DAVIS, W.Va. — Wednesday will be the last day on the job for 199 workers at the Mountain View Mine near the Tucker/Grant County line. Metikki Coal announced plans to close the mine in January.
The loss of a main customer was given as the reason for the closure. The company announced in a statement at the time a key customer had a series of planned outages for the coming year and would be unable to buy as much coal from the mine as operators had anticipated. According to the company statement unless the customer purchased a Million tons a year, the mine could not be viable. The company did not identify the customer, but all but a very small percentage of the coal mined at Mountain View was transported just a few miles down the road to the Mount Storm Power Station.
When contacted by MetroNews, Dominion Energy, operators of the power plant, said they will source coal from elsewhere and have no plans to slow down production of electricity. In fact, the company said the plant’s output is more in demand now than ever.
Tucker and Grant County officials were crushed by the news and said it will be a financial blow to the region. The mine has historically been one of the region’s best employers with high wages and steady work. The Mountain View mine opened in November 2006 and replaced the former Metikki Mine which started operations in 1983.
The closure came only days before Coronado Coal announced it would be closing seven mining operations in southern West Virginia operating under the banner of Greenbrier Minerals.