Company officials said its decision to close the operation near Farmersville and Carlinville was forced by poor market conditions.
Springfield Coal vice president Tom Austin told the State Journal-Register that the miners were notified on October 18 with communications required under the federal WARN Act that listed December 20 as their final working day.
He also said Crown III’s main customer, Archer Daniels Midland, did not renew its tonnage contract.
It is not known if the closure will be permanent or temporary.
“Anything’s possible,” he said.
Springfield is owned by Tri-County Coal. It is reportedly the state’s last union operation.
Carlinville mayor Deanna Demuzio called the news a “terrible blow to the economic base of our economy”
“We are ready to work with any and everyone to see how we can get through this,” she said, and Illinois senator Andy Manar added that he was planning a meeting soon with Springfield Coal to explore possibilities of developing more business.
Local representative Wayne Rosenthal said the area already had one of the highest unemployment rates in the state.
“That takes a big economic hit on the rest of the area because they're not taking any of their income and they're not spending it,” he said.
An ADM official told the Journal that its decision not to renew the Springfield contract amounted to cost.
“Like all businesses, we actively manage our costs,” spokeswoman Jackie Anderson said.
“In the process of reviewing our coal supply options, we found that other Illinois mines were substantially more competitive than the Crown III mine … therefore, we made an economic decision not to renew our contract with Crown III.
“We are pleased that we are able to continue powering our Illinois operations with coal from here in the state.”
Anderson did not say which mines the company would buy future tonnage from.
According to federal data, Crown III produced more than 811,000 short tons of coal in 2012 and, through the third quarter of this year, had produced 729,479t.
Its sister mine Crown II closed in 2007.
