According to large regional newspaper the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Pennsylvania-based mining giant began notifying individuals on Thursday evening about the furloughs.
They include several coal mining-related departments, including coal business support, human resources, coal engineering, accounting, information technology, purchasing, marketing and land resources.
It is part of a $65 million cost-cutting plan the producer committed itself to for the coming year.
Consol government relations vice president Tommy Johnson told the Post-Gazette that no further lay-offs were planned.
Consol’s sale of five mines, including the McElroy, Shoemaker, Blacksville, Loveridge and Robinson Run operations, was first announced on October 28.
The Ohio miner, which renamed Consolidation Coal as Murray American Energy, changed the names of all five complexes.
The Shoemaker mine will be known as Ohio County Coal Company’s Ohio County mine; the Marshall County Coal Company’s Marshall County mine was formerly McElroy; Loveridge is Marion County Coal Company’s Marion County mine; the Harrison County Coal Company Harrison County mine was formerly Robinson Run; and Blacksville will be Monongalia County Coal Company’s Monongalia County mine.
Last week Consol said wrapping up the $US3.5 billion sale – $850 million of which was in cash – before the close of the year helped it bring increased concentration to its oil and gas business.
“The completion of this complex transaction this year enables us to enter 2014 with our focus of achieving our gas growth production targets of 210-225 billion cubic feet equivalent for 2014 and 30% annual gas production growth in 2015 and 2016,” chairman and chief executive officer J Brett Harvey said.
