Alliance Resource Partners is idling later this week its Gibson North underground coal mine near Princeton, Indiana, at least temporarily removing at least 3 million st/year of thermal coal production, an official with the Tulsa, Oklahoma-based company confirmed Wednesday.
The shutdown is expected to occur Friday, Chris Hopple, general manager of Gibson County Coal LLC, said in an interview.
Gibson County Coal is the Alliance subsidiary that operates both Gibson North and the new Gibson South deep mine located less than a mile away.
Hopple declined to say whether the Gibson North closing is temporary or permanent.
But the company is increasing to four the number of production units at Gibson South, which is considered a more-efficient operation.
Gibson North produced 3.7 million st in 2014 and 1.75 million st through from January through September 2015, US Mine Safety and Health Administration figures show. Gibson South turned out 791,635 st in 2014 and nearly 2.3 million st during the nine-month period, MSHA said.
Alliance first said in early November it would cut back Gibson North, with longtime company president and CEO Joseph Craft III blaming the move on weak market conditions.
Alliance, a leading Illinois Basin producer that has boosted earnings for 14 consecutive years, had hoped market conditions would improve late this year, Craft said at the time, but "an oversupplied market, combined with weak pricing, forced us to take these actions and shift production to our lower-cost mines," he said.
Another Alliance subsidiary, Hopkins County Coal LLC, also is cutting production from three units to two at its Elk Creek underground mine in Hopkins County, Kentucky.
In a recent third-quarter earnings call with analysts, Alliance said it expected to produce between 41.1 million st and 41.7 million st this year and sell 40.9 million st to to 41.5 million st.
