CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A bankrupt coal operator’s request to liquidate its assets has been denied by a federal judge in West Virginia.
Blackjewel filed for Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy in July 2019 and mostly halted operations.
The company had sought to convert to Chapter 7, which would allow it to liquidate its assets. The company said in court filings it didn’t have the assets to continue reorganizing in a Chapter 11 proceeding.
Federal Judge Benjamin A. Kahn denied the request in an order on Monday, Ohio Valley Resource reported.
Blackjewel’s mine shutdowns put about 600 employees in Wyoming and 1,100 in Appalachia out of work last year, and left hundreds of Kentucky and Virginia miners without pay. Some of them held a months-long protest on a set of railroad tracks in Harlan County, Kentucky.
