“There are no developments in the business of affairs of the company which have not been announced,” president and chief executive officer Ken Bates said on Thursday afternoon.

The company’s management, he added, was attributing the recent movements in share prices to the current market pricing for coal on world markets.

“The demand for and price of coal has been adversely affected by global economic conditions,” he said.

There has been a trend of uneasiness across online investor message boards such as Stockhouse in recent weeks, centering around Cline’s performance on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

As many speculated with regards to the share price adjustments, one unidentified contributor on Thursday went as far as to suspect that negative company news had been leaked.

“[C]onsidering [the] big drop in share price and almost 12 million shares traded,” he theorized … in my opinion, talk about insider trading and poor management.”

Earlier this month, Cline officials confirmed its New Elk mine in eastern Colorado would shift from a contract-based operation to a mine fully operated by its senior management staff on May 1.

The news comes after the company was recently given the green light to extract additional coal from the mine’s Blue seam.

Operational responsibility for the opening and initial development of the mine has up until now been provided by TK Mining Services under a mining services agreement.

Cline said it did not anticipate any changes with regards to the status or security of its miners, as the crews would remain on the New Elk team with no changes to their personal employment arrangements.

New Elk, Located near Trinidad, is estimated to contain 191.2 million tons of measured and 197.3Mt of indicated in-place low-sulfur, high-volatile, ‘B’ bituminous coking coal.

Production from 2012 onwards is expected to be 3 million tons per annum.

Cline also has metallurgical coal properties in British Columbia, Canada.