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Bankrupt Blackjewel says it has Secured a Buyer for Some of its Coal Mines

A buyer for some of bankrupt coal company Blackjewel’s mines has emerged.

In a court filing Thursday, July 25, the West Virginia-based company said Contura Energy Inc., which operates both surface and underground coal mines across Appalachia, had agreed to be a “Stalking Horse Purchaser” or initial bidder for three of the company’s surface mines.

Under the agreement, Tennessee-based Contura would purchase Blackjewel’s two Wyoming mines and its Pax Mine in Fayette County, West Virginia.

Contura Energy was formed following the Alpha Natural Resources bankruptcy, in July 2016. The company later merged with its former owner, Alpha. It previously operated the Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr mines in Wyoming, but sold them to Blackjewel in late 2017. As part of the sale,Contura said it expected to write off more than $400 million in taxes and about $200 million in reclamation liabilities.

In exchange for the three surface mines, Contura has agreed to assume hundreds of millions of dollars in liabilities including remaining payroll obligations for hundreds of employees. The company would also provide $20.6 million in cash to keep operations running, which would include an immediate $12.5 million cash deposit.

Under the deal, Contura also committed to bringing back the majority of employees previously working at the three sites.

The deal is subject to court approval and other bids. Blackjewel is asking the court to approve a swift bidding and auction timeline. The company proposes to close all sales no later than August 5.

Blackjewel’s other Appalchian mines would also be up for sale during the bidding process. In its initial filing, the company listed 24 metallurgical coal mines and processing and prep facilities in Virginia, Kentucky, and West Virginia, as principal assets that employ 1,100 workers. The Appalachian mines have an estimated 600 million reserve tons of coal. The company mined 3.3 millions tons last year. The federal government’sEnergy Information Administration said in 2017 that the companies’ combined output made them the country’s sixth-largest coal producer.

Lawyers representing Blackjewel said the agreement is the company’s “last opportunity” to return employees to work and not liquidate their assets.

“Without Contura’s offer to purchase the Western Purchased Assets and Pax Purchase Assets and fund the Debtors’ expenses during sale process by pre-funding the purchase price, the Debtors would be out of options, would immediately convert to chapter 7, and substantial value and jobs would be lost,” they wrote.

A hearing has been set for 2:30 p.m. EST Thursday to consider the proposal.

Judge Approves Second Loan to Blackjewel, But Appalachian Employees Still Without Pay

A federal bankruptcy judge has approved a second limited loan package for ailing coal company Blackjewel LLC.

During an emergency hearing Friday afternoon, lawyers representing Blackjewel told U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of West Virginia Judge Frank Volk the $2.9 million financing package, which includes only $900,000 in new money, would be used as a “bridge” to try and shore up the company as it prepares to sell its mines.

Squire Patton & Boggs Attorney Stephen Lerner, who is representing Blackjewell, told the court the “financing would be used for limited purposes to get us through Monday.”

Lerner said the additional money would be used to pay insurance and workers’ compensation bills, but will not go toward nearly $11.8 million in payroll and taxes owed back wages to hundreds of Blackjewel employees in Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia. The company also owes Appalachian employees $1.2 million in employee retirement contributions

Volk pressed Blackjewel’s lawyers on the issue.

“The court is concerned about the employees,” he said. “Where do they fall in the scheme in respect to recoveries in this case?”

Lerner told the court the company was “working day and night” to secure additional financing to stabilize Blackjewel.

“We are highly aware of the distress that the employees have suffered as a result of what’s occurred here,” he said, adding that any debts owed to employees are “top of the food chain” once a bankruptcy restructuring deal is inked.

But until that happens, Lerner told the court it’s unlikely Blackjewel will be able to bring back most of its Appalachian employees.

“I won’t say it’s impossible, but I think at this point, with what we know, it’s less likely to happen in the East than in the West,” Lerner said. “And that’s simply because of the nature of operations and the cost structure.”

That prompted Judge Volk to ask if the company is favoring its Wyoming operations, which are larger and Lerner confirmed, more likely to be sold. The majority of the company’s Wyoming employees have received owed wages. The company owes $1.5 million in wages and taxes to western employees.

“When I heard the disparities, it’s a question I need to ask, for sure,” Volk said.

On Tuesday, the attorneys general of Kentucky and Virginia sent a joint letter to the court expressing concern over Blackjewel’s continued inability to pay workers and urging an immediate fix.

The filing included numerous stories, some handwritten, from miners who and are struggling while being owed thousands from the company after their June 28 paychecks bounced or in some cases were deposited, but then clawed back by the bank.

While the judge ultimately approved the additional loan, not everyone was in favor.

During the hearing, Kevin Barrett, a lawyer for Riverstone Credit Partners, one of Blackjewel’s financiers, expressed reservations that approving this loan is a “bridge to nowhere.”

“What this is really doing is simply buying time,” he said.

Laid-Off Employees Of Bankrupt Blackjewel Mining Seek Pay, Answers

Patrick Fitchpatrick has worked at Blackjewel’s D-11 coal mine in Cumberland, Kentucky, for a year and a half. He says he enjoyed the work right up until he was told not to come in last Monday.

“Everything was fine,” he said. “Everything was smooth sailing and then one day it just all goes to hell.”

The country’s sixth-largest coal company filed bankruptcy last week, and many of Blackjewel’s 1,700 workers in Wyoming and across Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia were suddenly out of work.

Then Fitchpatrick got more bad news, this time from the bank: His paycheck bounced. Fitchpatrick said he has yet to receive some $4,200 in owed wages. The father of two just bought a house and truck. Now he’s struggling to pay his bills.

“I’m having to sell my tools, my guns, everything that I’ve worked hard for just to make ends meet,” he said.

More than a hundred coal miners and their family members in similar situations gathered Wednesday in Whitesburg, Kentucky, in an attempt to get some answers and some of their pay from the failed mining company. Miners from across the region are largely still waiting for back wages as well as answers about the company’s future.

Chaotic Ten Days

The coal industry is no stranger to bankruptcy. Over the last decade a wave of bankruptcies roiled the business as major players including Alpha Resources, Peabody Energy, and Arch Coal sought to restructure under Chapter 11 protection.

But since its surprise filing on July 1, Blackjewel’s bankruptcy has been anything but routine.

“Obviously I don’t think last week went the way anyone was hoping or expecting,” attorney Travis McRoberts explained in a bankruptcy court hearing Saturday. McRoberts is with the firm Squire Patton & Boggs which is representing Blackjewell LLC.

Federal bankruptcy Judge Frank Volk called the hearing to discuss problems with company paychecks.

“It has visited as we all know a significant hardship on these employees and their families,” Volk said.

Last week, Volk approved a $5 million loan to Blackjewel to help keep it afloat on the condition the company’s CEO – Milton, West Virginia, resident and multi-millionaire Jeff Hoops – would resign.

But McRoberts told Volk the company needs more money, a lot more. It owes tens of millions in unpaid local, state and federal taxes, mineral royalties, bills to vendors, and fines for environmental and mine safety violations.

The amount of debt leaves some industry observers aghast.

“When you look at the list of debt, it’s just like, holy cow. You know, how do you get this far in debt?” Clark Williams-Derry said. He directs energy finance at the Sightline Institute, a Seattle-based think tank that works on environmental and economic sustainability issues. He said Blackjewel’s bankruptcy has been unusually chaotic.

“How do you get this far behind on your payments with $100,000 in the bank and not think you’re getting close to bankruptcy?” he asked.

At the Saturday hearing, Blackjewel’s lawyers told the court that without another infusion of cash, it can’t pay its Appalachian employees. Currently, the company is only paying workers in the region once they are called back to work. And so far, few have gotten that call.

Documenting Loss

At the Wednesday information session in Whitesburg Blackjewel employees and their families packed the Letcher County Recreation Center.

Miner Stacy Trotter, 43, who worked at a mine in Harlan County, said he found out about the layoffs when he checked Facebook after coming home from a 17-hour shift.

“I’m about to lose everything,” he said. “I got a sick kid and no insurance … no money to feed him.”

Trotter said his paycheck had been taken out of his account after he had already spent some of it, leaving him with an overdraft of $3,200 in his bank account. Trotter said he doesn’t know when he might be called back to work.

County officials and attorneys urged employees to keep paperwork documenting their hardships from the sudden layoffs and lost pay.

“You have rights under state and federal law to receive the wages that you earned,” attorney Sam Petsonk with the public interest law firm Mountain State Justice told the crowd. Petsonk said that in addition to the missing pay, he’s concerned about the company’s required payments to employee retirement plans and health savings accounts.

On Tuesday, lawyers representing a Wyoming employee of Blackjewell filed a class action lawsuit alleging the company failed to provide adequate notice of the layoffs under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988, more commonly known as the WARN Act.

“This is actually the type of case that Congress really intended the WARN Act to protect against,” said Stuart Miller, an attorney with Lankenau & Miller, LLP, who is leading the case. “Had the employer given the 60 days notice, as the acronym indicates, it gives the employees the opportunity to seek new employment, to seek new training over a 60-day period, which would certainly mitigate the devastation that is caused by a sudden closure of a facility like this.”

Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear has opened an investigation into the Blackjewel bankruptcy and assigned a mediator to help employees deal with debts that resulted from bounced paychecks. Governor Matt Bevin announced that the state Labor Cabinet is also looking into the matter.

Broken Trust

Bobby Balthis was among the miners at the Whitesburg event Wednesday. He worked at Blackjewel’s Clover Lick 3 mine in Harlan County. He said he was able to cash his last paycheck but then it was “clawed back,” or made void after deposit.

“They actually took the check that I had cashed out of my savings and then charged me $12 for the company’s check that had bounced,” Balthis said.

The Kentucky Department of Financial Institutions issued a statement Wednesday encouraging banks to help affected customers by extending loan repayment terms and waiving overdraft fees, but it comes a bit late to help Balthis.

He said he knows many who are hurting who were living from paycheck to paycheck. As a veteran of the mining business, he had put some money aside in case of a layoff.

“I’ve been doing this for 27 years and you can’t never trust the coal industry because you don’t know one day to the next,” he said.

Blackjewel’s next bankruptcy court hearing is scheduled for Friday. The court is set to consider a series of procedural motions filed by the company. Additional financing is not currently on the agenda.

Judge Approves $5M Loan to Ailing Blackjewel Coal, But CEO Hoops is Out

This story was updated on 7/5/2019 at 11:15 a.m.

A federal bankruptcy court in West Virginia has granted a request by West-Virginia based coal company Blackjewel LLC to borrow $5 million to stay afloat, on the condition the company’s president and CEO, Jeff Hoops, resigns.

The payment, which will be provided by Riverstone Credit Partners – Direct LP, could be used in part to pay employee salaries and benefits, according to an order signed Wednesday afternoon.

In exchange, neither Hoops, a longtime coal executive and Milton, West Virginia, resident, nor his family are authorized to conduct business on behalf of the company.

Blackjewel sought approval for the $5 million emergency loan after District Judge Frank Volk on Tuesday rejected a $20 million financing agreement proposed by the company.

The company said the approved $5 million credit line will allow management to conduct maintenance activities at abandoned mines, provide onsite security and ensure mining equipment isn’t damaged as Blackjewel seeks additional financing.

A weekly budget document shared with the court showed the company needs almost $2.7 million to pay employees and vendors.

Blackjewel and its affiliate Revelation Energy LLC control 24 active metallurgical coal mines and processing and prep facilities in Virginia, Kentucky, and West Virginia that employ about 1,100 workers.

The company also controls two large coal mines in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin region. On Tuesday, hundreds of workers at the Belle Ayr and Eagle Butte mines were sent home, an unusual move during a bankruptcy proceeding.

It’s less clear if layoffs are happening across the company’s Central Appalachian mines.

Frank Taylor, manager of the Virginia Employment Commission’s Richlands office, which represents Buchanan, Russell, and Tazewell counties, said he was not aware of any layoffs.

Blackjewel operates six active mines in those counties, according to data from the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

In Harlan County, Kentucky, Dan Mosely, county judge executive, said his office was hearing from Blackjewel workers whose paychecks were bouncing. Mosely said in the past he has received official notice under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988, more commonly known as the WARN Act, when coal mines laid off workers.

In an all staff email sent Thursday, Hoops said that in the days leading up to Blackjewel filing for bankruptcy, the company struggled to secure additional financing. Hoops noted he had personally loaned the company $11 million, but was advised by financier Riverstone not to continue that practice.

He said he became aware that paychecks issued to the company’s hundreds of Wyoming employees were not clearing Friday afternoon and “immediately got United Bank on the phone to find out why.”

“I realize we have over 1,800 hurting people out there right now and no one is hurting more than me over what has occurred in the past eight days,” Hoops wrote.

Over the Fourth of July holiday, Judge Volk called a hearing with counsel to discuss the issue of employees not getting paid. In a Friday morning follow-up call with counsel, a representative said because of the holiday, they were unable to reach anyone at United Bank, but are working to get the issue resolved in Wyoming.

Travis McRoberts, an attorney with Squire Patton and Boggs, representing Blackjewel, told the judge they are working to ensure Blackjewel employees at its Appalachian mines that return to work “at our current reduced operating capacity” received any owed wages as quickly as possible.