A western Kentucky coal mine is shutting down next week.
Alliance Resource Partners says it will cease coal production Friday, Aug. 16, at the Dotiki Mine operated by its subsidiary, Webster County Coal, LLC.
The mine employs about 200 workers.
In a news release, the company said it’s closing the mine to “focus on maximizing production at its lower-cost mines in the Illinois Basin.”
The company says the Dotiki operation will undergo reclamation of equipment and infrastructure for an undetermined amount of time.
Alliance Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Joseph Craft III said weak market conditions ”made the action necessary.”
Craft said he’s saddened that production will end at Dotiki, which opened in 1969 and is the oldest mine operated by Alliance Resource Partners.
The closure announcement came just days after word from Peabody Coal that it plans to shutter its mine in Sommerville, in Gibson County, this fall.
