BRILLIANT -- OhioAmerican Energy said it will lay off as many as 115 employees at its Redbird West mine near Brilliant, beginning Nov. 14.
The company said in a letter to the Jefferson County commissioners that OhioAmerican plans to lay off 115 employees and the layoffs are expected to be permanent.
In a statement dated Monday, the company said Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notices were given to the employees of Redbird West as required at least 60 days before all or part of a workforce is expected to be laid off for more than six months.
The statement said, "Employees at OhioAmerican were told by management Monday morning that only some, and definitely not all, employees at the Redbird West Mine will be laid off. Those decisions have not yet all been made."
In the letter to commissioners, Charles O. Kapp, vice president of operations and general manager for OhioAmerican, a subsidiary of Murray Energy Corp., said lists of the job titles to be affected and the number of affected employees in each job classification will be made available for the commissioners' inspection, if desired.
The statement from the company said management plans to meet with employees Nov. 11 "to further apprise them of the status of OhioAmerican's Redbird West Mine and its very valued employees."
No layoffs are expected before Nov. 14, the company said, and the letter to commissioners indicated the layoffs would be completed by Nov. 28.
The mine, which opened in mid-2007, uses a specialized system to remove coal from the highwall of an older strip mine, as well as regular surface mining methods. The continuous highwall miner reaches as much as 1,200 feet into the coal face to extract coal via remote control. The coal is removed from the bore with conveyor cars. One man works in a control booth outside the mine to operate the continuous miner by remote control. Other crew members outside the mine work the belt system.
The mine's chief customer is the nearby American Electric Cardinal power plant. Ohio American anticipated when the mine opened that it would be operating at peak capacity of about 2 million tons a year by this fall. At the time, total employment was estimated to be 250.
The company did not issue further comment beyond the press release.
(Giannamore can be contacted at pgiannamore@heraldstaronline.com)
