style="border-collapse:collapse;font-size:16pt;height:max-content;padding-left:0pt;padding-right:0pt;width:100%;"><tr><td style="vertical-align:top;width:3.84%;margin:0pt;padding:0pt;"></td><td style="vertical-align:top;width:3.84%;margin:0pt;padding:0pt;"><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;margin:0pt;">3.</p></td><td style="vertical-align:top;width:92.3%;margin:0pt;padding:0pt;"><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt;"><font style="font-style:italic;font-weight:bold;">We note your response to prior comment 11, regarding your tax status, and that you made an election during the first quarter of 2022 for the subsidiary holding your oil and gas interests, Alliance Minerals, LLC, to be taxed as a corporation. </font></p><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:12pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt;"><font style="font-size:10pt;font-style:italic;font-weight:bold;visibility:hidden;">&#8203;</font></p><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt;"><font style="font-style:italic;font-weight:bold;">Please address the likelihood of making any similar elections that would apply to income from your coal mining operations and if other than remote, obtain and file amendments to the technical report summaries that include sensitivity analyses based on this variant, along with discussions of the impact on the results of the economic assessments, to comply with Item 601(b)(96)(iii)(B)(19)(iii) of Regulation S-K. </font></p><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:12pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt;"><font style="font-size:10pt;font-style:italic;font-weight:bold;visibility:hidden;">&#8203;</font></p><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt;"><font style="font-style:italic;font-weight:bold;">If there is a reasonable likelihood of income from your coal mining operations becoming subject to income taxes, as a result of elections or otherwise, also address this uncertainty in MD&amp;A to comply with Item 303(a) of Regulation S-K.</font></p></td></tr></table></div><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 36pt;">&#160;</p><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:justify;margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 36pt;"><u style="text-decoration-color:#000000;text-decoration-line:underline;text-decoration-style:solid;">Response</u>: &#160;We acknowledge the Staff&#8217;s comment and in response assert that it is remote that we will make a similar tax election for our coal mining operations. We made the tax election for our oil &amp; gas royalties business to reduce the overall tax burden to our unitholders. Based on current facts and circumstances we do not believe subjecting our coal operations to corporate taxation would yield similar tax savings for our unitholders, thus we are currently committed to the limited partnership structure. We will reassess our tax election with respect to our coal operations on an ongoing basis and, if a change in the tax election is no </p></div><div style="clear:both;display:table;margin-bottom:30pt;min-height:36pt;width:100%;"><div style="display:table-cell;vertical-align:bottom;width:100%;"><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:center;margin:0pt;"><font style="font-size:9pt;visibility:hidden;">&#8203;</font></p><p style="font-family:'Times New Roman','Times','serif';font-size:10pt;line-height:1.19;text-align:center;margin:0pt;"><font style="font-size:9pt;">2</font></p></div></div></div><hr style="background-color:#000000;clear:both;color:#000000;height:2pt;line-height:0;margin-bottom:30pt;margin-left:11.76%;margin-right:11.76%;margin-top:30pt;page-break-after:always;width:76.47%;border-width:0;"><div style="max-width:100%;padding-left:11.76%;padding-right:11.76%;position:relative;"><div 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