On August 8, 2016 Conuma Coal Resources Limited and Walter signed an Asset Purchase Agreement. On August 16, Madam Justice Fitzpatrick approved the sale, which was finalized September 1 of that year.
At the time, the newly-founded company was an affiliate of ERP Compliant Fuels and the Virginia Conservation Legacy Fund, who picked up the property from Walter.
Walter bankrupted themselves by buying the mine in 2011, thinking that the ridiculously high coal prices the market was seeing when they bought the mine would last. They didn’t, dropping by nearly two thirds, and the company ran itself into the ground.
It was Conuma who came along and picked up the pieces at fire sale prices.
The company re-opened Brule on September 21 of that year, then Wolverine and Willow Creek, managing to reduce operating costs and keep the mines lean.
Since opening in 2016, the company has continued to consolidate properties in the area, picking up both Teck’s Quintette mine and Anglo American’s Peace River Coal properties.
Quintette came back on-stream—at least in part—in 2024 and the company is looking at re-opening the Trend-Roman pits, perhaps as early as next year.
The company will be celebrating its first decade with a pair of parties at the Fairgrounds on August 22 and 29.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
