Patriot Coal Corporation announced that its debtor-in-possession financing has been extended to December 31, 2013. In a previous release from Jul. 2012, the company announced that the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York granted Patriot approval of its $802 million debtor-in-possession financing from Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Barclays Bank PLC, and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated as joint lead arrangers, and granted Patriot interim authorization to access immediately $677 million of the DIP financing.

Separately, the company filed a notice with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri setting forth the relevant dates for approval of its forthcoming Disclosure Statement.  The Disclosure Statement is expected to be filed on or before October 2, 2013, and the approval hearing is currently scheduled for November 6, 2013.

As previously announced, Patriot Coal and substantially all of its wholly owned subsidiaries filed voluntary petitions for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on July 9, 2012.

Patriot Coal Corporation is a producer and marketer of coal in the eastern United States, with 12 active mining complexes in Appalachia and the Illinois Basin.  The company ships to domestic and international electricity generators, industrial users and metallurgical coal customers, and controls approximately 1.9 billion tons of proven and probable coal reserves.