The company confirmed to ILN Friday that the layoffs, which were effective December 2, include 114 positions at the Canyon Fuel Dugout Canyon longwall mine near Wellington, Utah, and 117 at the Knott County/Raven, Flint Ridge, Hazard and East Kentucky operations in Kentucky.

“Due to near-term weakness in steam coal markets, five of our operations have taken the difficult yet necessary step of scaling back some coal production and personnel in the past month,” spokesperson Kim Link told ILN.

The Kentucky mines were formerly owned by International Coal Group; Arch bought out ICG in June.

Arch first announced plans to cut the Dugout Canyon workforce last month, though it projected 2012’s first half for the furloughs.

“We regret the need to take this difficult action,” executive vice president of operations Paul Lang said at the time.

“We hope to retain most, if not all, of these valued members of the Canyon Fuel team and plan to offer positions to the affected employees at operations within Arch's national network of mines.”

Lang said that while it was dropping production at the operation, there might be additional opportunities in the future for Utah coal both domestically and internationally.

“The next potential longwall panel at Dugout Canyon has been developed and any decision on future production will be based on what market conditions allow,” he said.

Arch also confirmed in November that employees affected by the layoffs would receive 60 days of wages and benefits in addition to a severance package and would be offered relocation assistance if they opted to fill open company positions in other states.

Arch’s mines, which are located in both the western and eastern US coalfields, sold 179Mt of coal pro forma in 2010.