Here’s today’s news from Alpha Natural Resources:

Alpha Natural Resources (ANR, Inc.) announces the divestment of substantially all of the assets of two separate operations, a coal mining complex and a natural gas operation, both located in central West Virginia.

The Green Valley mining assets in Nicholas and Greenbrier Counties are being sold to Quinwood Coal Company. The divestiture includes the Number 1 preparation plant and related permits, which have been idle since the second quarter of 2014. In addition to the coal mining complex, the New River Energy natural gas operation is being sold to Kinzer Drilling. The divestiture includes 120 producing natural gas wells in five counties.

Alpha CEO David Stetson said the divestments represent another important step toward reducing Alpha’s footprint:

With these significant divestitures, we will transfer 28 mining-related permits, reduce surety bonding by approximately $3.5 million, eliminate future reclamation spending at these sites, and further reduce our annual holding cost for inactive and idle properties by approximately $1.1 million.  Additionally, $2.7 million in self bonding will be eliminated as part of these sales, which will assist ANR in meeting its obligations to the State of West Virginia.

Stetson added:

As with previous divestitures, Alpha has been able to enter into agreements with third parties that have indicated a desire to restart these operations and restore many jobs to the local community.

The press release added:

Stetson indicated that Alpha will continue to pursue sales of other non-strategic assets in the coming months. Terms of the transactions were not released.

Certainly an interesting announcement, considering some of the remarks in this recent  Taylor Kuykendall story for S&P Global Market Intelligence:

The notion that Contura was getting the crown jewels of the reorganization and that Alpha would remain in business primarily to fulfill duties toward reclaiming legacy coal mining properties, Stetson said, is a bit of a misconception … “We certainly were left with legacy properties, but the fact of the matter is we were left with the best metallurgical mines in the Central [Appalachian] region with significant production,” Stetson said in an interview at the company’s new Kingsport, Tenn., headquarters.