No qualified buyers have been identified yet for an Australian-owned coal mine in western Kentucky that’s up for sale.
The round of bidding by qualified buyers closed earlier this month in the sale of Hartshorne Mining, the U.S. company operating the Poplar Grove mine in McLean County that filed for bankruptcy in February.
Hartshorne is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Paringa Resources, based in Perth, Australia.
Hartshorne’s major lender, Tribeca Global Natural Resources, and its agent for the sale, reports that there were no qualified buyers for the mine, equipment and other assets.
The Tribeca report says that “significant headwinds have both directly and indirectly impacted the sales process.”
Those “headwinds” include the COVID-19 pandemic that shut down domestic and international travel and kept potential bidders from site tours in Kentucky.
Another obstacle is described as the “near overnight reduction in coal demand by 30 to 50 percent due to widespread shutdowns across the economy.
Tribeca’s conclusion is that “there is some market interest in Paringa assets, but it may take some time for any such interest to be formalized.”
