Coal Miner Alpha Natural Resources Files for Bankruptcy

Brooks Run Mining Co. LLC, owned by Alpha Natural Resources Inc., in Cucumber, West Virgina.
Photographer: Jon C. Hancock/Bloomberg

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By Linda Sandler, Tim Loh, Jodi Xu Klein and Laura J. Keller

August 3, 2015 at 12:47 PM UTC

Updated on

August 3, 2015 at 10:41 PM UTC

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Alpha Natural Resources Inc. filed for bankruptcy in Virginia on Monday, becoming the latest victim of the coal industry’s worst downturn in decades.

The second-largest U.S. coal company has lost almost all its market value since 2011, when it bought Massey Energy Co. for about $7 billion. The deal made it the biggest U.S. producer of metallurgical coal, used in steelmaking -- and steeped it in debt -- right before prices began their plunge.