Note: This story originally appeared on the St. Louis Business Journal.
Peabody Energy is cutting 235 jobs at a mine in the Powder River Basin.
The cuts will affect about 15 percent of the workforce at the company's North Antelope Rochelle Mine in Wyoming, which will have about 1,150 employees after the layoffs.
Peabody said in a statement Thursday that the cuts will help align the workforce with customer need, noting that the coal industry has been hit by an oversupply of natural gas and mild winter weather.
"While our asset position and contracting strategies give us relative strength, we are taking these actions to match production with customer demand," Kemal Williamson, Peabody president – Americas, said in a statement . "We regret the impact of these actions on our employees, their families, and the surrounding communities in the Campbell and Converse county areas."
Earlier this month, Peabody said it had skipped interest payments totaling $71.1 million and could be forced to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy. As of Dec. 31, Peabody's debt totaled $6.3 billion, due mainly to its 2011 purchase of Australia's Macarthur Coal.
For full-year 2015, St. Louis-based Peabody’s net loss ballooned to over $2 billion from a loss of $777 million in 2014.
