“The company has determined that it no longer intends to idle the Pinnacle mine,” the producer said in an August 7 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Officials said it moved to negate a Worker Adjustment and Restraining Notification Act (WARN) notice initially issued in late June that was “made by the previous management team,” and said that the reversal decision will “facilitate unlocking the value of its [the mine’s] assets.”
Cliffs had said in its first SEC filing that the closure of Pinnacle was due to “the persistent depressed pricing and oversupply in the metallurgical coal market.”
Ryan Thorn, public affairs coordinator for Cliffs’ North American Coal division, said that the announcement was great news for the company and employees. “We look forward to continuing safe and efficient mining operations,” he said.
The Pinnacle complex is located in Wyoming County, southwest of Beckley, one of the state’s hardest-hit areas in terms of production and personnel loss.
In the same filing, Cliffs announced it had appointed Lourenco Goncalves as its new chairman, president and CEO, effective immediately.
Goncalves replaced Jim Kirsch, who had served as chairman since July 2013, as well as Gary Halverson, who took over the CEO seat this past February.
