There was ZERO coal owned by NEWC. The claims are what is known in the business as "Moose Pasture". No exploration was conducted on these properties except for some walking around and exposing some small outcrops. Nothing else.
They would have been YEARS and many millions of dollars away from commercializing anything, even assuming there was anything there to exploit. The exploration had not been done to even determine if there was anything to mine, much less the how much and if it was economic.
All this information was in the SEC filings - no one should have had that pulled over their eyes. Assuming they actually read (and understood) the SEC filings.