Alpha Natural Resources plans to cease operations at its 11 surface mines in West Virginia putting approximately 1,100 jobs at risk.
The company said it has issued notices to all the employees in accordance with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.
The proposed plans affect operations at the Highland Mining’s Superior, Reylas, Freeze Fork and Trace Fork surface mines in Logan County; the North surface mine in Mingo and Logan Counties; Black Castle Mining’s surface mine and Independence Coal’s Twilight surface mine in Boone County.
Operations at Alex Energy’s Edwight surface mine, Republic Energy’s Republic and Workman Creek surface mines in Raleigh County, Pioneer Fuel’s Ewing Fork #1 surface mine in Kanawha and Fayette Counties will also be ceased.
All the mines together have produced 4.2 million tons of thermal and metallurgical coal in the first half of this year.
The decision comes in response to declining coal demand in the US and overseas, falling coal prices, and competition from natural gas as an alternate fuel for electricity generation in the country, the company said.
Alpha Natural Resources president Paul Vining said: "Many mines in the region have done a great job finding ways to reduce costs and remain economically viable in this unprecedented business climate, but some Central Appalachia mines haven’t been able to keep up with the fast pace at which coal demand has eroded and prices have fallen.
"So, our operations managers have to take a hard and serious examination whether they can sustain a number of mines and related operations by finding additional cost reductions and whether the business will be there to support them in the year ahead."
"These actions are consistent with steps that we’ve taken in the past to build a smaller but more sustainable portfolio of mining assets across our three coal-producing basins."