International Coal (NYSE:ICO), L&L Energy (NASDAQ:LLEN), James River Coal (NASDAQ:JRCC) Lead Coal Sector Last Month

Coal has been hot recently, and leading the sector over the last month have been International Coal (NYSE:ICO), L&L Energy (NASDAQ:LLEN), James River Coal (NASDAQ:JRCC), all increasing by over 20 percent during that time.

Not far behind them is Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) and Walter Energy (NYSE:WLT), which have surged by 18 percent.

Speculation has been swirling concerning Warren Buffett and Bill Gates being interested in coal, with employees from Arch Coal (NYSE:ACI) alleging they were seen looking around at Wyoming coal mines.

The fact that they were vastly outperformed over the last month by their peers and used social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to get the word out, suggest is may have all been a marketing ploy to generate interest in the company and increase share price through speculation.

International Coal closed Thursday at $8.17, up $0.19, or 2.38 percent. L&L Energy closed at $11.57, down $0.30, or 2.53 percent. James River ended the day at $22.61, falling $0.17, or 0.75 percent.

Walter Energy surged to close at $115.16, up $4.17, or 3.76 percent. Hecla Mining ended the session at $10.44, gaining $0.21, or 2.05 percent.