A metallurgical coal mining company in Southwest Virginia will lay off 72 people by mid-October, according to notices filed with state officials.
The job cuts will impact employees of Wellmore Energy Company in Buchanan County. The Grundy-based firm produces metallurgical coal, aka met coal, which is used to make steel.
Wellmore is a subsidiary of Johnson City, Tennessee-based United Coal, which is the North American subsidiary of the Ukrainian coal and steel firm Metinvest.
Wellmore recently sent three letters to Virginia officials outlining its layoff plans. The letters were sent to comply with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or the WARN Act, which requires employers to provide advance notice of mass layoffs.
“United Coal and Wellmore certainly attempted to avoid issuance of these WARN Act Notices, and regret that it became necessary,” Paul Konstanty, vice president and general counsel for United Coal Company, said in an email to Cardinal News. “However, some of the layoffs were due to completion of mine operations and others were based upon the poor metallurgical coal market conditions over the last 12+ months.”
According to a May research report from S&P Global, met coal prices have decreased because of a reduced demand for steel exacerbated by uncertainty around global trade policy.
That market trend comes on top of an overall yearslong decline in coal production and employment.
According to its letters, Wellmore will lay off 27 employees from its Elk Creek mine in Hurley by Sept. 19.
It will cut six workers from its surface minerals operation in Grundy by Sept. 19.
And it will lay off 39 employees between the Grundy site and a coal preparation plant in Big Rock by Oct. 16.
After the last round of job reductions, Wellmore will employ 171 people, according to Konstanty.
The letters state that the company expects the cuts to be permanent. The employees are not represented by a union.
In 2023, Wellmore announced it would lay off 135 employees in Buchanan County.
