Southern Indiana Mining Operation to Idle
(Image of Gibson North operation courtesy of Alliance Resource Partners LP.)
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowGibson County Coal LLC is planning to idle production at a mine in Princeton. In a notice to the state, the company says the move is expected to affect 130 workers.
The lay-offs are set to take place January 6. Most of the employees affected work underground.
Gibson County Coal didn’t provide any additional information in the public letter posted by the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, but a nationwide dip in coal demand and a rapidly-changing environmental regulatory picture have had a big impact on the industry in Indiana. Just last month, United Minerals Company LLC announced cuts involving nearly 140 workers at operations in Dubois, Warrick, Pike, Gibson and Vanderburgh counties.
Oklahoma-based Alliance Resource Partners LP, which opened the Gibson North mine operated by Gibson County Coal in 2000, says the mine produced 3.8 million tons last year. It says the operation "utilizes continuous mining units employing room-and-pillar mining techniques to produce medium-sulfur coal. The preparation plant has a throughput capacity of 700 tons of raw coal an hour."