51�Թ�

Mountain Laurel will then use the room-and-pillar mining method.

“Arch expects Mountain Laurel’s per-ton costs to decline modestly and its product quality to improve following the transition. The transition will not result in the layoff of any of Mountain Laurel’s outstanding workforce, as they will be repositioned in the new room-and-pillar mine plan,” Arch said in its announcement.

The statement says Arch will transition its Mountain Laurel operation in southern West Virginia from longwall to room-and-pillar mining next year.

They remove the deposits with a room-and-pillar approach: using explosive blasts to loosen the salt, while leaving pillars of salt in place to support the overhead layers.

The same Murray mine sparked a long legal fight over room-and-pillar mining beneath Dysart Woods, a 50-acre tract of old-growth forest owned by Ohio University about 3 miles south of Barkcamp State Park.