Liberty Fuels Company, which runs Liberty Mine adjacent to Mississippi Power’s Kemper County energy facility, expects to lay off 75 employees at the mine in about two months.

NACCO Industries, the head company that oversees Liberty Fuels Company’s parent North American Coal Co., announced the layoff in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing earlier this week. A notice was issued to the 75 employees on Aug. 4, the filing states.

Under its contract with Mississippi Power, Liberty Fuels Company supplies the lignite coal meant to fuel the gasification portion at the Kemper County energy facility.

Mississippi Power suspended its lignite coal gasification construction at the plant on June 28, pending the outcome of settlement talks with the Mississippi Public Service Commission.

The NACCO filing states the 75 employees’ jobs are to be terminated after a required 60-day Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act Notice period.

The Mississippi Public Service Commission on July 6 called on Mississippi Power to ditch its clean coal plans and only operate the Kemper plant as a natural gas facility, which the plant has done in part since 2014.

In the meantime, North American Coal continues to operate under its contract with Mississippi Power pending the commission’s final decision on the operation of the gasifier and the Liberty Mine.

NACCO Industries said in the filing that it does not expect an immediate financial impact from the layoffs because of the nature of its contract with Mississippi Power, but that could change as the fate of the gasification process becomes clear.

“Should the decision to suspend operations of the gasifier and mine become permanent, it will unfavorably affect North American Coal’s long-term earnings under its contract with Mississippi Power,” the filing states.

Mississippi Power is responsible for all mine closure costs, if required, with Liberty Fuels Company contracted to complete the final mine closure.

Mississippi Power has an Aug. 21 deadline to file a settlement proposal with the commission, which will then decide long-term plans related to the power plant and mine.

Close window X

Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Unless otherwise noted, you can republish most of Mississippi Today’s stories for free under a Creative Commons license. For digital publications:

• Look for the "Republish This Story" button underneath each story. To republish online, simply click the button, copy the html code and paste into your Content Management System (CMS).
• Editorial cartoons and photo essays are not included under the Creative Commons license and therefore do not have the "Republish This Story" button option. To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
• You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
• You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
• Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
• If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.

For print publications:

• You have to credit Mississippi Today. We prefer “Author Name, Mississippi Today” in the byline. If you’re not able to add the byline, please include a line at the top of the story that reads: “This story was originally published by Mississippi Today” and include our website, mississippitoday.org.
• You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
• You cannot republish our editorial cartoons, photographs, illustrations or graphics without specific permission (contact our managing editor Kayleigh Skinner for more information). To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
• Our stories may appear on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories.
• You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
• You can only publish select stories individually — not as a collection.
• Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
• If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.

If you have any other questions, contact Audience Development Director Lauchlin Fields.

Kemper-related mine expected to cut 75 jobs

by Kendra Ablaza, Mississippi Today
August 9, 2017

<h1>Kemper-related mine expected to cut 75 jobs</h1> <p class="byline">by Kendra Ablaza, Mississippi Today <br />August 9, 2017</p> <p>Liberty Fuels Company, which runs Liberty Mine adjacent to Mississippi Power’s Kemper County energy facility, expects to lay off 75 employees at the mine in about two months.</p> <p>NACCO Industries, the head company that oversees Liberty Fuels Company’s parent North American Coal Co., announced the layoff in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/789933/000078993317000046/aug2017liberty8-k.htm">filing</a> earlier this week. A notice was issued to the 75 employees on Aug. 4, the filing states.</p> <p>Under its contract with Mississippi Power, Liberty Fuels Company supplies the lignite coal meant to fuel the gasification portion at the Kemper County energy facility.</p> <p>Mississippi Power suspended its lignite coal gasification construction at the plant on June 28, pending the outcome of settlement talks with the Mississippi Public Service Commission.</p> <p>The NACCO filing states the 75 employees’ jobs are to be terminated after a required 60-day Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act Notice period.</p> <p>The Mississippi Public Service Commission on July 6 called on Mississippi Power to ditch its clean coal plans and only operate the Kemper plant as a natural gas facility, which the plant has done in part since 2014.</p> <p>In the meantime, North American Coal continues to operate under its contract with Mississippi Power pending the commission’s final decision on the operation of the gasifier and the Liberty Mine.</p> <p>NACCO Industries said in the filing that it does not expect an immediate financial impact from the layoffs because of the nature of its contract with Mississippi Power, but that could change as the fate of the gasification process becomes clear.</p> <p>“Should the decision to suspend operations of the gasifier and mine become permanent, it will unfavorably affect North American Coal’s long-term earnings under its contract with Mississippi Power,” the filing states.</p> <p>Mississippi Power is responsible for all mine closure costs, if required, with Liberty Fuels Company contracted to complete the final mine closure.</p> <p>Mississippi Power has an Aug. 21 deadline to file a settlement proposal with the commission, which will then decide long-term plans related to the power plant and mine.</p> <p>This <a target="_blank" href="https://mississippitoday.org/2017/08/09/kemper-related-mine-expected-to-cut-75-jobs/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://mississippitoday.org">Mississippi Today</a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.<img src="https://i0.wp.com/mississippitoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/MT_square-thumb.jpg?fit=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;"><img id="republication-tracker-tool-source" src="https://mississippitoday.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=85422&ga=UA-75003810-1" style="width:1px;height:1px;"></p> Copy to Clipboard

1