After anticipated market improvements failed to materialize in the first half of 2016, Blackhawk Mining has decided to permanently close three underground coal mines temporarily idled late last year at its Spurlock mining complex in eastern Kentucky, a company executive said Wednesday.
Blackhawk had hoped to save the Red Hawk Nos. 1, 4 and 6 mines, Jesse Parrish, a vice president for the Lexington, Kentucky-based company, said in a Wednesday interview.
"We had temporarily idled them and was waiting to see what the first six months of 2016 looked like," he said.
He acknowledged the results were not what Blackhawk had hoped for. The decision to file a formal WARN Act notice with the Kentucky Office of Employment and Training means about 200 employees have permanently lost their jobs.
The closure is expected to take place in August, according to the notice.
The company will continue to operate the Blackhawk 4 surface mine, which is part of the Spurlock complex in Floyd and Magoffin counties, he said. Spurlock has produced PCI, thermal, stoker and specialty coals for domestic and international steel companies, electric utilities and industrial end-users.
Parrish said the Red Hawk closings will not affect Blackhawk's plans to produce approximately 16 million st of thermal and metallurgical coal this year.
The company has grown largely through acquisitions over the past several years. Blackhawk was formed in 2010 with the acquisition of the Spurlock complex. Since then, the company has purchased Triad Mining's high-sulfur thermal coal assets in southern Indiana, the Panther Creek, Blue Creek, Rockwell and Kanawha Eagle complexes in West Virginia, and the Pine Branch Mining in eastern Kentucky.
