US underground coal mining company Murray Energy has announced plans to lay-off around 1,800 workers at various mines in West Virginia and Ohio.
Representing 21% of the company’s workforce, the planned lay-offs are being done amid declining thermal coal prices, a source familiar with the matter told Wall Street Journal.
The latest decision follows various meetings held by the company’s chief executive officer Robert Murray with operations managers.
Most of the job cuts will be in Murray Energy’s Monongalia County Coal in West Virginia, which has been idled earlier this spring, leaving several mining workers jobless.
Murray Energy did not reveal the exact locations of where the lay-offs would occur.
According to Murray, the company had around 8,600 people, and the number has now reduced to 7,500.
Two months ago, Murray Energy acquired a controlling stake in the US-based mining company Foresight Energy in a deal worth $1.4bn.
With a capacity to control more than nine billion tonnes of coal reserves, the new company can generate nearly 90 million tonnes of coal production a year.
Murray Energy purchased five mines from US-based Consol Energy in 2013 for $3.25bn.