Blackhawk gets no competition for Murray met coal mine bid

Charlottesville, Virginia — Murray Energy received no qualified bids to compete in a bankruptcy auction against Blackhawk Mining's $750,000 bid for Murray Energy's Maple Eagle metallurgical coal mining complex in West Virginia, according to a new court filing.

Murray Energy filed a March 20 notice to a bankruptcy court saying it did not receive any qualified bids in the auction of substantially all of its assets. The largest privately held coal producer in the US added that it would designate a stalking horse bid from a group formed by its superpriority lenders as the winning bid. A separate bankruptcy auction of the company's Maple Eagle met coal mine also received no qualified bids, the subsidiary wrote in a March 23 court filing in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Ohio.

Blackhawk subsidiary Panther Creek Mining offered $750,000 in cash consideration to serve as the stalking horse bid for the Maple Eagle mining complex. The mine was first opened in 2007 by Walter Energy. The company sold the asset in a bankruptcy sale to Mission Coal. Mission sold the mine to Murray Energy affiliate Murray Metallurgical Coal Holdings in a later bankruptcy auction after it too was forced to restructure.

Blackhawk recently emerged from a bankruptcy reorganization that reduced its total secured debt load by nearly $1 billion.

Murray Energy wrote in previous court filings that the Maple Eagle complex is idle but able to produce about 435,000 st/year with access to about 18 million st of recoverable coal in reserves.

The company's met coal subsidiary was not a part of the initial bankruptcy petition filed by the parent company and most of its other subsidiaries in late 2019. However, citing worsening conditions in global met coal markets and an "urgent need" for liquidity, Murray Metallurgical Coal Holdings filed for bankruptcy in February.

A court hearing to consider the successful bid is scheduled for April 2.