DISTRIBUTIONS OF AVAILABLE CASH - Narrative (Details) - shares		12 Months Ended
Jul. 28, 2017	Dec. 31, 2017
Distribution Made to Member or Limited Partner
Percentage of available cash distributed		100.00%
Period following quarter end for distribution of available cash		50 days
Ownership percentage by limited partners		100.00%
ARLP
Distribution Made to Member or Limited Partner
Units owned by parent	87,188,338	87,188,338
ARLP
Distribution Made to Member or Limited Partner
Ownership percentage by general partners		1.0001%
Subsidiaries holding percentage		66.70%
MGP
Distribution Made to Member or Limited Partner
Subsidiaries holding percentage		100.00%
Ownership percentage by limited partners		100.00%
Alliance Coal
Distribution Made to Member or Limited Partner
Ownership percentage by general partners	0.001%	0.001%

Represents the percentage of available cash distributed to members or limited partners of an LLC or LP.

No definition available.

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- Definition

Represents the period following each quarter end within which cash distributions are made to the members or limited partners of an LLC or LP.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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- Definition

Represents the number of units held in the subsidiary by the limited partnership.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

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- Definition

Percentage investment held by the managing member or general partner of the limited liability company (LLC) or limited partnership (LP).

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 272
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 3
-Subparagraph (b)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6373374&loc=d3e70478-108055

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- Definition

Percentage investment held by members or limited partners of limited liability company (LLC) or limited partnership (LP).

+ References

+ Details

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- Definition

The number of units or percentage investment held in the subsidiary by the limited liability company or limited partnership.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 946
-SubTopic 320
-Section S99
-Paragraph 9
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=50485924&loc=d3e611443-123010

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