Arch Coal idles Appalachia coal-mining complex, lays off 213
TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – NYSE-listed Arch Coal on Monday announced that it was idling the Cumberland River Coal Company complex, located in Wise County, Virginia, and Letcher County, Kentucky, in the wake of persistently sluggish metallurgical coal markets.
Cumberland River comprises two underground operations and related facilities. The mining complex previously shuttered two contract mines during the second quarter of 2013.
"With this move, we are actively responding to currently challenged metallurgical coal markets while striving to enhance our overall competitive cost position in Appalachia. Our strategy is to increasingly shift our portfolio toward higher-margin, lower-cost metallurgical coal operations, while retaining our valuable reserves for when market conditions strengthen in future,” Arch president and CEO John Eaves said.
In total, 213 full-time positions would be eliminated by idling Cumberland River; however, where available, the company was taking steps to provide opportunities at other Arch subsidiaries.
Cumberland River sold about 290 000 t in the first half of the year, consisting mainly of higher-cost metallurgical grade coal. The decision to idle operations at Cumberland River was expected to reduce Arch's 2014 metallurgical coal sales volume by about 200 000 t.
Arch now expected to ship between 6.3-million tons and 6.9-million tons of metallurgical coal for the full year.
The company planned to update investors regarding its full-year 2014 expectations in its second quarter earnings release on July 29.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation