Evergreen Energy Inc EEE

Black Gold In U.S.A. is COAL:

[no1coalking]

The Value of Un Mined Coal Going Up: Foundation gets big coal bid By The News-Record staff Published: Friday, February 22, 2008 1:04 PM MST Foundation Coal has successfully bid for 255 million tons of coal adjacent to its Eagle Butte mine north of Gillette. It will pay $180.5 million for the 1,428-acre tract — or 70.8 cents a ton, according to the Bureau of Land Management. BLM had set a fair market value for the Eagle Butte West Coal Tract — an amount that the successful bidder must meet or exceed. Bob Janssen, coal program coordinator with the BLM in Cheyenne, said that figure is not released. “We accepted the bid, so yeah, we thought it was good,” Janssen said. One of the factors in determining the fair market value is the price of coal sales from area mines — a price that has gone up significantly over the past year or two, Janssen said. That price is also significantly higher than two bids that were rejected last year on other coal lease sales. Those bids were rejected because they didn’t meet the fair market value. Rio Tinto Energy America unsuccessfully bid on the North Maysdorf and South Maysdorf leases: - It bid 38.4 cents a ton for the 54.7 million tons of mineable coal at the North Maysdorf lease in November, Janssen said. That tract will be rebid March 19. - It bid 42.3 cents per ton for 288.1 million tons of coal at the South Maysdorf tract, which was rejected Oct. 18. That tract will be rebid March 19. The Maysdorf leases are next to the Belle Ayr and Cordero Rojo mines. While the coal in northern Powder River Basin has less value than those further south, the figures do offer a glimpse of coal market and just what the BLM will use as fair market value. “I would say that it’s difficult to compare just because there are different coal qualities and different mining situations in different parts of the base,” Janssen said. The sale of the federal coal lease is important because it allows Foundation Coal West to continue to expand its coal operations at the Eagle Butte mine. But the sale is also big money for the state. About half of the amount, which Foundation Wyoming Land Co. will pay out over five years, goes into state coffers — a big portion of which is used to pay for public school construction. One of the major issues with the Eagle Butte West lease has been that it will cross a section of Highway 14-16 about three miles north of Gillette near the Gillette-Campbell County Airport. That will mean that the road will be rerouted — a cost that will be borne by Foundation Coal West. More than half of the electricity consumed annually in the United States is produced from the 1.1 billion tons of coal used domestically each year, 32 percent coming from BLM-administered public lands in Wyoming. In fiscal year 2007, coal royalties of $398 million were collected and shared equally with the State of Wyoming.