Essar buys Trinity Coal from Denham

India's Essar Group has bought West Virginia-based coal producer Trinity Coal Partners from private-equity firm Denham Capital Management for $600 million.

Trinity is a top 10 coal producer in the US, operating six mining complexes with a total of 10 surface mines, three underground mines and six highwall miner units in Kentucky and West Virginia. It employs around 650 people. Trinity has a proven reserve base of 200 million tonnes of coal split between metallurgical and steam coal, which it sells to electric utilities, steel manufacturers, coal brokers and other buyers primarily in the eastern United States. It currently produces 7 million tonnes of coal annually and has plans to ramp up production to...