August 17: Wyoming BLM to Hold Coal Lease Sale, Caballo West Coal Tract Being Offered for Sale
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The Bureau of Land Management will hold a competitive coal lease sale by sealed bid at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 17. The sale will be held in Cheyenne.
The Caballo West Coal Tract, a 1,023.99 acre area containing an estimated 130.196 million tons of mineable coal, will be offered for lease to the qualified high bidder of the highest cash amount. The high bid must meet or exceed BLM’s estimate of the fair market value of the tract. The minimum bid for this tract is $100 per acre, or fraction thereof. The minimum bid is not intended to represent fair market value.
The Caballo West Coal Tract is being offered for sale in response to a lease by application (LBA) filed by BTU Western Resources, Inc. (successor to Caballo Coal Company) of Gillette. The coal resource to be offered consists of all reserves recoverable by surface mining methods. The tract is located approximately eight miles south-southeast of Gillette and east of State Highway 59.
The LBA tract is adjacent to Federal, private, and State of Wyoming leases along the western lease boundary of the Caballo mine and to the Belle Ayr North LBA along the south. It is adjacent to additional unleased Federal coal to the west. The tract is crossed by Bishop Road along its southern boundary.
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.
“Nearly 400 million tons of low sulfur Wyoming coal was used to generate electricity in 35 states in 2010,” said BLM Wyoming State Director Don Simpson. “Wyoming is the number one coal producer from public lands contributing 35 percent of the nation’s 1.1 billion tons of coal used domestically each year.” Last fiscal year, coal royalties of $598 million were collected and shared nearly equally with the State of Wyoming.
To stop by Wyoming’s Bureau of Land Management’s website, CLICK HERE
