Mining opportunity drawing hundreds to western Kentucky

The Associated Press

http://www.thegleaner.com/

New mining jobs in western Kentucky are attracting hundreds of workers to Union County.

Alliance Resource Partners L.P. of Tulsa, which owns the River View mine near Uniontown, said it expects to develop an underground mining complex with up to eight continuous mining units that would produce up to 6.4 million tons of coal a year.

The company says about 600 people will work at the underground mine.

Last week, hundreds formed a long line that snaked down a hallway, around a lobby and outside the Sullivan Tech Center at Henderson Community College. Officials estimated the number of applicants reached 800.

Applicants from Henderson, Union and Webster counties made up the majority. But there were also people from Daviess, McLean, Crittenden, Hopkins and Ohio counties as well as from southern Indiana and southern Illinois. Some of the applicants have never been in a mine.

Many were employees at Rayloc, the Morganfield auto parts plant that is halting operations in October and laying off 421 people plus some temporary workers.

One of them, Benny Griggs of Sturgis, has been an assistant supervisor at Rayloc for nearly 23 years.

"I never even considered being a coal miner," Griggs said. "But I'm here to take a look and see what they've got."

Starting wages at the mine will be $17 per hour with a possibility of increasing to $23 within nine months, according to Heath Lovell, general manager of the River View Mine near Uniontown.

Thirty-two-year-old Craig Vowels of Henderson, who works both as a landscaper and at Accuride Corp., said he was looking for "better opportunity."

"The job market 'round here is not too good," he said. A job at a big new coal mine might offer "a little more stability."