P.M. BRIEFING : Hanson to Buy Biggest Coal Firm

DENVER — Debt-laden Newmont Mining Corp. said today it will sell its controlling stake in Peabody Holdings Co. to Hanson PLC for $715 million, giving the British industrial giant full control of America’s biggest coal producer.

Hanson, which also owns 49% of Newmont, agreed last month to pay $504 million for a 45.03% Peabody stake held jointly by Boeing Co., Bechtel Investments Inc. and Eastern Enterprises. The deal is expected to close next month.

With the purchase of Denver-based Newmont’s 54.97% stake in Peabody, Hanson will hold all outstanding shares in the nation’s largest coal producer.

“We believe that coal will continue to be an important long-term source of energy for the United States, and that new technologies will increase its efficiency as a low-cost fuel,” Sir Gordon White, chairman of Hanson Plc’s U.S. arm Hanson Industries, said in a statement.