Rio Tinto Energy America (RTEA) was a wholly owned American

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a ...

of the England and Australia-based mining giant, the

Rio Tinto Group Rio Tinto Group is an Anglo-Australian multinational company that is the world's second-largest metals and mining corporation (behind BHP). The company was founded in 1873 when of a group of investors purchased a mine complex on the Rio Tint ...

, headquartered in Gillette, Wyoming, United States. The company, previously known as Kennecott Energy after another of Rio Tinto's American subsidiaries, was formed in 1993 when Rio Tinto purchased NERCO and placed that company's Spring Creek coal mine and Antelope coal mine under the RTEA umbrella. Subsequent acquisitions included the Cordero Mining Company, the Colowyo Coal Company, and the

Jacobs Ranch Jacobs Ranch is a large open-pit coal mine located 15 miles southeast of Wright, Wyoming in the coal-rich Powder River Basin. In 2007, the mine produced 38.1 million short tons of coal, making it the fourth-largest coal mine by production in th ...

coal mine. RTEA operated four mines in

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to t ...

and

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

, supplying fuel for the generation of approximately 6% of the United States' electricity consumption. The RTEA mines were spun off to

Cloud Peak Energy Cloud Peak Energy Inc. is a company headquartered in Gillette, Wyoming which mines coal in the Powder River Basin. The company was formed as a corporate spin-off from Rio Tinto Energy America in 2009. In its 2009 Annual Report Rio Tinto stated ...

in 2010.

History

In November 2007, Rio Tinto Group announced that it would try to divest RTEA and its assets. As a first step in that effort, Rio Tinto agreed in March 2009 to sell the Jacobs Ranch coal mine to

Arch Coal Arch Resources, previously known as Arch Coal, is an American coal mining and processing company. The company mines, processes, and markets bituminous and sub-bituminous coal with low sulfur content in the United States. Arch Resources is the se ...

for a sum of $761 million. In December 2010, Rio Tinto announced that it had succeeded in "100 per cent divestment of its equity holdings in Cloud Peak Energy Inc. through a fully exercised over allotment in connection with a recently announced secondary offering." Cloud Peak Energy stated that the result of the divestment was that Cloud Peak Energy Resources LLC "is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Cloud Peak Energy Inc." Dow Jones reported that "Cloud Peak will use proceeds from the IPO nitial public offeringto buy 52 per cent of the Rio Tinto's assets it operates and Rio Tinto will own the rest." The write service also reported that early in November Standard & Poor's Ratings Services "assigned Cloud Peak a junk rating of BB minus, three steps below investment grade, citing its need for more reserves among potential risks."Kathy Shwiff
"Rio Tinto spin-off Cloud Peak Energy IPO prices below expectations"
''The Australian'', November 20, 2009.

References

External links

Rio Tinto Energy America
at

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Coal companies of the United States Rio Tinto (corporation) subsidiaries Companies based in Wyoming American subsidiaries of foreign companies Non-renewable resource companies established in 1993 {{US-energy-company-stub