Washington Post: With maps of 675 square miles of his Illinois mines before him, Chris Cline recalls the moment he knew the coal in those mines would be worth billions of dollars. It was 2002, and he and a competitor were on the phone lamenting how hard it was to find big deposits in central Appalachia. Cline, a miner’s grandson, knew where to look instead. The next day, he decided to spend $300 million for mining rights, land and equipment in Illinois, betting on coal his rivals were abandoning. Cheap, plentiful…