Christopher “Chris” Cline (born July 5, 1958) is an American mining entrepreneur and philanthropist. As of March 2013, he is the majority owner of privately held Foresight Reserves LP, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Regarded by Bloomberg as the New King Coal, Cline is considered responsible for reviving the Illinois coal industry. His company has more than three billion tons of coal reserves across Illinois and the Northern Appalachia. According to Forbes, Cline has a net worth of $1.7 billion, ranking 78th among America’s richest and in the Forbes list #736 and in 2013 #371.
Biography
Cline’s grandfather mined for coal with a pickax around Beckley, West Virginia in the early 20th century. At the age of six, Cline’s father, Paul, asked him to fill a paper bag with dirt, paying him a penny for each bag. Cline dug the dirt from under the porch of their bungalow in Isaban, West Virginia. His father used the dirt bags in mine-blasting. Within two years, their porch had collapsed. According to Cline, his father had told him to “support the roof better”. In 1980, Cline’s father bought out his partner then gave the shares to Cline, who was then 21 years old. At that time, he was studying psychology at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia.
Breast cancer claimed Cline’s first wife, Sabrina, in 1987. He remarried in 1993, but the relationship with his second wife, Kelly, ended in divorce in 2000. Cline, who has two sons and two daughters, owns a 33,413-square-foot (3,104.2 m2) mansion in North Palm Beach, Florida, and a home in his native Beckley, West Virginia, where his 150-acre (0.61 km2) property contains a lake, a go-kart track and pastures for his horses, goats and llamas.
| Chris Cline | |
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Chris Cline in his study
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| Born | Christopher Cline July 5, 1958 Beckley, West Virginia, U.S. |
| Occupation | Coal executive |
| Years active | 1980–present |
| Net worth |  US$1.9 billion (2015) |
| Children | 4 |
Source:wikipedia