Within 20 minutes the shares cliff-dived off a steady level of $1.10 each to a one-year low of 84c.
After some recovery the stock ended the day at 89c, with volume exceeding 2.2 million shares traded.
According to Bloomberg, JRC has $473 million of corporate bonds outstanding and recently hired Perella Weinberg Partners to advise on the restructuring of its debt.
“It’s been no secret that they’ve been in need of some kind of capital in some kind of way,” Raymond James Financial analyst James Rollyson reportedly said.
“There’s a few other guys that, if conditions stay the way they’ve been in the metallurgical-coal market, could be going the same way.”
The price plunge follows some fresh falls in coking coal prices and some growing online-based, short selling interest in JRC.