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Montana gets 1 response to coal sale

By The Associated Press

Story Created: Mar 16, 2010 at 3:13 PM MST

Story Updated: Mar 16, 2010 at 3:13 PM MST

BILLINGS - Montana officials say they've gotten a single response to a lease sale on a half-billion tons of state-owned coal near the Wyoming border.

The Montana Land Board has set a minimum bonus bid of $86 million plus royalties for the Otter Creek coal tracts south of Ashland. That's down almost $60 million from a previous lease sale that had no bidders, only a letter from Arch Coal, Inc. saying the price was too high.

Bidding on the new lease sale closes Tuesday. It was not immediately clear whether the single response received so far is an actual bid, or who it is from. St. Louis-based Arch already controls 731 million tons of the fuel next door to the state's coal.

The Land Board, chaired by Montana's pro-coal Democratic governor, Brian Schweitzer, is scheduled to meet Thursday to consider any new bids.

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