It's just like this There is a Huge DIFFERENCE between closing a mine and putting it on "Hot Idle". Most all of these mines that they hype about are on hot idle meaning they can start producing pretty quickly with in a week or so. A closed mine can't be. So Nit-wits like to make a big deal out of it for their adgenda. It's crap really.. They shift workers around most of the time and mines being put on idle is nothing new is been going on for years, on again, off again.Makes a great story for the news though.
They cut back production and expansion it was costing to much money in production cost and coal is/was moving slow. So the decision to cut back affects the whole community in a huge way. One was is it makes are debt less. Second is it helps with supply and demand. There are other coal producers following there lead. Or maybe PCX followed there lead. Which ever it was a wise decision by our new management. We at some point will have an awesome met coal mine and the demand for that with current construction growth in south america, china and india is nice.