Contura Energy has made a successful bid at an auction for the assets of three Blackjewel LLC coal mines, including two of the top producers in the country, the Associated Press reported. The results are subject to a federal bankruptcy judge's approval today in Charleston, W.Va. The judge ordered the parties to post the outcome by a Sunday morning deadline after he had heard nothing when the auction went into a third day Saturday. Bristol, Tenn.-based Contura Energy's $33.75 million bid was an increase from its original offer of $20.6 million as the stalking horse bidder for the Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr mines in Wyoming and Pax Surface Mine in Scarbro, West Virginia. They've been closed since Blackjewel filed for chapter 11 protection July 1. Successful bids totaling $59.44 million also were made for Milton, West Virginia-based Blackjewel's other eastern U.S. assets. The results did not indicate how many mines would reopen and potentially enable hundreds of idled miners to return to work.
