2019 is nearly halfway over, the closure date for Navajo Generating Station just a handful of months away. Peabody Energy during the first quarter of the year quietly reduced the size of its Kayenta Mine workforce by nearly half- from 336 miners they are now down to 182.

The information comes from data released from the Mine Safety and Health Administration. Peabody has only publically acknowledged the 40 Kayenta workers let go back in March. By October the mine will be done producing coal but will retain responsibility for the land reclamation that could sustain employment on and around the mine site for years to come. Much of the reclamation work at Kayenta will require surface-use heavy-equipment skills similar to those now used at the mine, which is an open-pit project. Post-mining operations will include road reconstruction, demolition, waste mitigation, topography modification, revegetation, groundwater remediation, material transport, drainage reconstruction and so on.

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