Consol Cutting Production at Blacksville Mine
Charleston Gazette
28 February 2012
By Associated Press
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Consol Energy is scaling back operations at a
northern West Virginia coal mine because of low market demand.
Pennsylvania-based Consol announced Tuesday that it will idle the
Blacksville No. 2 longwall operation and reduce the schedule for
its continuous mining operation to four days a week.
The mine employs 585 people, but no workers will be laid off.
Consol says most overtime and other non-essential work will be
postponed until normal operations resume. When that might happen
is unclear.
Consol says the coal market is weak because of the mild winter and
low natural gas prices.
Last year, Blacksville No. 2 produced 4.3 million tons of coal
using a single longwall and three continuous mining units.
Monthly production will drop by about 400,000 tons while the
changes are in effect.