Following is the official statement from Link, who is based at Arch Coals's St. Louis corporate headquarters: "Due to continuing weakness in U.S. coal markets, Mountain Coal found it necessary to reduce the workforce at the West Elk mine near Somerset, Colorado. Sixty-one full-time employees (both hourly and salaried) were released this week. Additionally, service agreements with two contract companies that provided approximately 40 contract miners previously were terminated on June 1. Following these cuts, West Elk mine now employs approximately 350 people.

"Mountain Coal deeply regrets the need for this action. Unfortunately, U.S. coal markets have undergone an unprecedented contraction in recent months. U.S. coal demand is expected to decline by more than 100 million tons in 2009 due to continuing economic weakness, significantly reduced electricity demand and a sharp decline in industrial activity.

"West Elk expects to operate at reduced rates for the remainder of 2009. The mine expects to return to more normal production rates once economic activity rebounds. We aren't prepared to provide a revised production projection at this time. We are still gauging market demand. When operating normally, the West Elk mine produces more than 6 million tons per year."

Link added that last year the West Elk Mine moved to the new E coal seam and production has been lower than normal.

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed