Coal producer Alpha Natural Resources and its affiliates announced that the company has successfully emerged from chapter 11 protection, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported yesterday. The reorganized company is a smaller, privately held company operating 18 mines and eight plants in West Virginia and Kentucky. Alpha Natural Resources filed for chapter 11 last August. It bought Massey Energy Co. for $7.1 billion in 2011, making it the biggest U.S. producer of metallurgical coal, used in steelmaking — and steeped it in debt — before prices began to plunge.
