Wyoming State Office
| Contacts: | Beverly Gorny | |||
| 307-775-6158 |
Antelope Coal Submits Successful Bid at Coal Lease Sale
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Wyoming State Office announced today that Antelope Coal LLC, Gillette, Wyo., was the lone bidder and submitted the qualifying high bid of $49,311,500 (87.5 cents per mineable ton) for the West Antelope II South Coal Tract.
A qualifying bid must meet or exceed BLM’s estimate of the fair market value of the tract. The high bid met the fair market value and was accepted.
The 1,908.6 acre West Antelope II South Coal Tract, contains an estimated 56.356 million tons of mineable coal. The tract is located two to four miles south of the Campbell/Converse County line and one to three miles east of State Highway 59. The coal tract is adjacent to the western and southern lease boundary of the Antelope Mine.
Once a lease is issued, an annual rental payment of $3 per acre is required along with a royalty payment of 12.5 percent of the value of coal produced by strip or auger mining methods and eight percent of the value of the coal produced by underground mining methods.
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. In 2010, nearly 400 million tons of coal was mined from BLM-administered public lands in Wyoming resulting in coal royalties of over $598 million. Royalty and qualifying bid income is shared nearly equally with the State of Wyoming.
The West Antelope II South Coal Tract was offered for sale in response to a lease by application (LBA) filed by Antelope Coal LLC, Gillette, Wyo. The coal resource consists of all reserves recoverable by surface mining methods.
The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land, the most of any Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, recreational and other activities on BLM-managed land contributed more than $130 billion to the U.S. economy and supported more than 600,000 American jobs. The Bureau is also one of a handful of agencies that collects more revenue than it spends. In FY 2012, nearly $5.7 billion will be generated on lands managed by the BLM, which operates on a $1.1 billion budget. The BLM's multiple-use mission is to sustain the health and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. The Bureau accomplishes this by managing such activities as outdoor recreation, livestock grazing, mineral development, and energy production, and by conserving natural, historical, cultural, and other resources on public lands.
Wyoming State Office 5353 Yellowstone Road Cheyenne, Wyoming 82009