A company official confirmed the closure to ILN, saying the move was consistent with its September 10 announcement of a plan to reduce thermal coal tonnage at its Logan County complex that includes the Fanco preparation facility.

About 150 workers are impacted by the closure.

“This is an unfortunate but necessary step to align Patriot's production with expected sales,” president and chief executive officer Bennett Hatfield said in September, adding that the producer would attempt to help workers with transfers to other locations.

“Despite the substantial progress being made in the Patriot reorganisation, we still have to contend with the industry-wide challenge of coal prices that have fallen well below production costs at many central Appalachian mines.

“Thermal coal markets are extremely weak due to low natural gas prices and costly regulatory changes that have reduced coal-fuelled electricity generation capacity.”

Patriot now has 11 active mining complexes in Appalachia and the Illinois Basin.