Northern Wyoming News - Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years

A once-in-a-generation political crisis that’s systematically tightened its grip on the foundations of America’s democracy is coming to a crescendo with this month’s hearings on the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Thursday’s prime-t... Full story

GILLETTE – Despite losing more than $77 million in the first quarter of 2021 and a prolonged COVID-19 hangover affecting U.S. thermal coal, Peabody Energy Corp.’s Powder River Basin mines were a bright spot for the company. The company’s three PRB m... Full story

GILLETTE — Gov. Mark Gordon is defending a decision by the State Loan and Investment Board to go ahead with a state bid for a package of assets owned by Occidental Petroleum. The company bought the property and other Wyoming assets as part of its $... Full story

GILLETTE — The Powder River Basin’s coal workforce shrunk by about 6% Thursday with the layoff of 300 workers from three mines. Peabody Energy Corp. employees were informed Thursday that about 170 employees have been laid off from the North Antelope... Full story

GILLETTE — Already trying to bail out a ship taking on water, Powder River Basin coal producers are now trying to keep that up during a torrential downpour. An already-battered coal industry will struggle to make it through the rest of 2020 as much o... Full story

GILLETTE — Peabody Energy Corp. has laid off about 50 workers from its flagship North Antelope Rochelle coal mine in southern Campbell County. The move impacts temporary workers at the world’s most productive open-pit coal mine and represents a red... Full story

GILLETTE — A U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge has approved the sale of the Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr coal mines in Campbell County to Eagle Specialty Materials. The ruling by Judge Frank W. Volk in Charleston, West Virginia, clears the way for ESM, a s... Full story

GILLETTE — Contura Energy Corp. has announced it has an agreement that will allow Eagle Specialty Materials LLC, an affiliate of FM Coal LLC, to operate the Belle Ayr and Eagle Butte coal mines, which have been shuttered since July 1. Under the a... Full story

GILLETTE — A letter to locked out Blackjewel LLC coal workers at the company’s shuttered Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr operations foreshadows a possible reopening of the mines and leaves almost 600 employees with more questions than answers. Bla... Full story

GILLETTE — Blackjewel LLC says the three-week old negotiations between Contura Energy Inc. and the federal government continue and a potential sale of two large Wyoming coal mines is not “dead.” Stephen Lerner, a Blackjewel bankruptcy attorney from... Full story

GILLETTE — Patience may be a virtue, but if you’re among the nearly 600 locked out Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr coal miners who have been out of work for 56 days, it’s also more difficult to practice. For many, there is no more patience. Deanna Fritz... Full story

GILLETTE — A proposed sale of the Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr coal mines to Contura Energy Corp. “is dead,” according to a Tuesday afternoon U.S. Bankruptcy Court filing in the case of Blackjewel LLC. In a response to a Blackjewel motion to separ... Full story

GILLETTE — Cloud Peak Energy Corp., one of the Powder River Basin’s largest coal mine operators, has accepted a bid from Navajo Transitional Energy Co. to buy “substantially all of Cloud Peak Energy’s assets.” Cloud Peak announced the sale Friday, w... Full story

GILLETTE — In the absence of another qualified and better bid, Contura Energy Corp. may be one step closer to acquiring the Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr mines in Campbell County and nearly 600 workers may be close to being recalled to work. Wednesday w... Full story

GILLETTE — Nearly 600 Blackjewel LLC coal workers in Wyoming and West Virginia may see a monthlong forced layoff end soon after the company has agreed to sell a trio of mines to Contura Energy Inc. An agreement to sell the company’s flagship Eag... Full story

GILLETTE — Contura Energy Inc. plans to reinstate about 500 jobs immediately at the locked out Belle Ayr and Eagle Butte coal mines now that it's been given a green light to buy the mines from bankrupt Blackjewel LLC on Tuesday. The sale was a... Full story

GILLETTE — Blackjewel LLC has reached a deal to sell the Belle Ayr and Eagle Butte surface coal mines in Campbell County along with a mine in West Virginia. If approved, Contura Energy would become the stalking horse bidder for Blackjewel’s wes... Full story

GILLETTE — Blackjewel LLC may be closer to selling its flagship Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr mines in Campbell County than it is to securing financing to reopen and resume operations at its more than 30 operations in Wyoming, Kentucky, Virginia and W... Full story

GILLETTE — Nearly 600 workers at Blackjewel LLC’s coal mines in Campbell County are suddenly out of work after the company abruptly closed its Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr mines Monday afternoon. The move came just hours after the company had filed for... Full story

GILLETTE — Wyoming Blackjewel LLC employees still having problems with their final regular paychecks may have those worked out by Friday. Concerned over reports of Blackjewel LLC employees not being paid, a federal bankruptcy court judge held a s...

POSTED: July 8, 2019 GILLETTE — Partially prompted by threats from locked-out Blackjewel LLC coal miners and others, former company President and CEO Jeffrey Hoops Sr. maintains he’s not a crook, did not steal from company accounts and took ext... Full story

GILLETTE — It didn’t take this past week’s bankruptcy and lockout of 1,700 Blackjewel LLC workers countrywide to convince Melissa Peterson-Worden that the struggling coal producer was reaching a financial critical mass. “I knew it was coming and it w... Full story

GILLETTE — A Gillette employee of Blackjewel LLC has filed a class-action lawsuit against the coal mining company, claiming it failed to give its 1,700 employees proper notice or pay wages and other benefits earned before and after Blackjewel f... Full story

GILLETTE — Cloud Peak Energy’s bankruptcy filing Friday afternoon may be the beginning of the end for the Gillette-based coal producer. Unlike previous Powder River Basin coal bankruptcies, Cloud Peak seems to be looking to shed debt and sell its... Full story