The US' leading supplier and exporter of metallurgical coal, Alpha Natural Resources, announced Friday that its affiliate, Dickenson-Russell Coal Company, LLC (Dickenson-Russell), is idling the Moss #3 metallurgical preparation plant in Russell County, Virginia, effective November 30. The scheduled idling will impact a total of 38 employees, and coal sales volumes will be unaffected by the plant shut down.
Ron Patrick, President of Dickenson-Russell, said, "we regret the need to idle the Moss #3 Plant, but the volume of its raw coal supply has been significantly reduced over the last twelve to eighteen months. Without its normal throughput inventory, the cost to operate the plant was not economically sustainable."