Massey Energy Company was a coal extractor in the United States with substantial operations in West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia. By revenue, it was the fourth largest producer of coal in the United States and the largest coal producer in Central Appalachia. By coal production weight, it was the sixth largest producer of coal in the United States.
Massey's mines yielded around 40 million tons annually. The company controlled 2.3 billion tons of proven and probable coal reserves in Southern West Virginia, Eastern Kentucky, Southwest Virginia and Tennessee or about a third of all Central Appalachian reserves. It employed approximately 5,850 people, and operated 35 underground mines and 12 surface mines.
Massey Energy owned and operated Upper Big Branch Mine where 29 miners were killed in April 2010. The Mine Safety and Health Administration found that the company's culture of favoring production over safety contributed to flagrant safety violations that caused the coal dust explosion. On December 6, 2011 the Mine Safety and Health Administration announced a $10,825,368 levy against Massey, the largest monetary penalty imposed by the agency in history.
The resulting $10.8 million in total was from 369 citations and orders. Following Alpha Natural Resources' acquisition, Alpha additionally settled Massey's potential criminal liabilities for $209 million.
In January 2011, it was announced that Massey Energy company would be bought by competitor Alpha Natural Resources for $7.1 billion. More than 99% of Massey shareholders and 98% of Alpha shareholders voted in favor of the acquisition and courts in Delaware and West Virginia agreed with the shareholders' vote.
History
A.T. Massey incorporated the A.T. Massey Coal Company in 1920 as a coal brokering business in Richmond, Virginia, and served as the company's first president. A.T. Massey acquired its first mining operation in 1945 and expanded its business to include coal mining and processing. Five generations of the Massey family headed the company, including Evan Massey in 1945, William E. Massey in 1962, and E. Morgan Massey in 1972.
St. Joe Minerals acquired controlling interest in A.T. Massey in 1974. Six years later, St. Joe Minerals sold 50% of its interest in A. T. Massey to Royal Dutch Shell, forming the Massey Coal Partnership to run the company. In 1981, the Fluor Corporation acquired St. Joe Minerals. In 1984, the United Mine Workers of America went on strike against A.T. Massey, sparking a series of confrontations documented in the film Mine War on Blackberry Creek. Fluor and Royal Dutch Shell dissolved the Massey Coal Partnership in 1987, with each entity assuming ownership of half of the operations. Fluor changed the name of the operations it owned back to A. T. Massey Coal Company, initiating a period of significant growth through acquisitions.
In 1992, Don Blankenship was appointed President, Chairman and CEO of A.T. Massey Coal Company; he served as the Chairman and CEO of Massey for 18 years. Blankenship oversaw continued company growth, including several more acquisitions and the establishment of several subsidiaries.
A.T. Massey completed a reverse spin-off from Fluor Corporation in 2000 and was renamed Massey Energy Company. As of 2010, Massey Energy produced, processed, and sold bituminous coal of steam and metallurgical grades, primarily of low sulfur content, through its 22 processing and shipping centers, called "resource groups," many of which received coal from multiple coal mines.
On Dec. 31, 2010, longtime CEO Don Blankenship stepped down, and was replaced as CEO by Massey President Baxter F. Phillips Jr.
Sale of Massey to Alpha
On June 1, 2011, shareholders of Alpha Natural Resources agreed to buy Massey Energy for $7.1 billion, making it the nation's largest metallurgical coal company. Some shareholder groups had tried to block the sale claiming that Massey managers had engineered the sale of the company to protect themselves from liabilities and had arranged new management jobs with Alpha.