Alpha Natural Resources is selling a collection of closed coal mines as it revamps its business in bankruptcy, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. At least 16 idled mines in West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Illinois are being put up for sale in Alpha’s chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding, which began in August. The company has set a Jan. 20, 2016, target date for bids and would like to seek a bankruptcy judge’s approval for sales by February, according to papers filed on Thursday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond, Va. One of the country’s largest coal producers, Bristol, Va.-based Alpha picked up a lot of debt in the 2011 acquisition of Massey Energy. It reported more than $7 billion in liabilities in its bankruptcy papers. The figure includes nearly $2 billion in secured debt and more than $2 billion in unsecured bond debt. Proposed sale procedures are scheduled for a hearing Nov. 5, court papers say.
