The bid was submitted to the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation and breaks down to about 30 cents per ton of recoverable reserves.

The agency will present Signal Peak’s bid to the Montana Land Board on July 18, at which time it will go out for public comment before a decision of acceptance can be made.

If successful, the operator will pay the state a royalty equating to 10% of the mined coal’s gross value.

According to an Associated Press report in late May, the Montana Land Board endorsed the lease of additional coal contained on state lands to the complex near Roundup in a plan that also earned a thumbs-up from Montana governor Brian Schweitzer.

The tracts, which neighbor the 300-employee longwall operation and are in the path of its growth, would be in addition to federal coal parcels Signal Peak leased earlier this year from the US Bureau of Land Management.

After two federal auctions, the first of which included a failed bid that fell below agency expectations, Signal Peak was successful in leasing 35.5 million tons from the BLM in March.

Its $10.65 million bid, equating to 30 cents a recoverable ton, was accepted in a BLM lease auction after an initial $5.3 million bid in November 2011 was rejected.

Signal Peak and its operating subsidiary, Bull Mountain, are owned by Boich and First Energy as well as the Gunvor Group.