Patriot Coal expects to lay off 2000-plus in W.Va.

“Fifty million dollars in additional funds will be devoted to reclaiming Patriot’s former mine sites, and a large portion of Patriot’s existing workforce, both union and nonunion, will continue to be employed in that effort”. “This news is very disheartening for the mining communities in West Virginia”, Carper said in a news release.

“It wasn’t an unexpected yet, it’s hard”, White said in a handset audio interview.

Marion County was notified of 489 layoffs on Monday, although there are no Patriot mines there, County Administrator Kris Cinalli said in an email.

Patriot’s surety bonds to obtain its original mining permits on the sites will also remain in place under the deal, which total more than $158 million.

Clinton, who is running for the Democratic Party nomination for the November 2016 presidential race, said Friday that Patriot’s bankruptcy plan “must be stopped” because it did not preserve the retirement benefits that had been promised to its workers. Coronado Coal LLC was designated the backup bidder. A Tuesday hearing on the plan in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond, Virginia, was rescheduled for Wednesday.

Patriot’s agreement with the DEP resolves the agency’s objection to the bankruptcy plan.

Patriot announced in June that it would sell substantially all of its ongoing operations to Blackhawk Mining as part of a proposed bankruptcy plan.

Last month, the company asked a US judge to allow it to end its obligations towards 969 non-union retirees, saying no potential buyer of its assets would agree to take on the cost.