Following through on a plan first outlined in 2014, Luminant Mining announced it will soon be halting operations at the Winfield and Thermo mines in northeast Texas. Company spokesman Brad Watson told local media that Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notices were distributed to approximately 80 employees at the operations in Hopkins and Titus counties, which feed the Monticello power plant.
Layoffs will take place April 29, and many workers have already been provided transfers to other positions. “Mining production will end in April. There has only been active production at the Thermo mine…the Winfield mine has a stockpile that is being brought out, but all mining will end,” he told local newspaper the Daily Tribune, noting that the plant will continue to use a mixture of local lignite and Powder River Basin (PRB) coal.
“Operations at Monticello will not be affected by this. [The PRB coal] will be brought in by rail.”
The company also has said that the decision was only a business decision and was unrelated to its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.
Winfield operations had been idled since late 2014, and only surface operations are ongoing at Thermo. The 1,880-megawatt Monticello plant, located in Mount Pleasant, currently has three active units.
