Patriot Coal Corporation is a coal-mining company based in St. Louis, Missouri in the United States. The company is a spin-off of most of the Eastern U.S. operations of Peabody Energy. Patriot is the second largest coal miner east of the Mississippi River. The company's operations are made up of 16 mining complexes. Thirteen of these complexes are located in West Virginia and three are located in Kentucky. In 2007, Patriot sold 22.1 million tons of coal. The company controls 1.9 billion tons of proven and probable coal reserves. Patriot is the largest producer of thermal coal in the Eastern United States. It is also a leading producer of metallurgical coal. Approximately 80% of its coal is sold to domestic utilities and 20% is sold to domestic and international steel producers.