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Arch bids $86M for Montana-owned Otter Creek coal

By The Associated Press

Story Created: Mar 16, 2010 at 8:37 PM MST

Story Updated: Mar 16, 2010 at 8:37 PM MST

BILLINGS - Arch Coal Inc. has bid $86 million plus future royalty payments for a half-billion tons of state-owned coal near the Wyoming border.

St. Louis-based Arch already controls 731 million tons of the fuel next to the state's coal. Because the public and private coal tracts are arranged in a checkerboard fashion, industry observers say the two properties likely would be mined together.

The Montana Land Board had set a minimum bid price of 15 cents per ton, or $86 million, for the publicly owned Otter Creek tracts south of Ashland. That was down almost $60 million from a previous lease sale in February that had no bidders, only a letter from Arch saying the price was too high.

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