According to a report in local newspaper the Princeton Daily Clarion, the reorganisational filing – encompassing White River Coal, Bronco Holdings I, Hazleton Mining and Hazleton Wash Plant – was submitted May 22 in federal court in the US Southern District of Indiana.

Bronco Coal, which purchased the Hazleton operation and associated assets in late 2005 for $US35 million, can continue to produce without worker furloughs under Chapter 11, Greenebaum Doll & McDonald attorney Andrew Stosberg told the newspaper. The representative of the Kentucky-based firm added that the filing originated from “difficulties arising from the purchase” of the operation.

As of January, the company had reported 1.45 million tons per annum in projected output and had contracts extending out two years, the paper said. The filing documentation reflects a debt of $41 million and assets of $25 million.

Parent company Bronco Energy is developing plans to reopen and commence operations on an 800-1100ft longwall at its Columbia operation in Utah, a former room and pillar mine closed in 1966 after labour union problems.

It will mine from the Sunnyside seam, it said in an announcement earlier this year.