The November 30 closure of the union-represented plant near Carbo will impact 38 employees.

"We regret the need to idle the Moss No. 3 plant, but the volume of its raw coal supply has been significantly reduced over the last 12 to 18 months,” Dickenson-Russell president Ron Patrick said.

“Without its normal throughput inventory, the cost to operate the plant was not economically sustainable."

United Mine Workers of America spokesperson Phil Smith told local newspaper the Bristol News, “Any time workers are laid off it’s very disappointing, and this is no exception.

“Market conditions are apparently at work here. We believe the market will rebound eventually and these dedicated, experienced workers will be back to work.”

Alpha spokesperson Rick Nida told the paper that the Moss facility was the most costly of its preparation plants to operate, and reduced production from the mines it served was related to geology.

Alpha and Dickenson-Russell said that coal sales volumes would not be affected by the closure. The McClure plant, which has an annual capacity of 2.5 million clean tons, will pick up the production from Moss No. 3, Smith said.

The Moss plant had an annual capacity of 1.5Mt clean. It was fed by the producer’s underground mines in the Poca No. 3, Jawbone and Tiller seams, and a surface mine in the Jawbone and Raven seams.

The facility shipped low-volatility metallurgical coal, volatile pulverized coal injection coal, medium-vol met coal and high-BTU, low-sulfur utility coal for domestic and international markets.

In total, Alpha Natural Resources employs 6400 workers across more than 60 mines and 14 coal preparation facilities in northern and central Appalachia as well as the Powder River Basin.