CASPER, Wyo. (AP) - Coal production in Wyoming has increased in the first three months of the year, but employment at coal mines in the state is still down by nearly 700 workers.
The figures were released as Wyoming’s coal industry has been working to come back from a low point in 2016, when hundreds of miners were laid off as the three largest producers went through bankruptcy, the Casper Star-Tribune reported (https://bit.ly/2oYe80l ) Sunday.
Annual coal production in the state slipped below 300 million tons, the lowest since 1998.
Production began to rebound in late 2016, and the 18 coal mines in the state produced 80 million tons of coal from January to March this year, nearly 15 million tons more than the same period in 2016, according to Wyoming State Geological Survey preliminary data.
“It’s a matter of industry discipline; you are doing more with less,” said Travis Deti, director of the Wyoming Mining Association. “I think we are going to hire some more miners back, but are we going to see all of those guys come back to work? Probably not.”
The largest producers were Peabody Energy’s North Antelope Rochelle mine with about 25 million tons and Arch Coal’s Black Thunder mine, which produced a little over 18 million tons. Cloud Peak Energy’s Antelope mine was third with 7.4 million, the newspaper said.
Despite the increased production, there are 690 fewer coal jobs in Wyoming now than there were at this time last year.
Jobs bottomed out at 5,557 over the summer after layoffs in coal-rich Campbell County. Peabody Energy and Arch Coal shed about 15 percent of the workforce at their largest mines in the Powder River Basin on March 31, 2016. Less severe layoffs followed at other mining operations in the state.
There are currently 5,650 coal jobs in Wyoming, according to Mining Safety and Health Administration data.
Coal companies will begin reporting first-quarter earnings in the coming weeks, another gauge of the industry in Wyoming.
“I wouldn’t go so far as to say we are out of the woods yet,” Deti said “But I think we have seen the bottom.”
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This story has been corrected to show the production increase in quarter was 15 million tons, not 15 tons
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Information from: Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune, https://www.trib.com
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