Coal company owned by West Virginia gov’s family adds jobs

BECKLEY, W.Va. – A coal company Jim Justice sold to Russians and then bought back before he became West Virginia’s governor says it’s hiring 250 workers.

Bluestone Coal announced Thursday that it is hiring foremen, mechanics, electricians, truck drivers and equipment operators at both its surface and deep mine operations in southern West Virginia.

In 2015, Justice completed a $5 million buyback of Bluestone Coal from Russian company Mechel OAO. Just six years earlier, Justice had sold the same mines to Mechel for $436 million in cash in a deal that also off-loaded $132 million in debt. Mechel then laid off many of the mines’ workers.

Justice handed the company over to his children after he was elected governor in 2016. He switched his party affiliation to Republican last year.