Luminant Mining Co. sets final day for 80 East Texas employees

EAST TEXAS (KLTV) - The final day on the job for about 80 Luminant mining employees remaining in Hopkins and Titus counties is set for April 29.

The layoffs are the tail end of a plan announced by Luminant in 2014 to halt production at two Northeast Texas mines, where coal is produced for the Monticello power plant in Mt. Pleasant.

Production at the Thermo mine near Sulphur Springs in Hopkins County will cease by the end of April, while production at the mine near Winfield in Titus County ended in 2014, according to a company spokesman.

"We made the decision at the time [2014] that we would close those mines at the end of 2015, and it just happened that for Thermo, it ran over into the first quarter of 2016," said Brad Watson, senior director of corporate communications for Luminant.

The Monticello power plant has 3 units and primarily uses coal shipped by rail from Wyoming, Watson said. That coal comes at a price local production couldn't match.

"Looking forward, it just wasn't financially feasible to continue the investment in active mining production at those two mines," Watson said. "So the difficult decision was made to go ahead and stop mining at those two mines."

Some employees have taken the opportunity offered by Luminant to transfer to other company sites, Watson said.

Hopkins County