Patriot Coal Corp said that it will close one of its central Appalachia mines, located in southern West Virginia resulting in the termination of all employees working there effective October 5th 2009.

Patriot Coal said that it was trying to balance its production levels with soft thermal coal demand through focusing on production at lower cost mining complexes.

Mr Richard Whiting CEO of Patriot said that “By ceasing operations at this higher cost surface mine, Patriot will keep valuable permitted reserves in the ground until the market yields more favorable pricing and margins.”

The Samples surface mine, which is part of Patriot Coal's Paint Creek mining complex has an annual production rate of about 2.5 million tons of thermal coal.

Patriot Coal, which produces and markets coal in eastern United States has 15 active mining complexes in the Appalachia and Illinois basins.

(Sourced from Thomson Reuters)