Mining Sector Takes Another Hit

The company is employee-owned.

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Another Indiana coal mining company is announcing layoffs. In a notice to the state, Evansville-based Vigo Coal Co. Inc. says it plans to reduce the work force by 66 at its Liberty Mine in Boonville and Friendsville Mine in Illinois.

The company expects the cuts to be permanent. Vigo Coal attributes the move to a customer idling part of its operation, which represents a "significant reduction in the amount of coal it will purchase." The Liberty Mine is the company’s newest, as extraction began in 2012.

Vigo Coal’s website says it currently has six mining locations in its southeast Illinois and southwest Indiana portfolio, including a second in Boonville, Newburgh and Knox County.

In November, Gibson County Coal in Princeton announced reductions involving 130 workers and just days before, UMI LLC & United Minerals Co. LLC detailed nearly 140 cuts in Huntingburg.