Patriot Coal Corp. has selected Blackhawk Mining LLC as the potential buyer for its assets in bankruptcy court, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. Lexington, Ky.-based Blackhawk will be the stalking-horse bidder in an auction to set a benchmark price for most of Patriot’s assets. Patriot, which filed for chapter 11 protection last week for the second time in less than three years, is considering spinning off its union liabilities into a separate entity that won’t be purchased by Blackhawk. That structure mirrors Blackhawk’s assets purchase last year from bankrupt coal miner James River Coal Co., in which the buyer didn’t assume the pension plan.
