Bankrupt Alpha Natural Resources lays off over 230 coal miners

Cecilia Jamasmie | February 8, 2016 | 6:38 am Energy Canada Europe Coal 
Bankrupt Alpha Natural Resources lays off over 230 coal miners
Alpha says all these job cuts are the result of a combination of oversupply of coal and dramatically reduced demand, which has driven down prices to “unsustainable levels.”

Bankrupt coal producer Alpha Natural Resources is laying another 230 miners in West Virginia for the third time in a month as a result of a severe downturn in the coal industry.

The planned dismissals, reports AP, will take place at four mines and one processing plant operated by Brooks Run Mining in Braxton and Webster counties, West Virginia.

Only last week, Alpha announced the immediately layoff of 93 miners at Kingston Mining Inc. in Fayette County. In January, the miner sent 60-day layoff notices for 831 miners and dozens more support staff at eight underground mines and two processing plants in Boone and Raleigh Counties.

Alpha says all these job cuts are the result of a combination of oversupply of coal and dramatically reduced demand, which has driven down prices to “unsustainable levels,” particularly for central Appalachian coal.

The company filed for bankruptcy protection in August last year.

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2 Comments

  • Restless Boomers

    The worst part of this is that West Virginia, instead of allowing market forces to naturally rebirth its economy, continues to take deliberate actions which only make things worse. Several years ago we spent almost six weeks with WV, Wheeling and Ohio County economic development officials in an effort to locate a new business in Wheeling.

    Despite all our efforts their over-educated university egghead buffoons couldn’t get their heads our of their you know what and we finally had to move on, buying a 38,500 sq ft factory in the Carolinas instead.

    Now, Wheeling, Ohio County and WV economic development gurus are spending millions in scarce taxpayer dollars to relocate an Ohio healthcare provider to Wheeling’s moribund downtown area. This is of course happening just as the entire healthcare industry, which now sucks 20% of GDP, is about to be disintermediated by a tremendous technological avalanche that’s going to sweep healthcare as we know it down the drain.

    Plain and simple, government is full of corrupt parasites who know nothing but how to sponge off hard working taxpayers, destroying our once vibrant economy in the process. Will West Virginians ever wake up?

  • Diogenes60025

    Given reduced demand volumes, present prices are indeed sustainable, and indeed may fall further. Assuming a 30% share of utility burn, estimated long-run thermal coal prices are likely to stabilize at about these levels:
    CAPP 1%S, 12,500 BTU: $42.00/t FOB mine
    NAPP 3%S, 12,500 BTU: $45.00/t FOB mine
    WKY 3%S, 12,000 BTU: $42.00/t FOB barge
    ILB 3%S, 11,700 BTU: $35.00/t FOB mine
    ILB 1.3%S, 10,800 BTU: $30.00/t FOB mine
    PRB 8,800 BTU: $9:00/t FOB mine
    PRB 8,400 BTU: $7.00/t FOB mine

    Sorry guys, coal prices ARE NOT going to rise. Some producers have hundreds of millions of tons of bituminous coal ready to produce at cash costs of less than $10.00/ton. Just quit trading those high-cost old mines around amongst yourselves and get real.

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