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Walter has now divested all of its U.S. operating assets to third parties; its noncore U.S. property has already been taken over by Seminole Coal Resources, ERP Compliant Coke and ERP Environmental Fund — all affiliates of ERP Compliant Fuels and Virginia Conservation Legacy Fund (VCLF). The Alabama-based producer's remaining assets include Walter Energy Canada Holdings, which has both U.K. and Canadian properties. Walter Canada obtained creditor protec- tion last December for those sites under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) following an order by the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Vancouver. According to a Reuters report in January, with the deal now closed, Warrior Met Coal/Coal Acquisition will assume $115 million to $122 million in liabilities and also pay about $5.4 mil- lion for the assets it has obtained. Additionally, it will forgive about $1.25 billion owed to it by Walter. If the deal had fallen through, Walter Energy would have been forced to close its Alabama mines and sell them off individually. Peabody Lays Off PRB Miners As it continues to consider its next financial move after warning of potential bankruptcy, Peabody Energy confirmed March 31 that it will cut 235 positions from its payroll at one of the nation's largest mines, the North Antelope Rochelle (NAR) operation in Wyoming. Officials, who cited an alignment of the Powder River Basin (PRB) mine's workforce with customer needs for the decision, said the impacted employees are both hourly and salaried. While the company did not indicate whether the layoffs would be permanent, it did note that it had already been trying to minimize staffing impacts by adjusting its resources and rely- ing on natural turnover. Peabody has offered workers severance as well as outplacement support. "While our asset position and contracting strategies give us relative strength, we are taking these actions to match production with customer demand," Peabody President of Americas Kemal Williamson said. "We regret the impact of these actions on our employees, their fami- lies and the surrounding communities." About 1,150 will remain employed at NAR post-cut. In all, Peabody has 1,500 miners working in the PRB region, which includes the Rawhide and Caballo complexes. NAR alone pro- duced 109 million tons of coal last year. As Peabody noted in its announcement, the region has fared better than other coal fields, primarily due to cost advantages. Workforce Sliced by 15% at Black Thunder Arch Coal has confirmed a staff reduction at its Black Thunder oper- ation in northeast Wyoming, citing a weakness in demand for its coal. "Through the commitment and ingenuity of our employees, we have made great strides over the last several years to streamline the operation, reduce costs and improve efficiencies. However, current market realities have required we take further action to enhance the competitive position of the operation and ensure long-term suc- cess," said Arch spokesperson Logan Bonacorsi. Management is currently meeting with affected employees at the complex near Gillette; while specific numbers weren't con- firmed, local media has estimated the loss at 230 individuals. Keith Williams, Arch president of western operations, said it made efforts to preserve as many jobs as possible. "This deci- n e w s c o n t i n u e d ty has strengthened our business to support the growth and future success of our customers." Aurizon is the largest freight rail company in Australia. The announcement follows news earlier this month from BHP that it would cut 290 Mount Arthur jobs. Officials said the impetus for the m ove was "an extended period of declining thermal coal prices," and post-cut the complex will have a workforce of 1,440. CIL to Step Up Outsourcing of Exploration and Production Keeping an eye on achieving a 1-billion-ton-per-year target by 2020, outsourcing is the new mantra for Coal India Ltd., (CIL) for both exploration and production from domestic Greenfield and brownfield mine expansion. Since more than half of the targeted coal production by 2020 would come from greenfield coal projects, the Indian mining behemoth has decided for the first time to rope in external exploration agencies to conduct surveys and detailed exploration to determine "proven" reserves in new coal blocks under the fold of CIL. Central Mine Planning and Design Institute Ltd. (CMPDIL), the wholly-owned consultancy and technical subsidiary of CIL, would commence later this month the exercise to select domestic and for- eign exploration agencies to take up detailed exploration projects, a CIL senior official said. He said exploration projects would be split up across several coal blocks, and number of exploration agencies were expected to be selected based on geological parameters and challenges of each block and respective exploratory capabilities of agencies bidding for the contracts. Even on the production front of existing operational mines, CIL was increasing its reliance on outsourcing operations to mine developer operators (MDOs) and contractual manpower rather than manpower on its own payrolls. It was pointed out that since many of the existing coal mines under CIL were nearing the end of their life, it was economical to have equipment and machinery deployed by MDOs rather than incur capital expenditure on its own. By rough estimates, more than 52% of total coal production achieved during fiscal year 2015-2016 could be accounted for by MDOs and contractual manpower, the official said. Outsourcing of manpower deployment had also enabled CIL to restructure its own manpower deployment and sharply reduce wage bills, across its operational mines. During the period of April-December 2015, the government- owned and managed, CIL paid out an estimated $3.34 billion on account of wages to 326,032 employees directly on its payroll. While it had to incur an expense of $585 million on account of 65,000 contractual workers and employees deployed by agencies indicating the proportional lower costs incurred on account of wage bills and the gas pedal would be pressed to speed up this trend over the next couple of years. Continued from p. 5... 6 www.coalage.com April 2016 ˛