Number of U.S. coal mines decreases by more than half since 2008

More than half of the U.S. active coal mines have been closed since 2008, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday.
 
According to the EIA, the number of active coal mines in the United States has decreased by more than half, from 1,435 mines in 2008 to 671 mines in 2017.
 
The declining demand for U.S. coal has contributed to the decrease, and it has also been the cause of lower coal production in the country, which has fallen by more than one-third since peak production in 2008.
 
Underground mines had a larger percentage of closures from 2008 to 2017, with a 60 percent fall compared with 49 percent of surface mines.
 
However, the surface mines have seen larger declines in production, falling 39 percent compared with 24 percent for underground mines.
 
Between 2008 and 2017, most mines in the United States were located in the Appalachian and Illinois Basins east of the Mississippi River.
 
The EIA said that economics has largely driven the uptick in mine closures since 2008. As the U.S. market contracted, smaller, less efficient mines were the first to close, and most of the mine closures were in the Appalachian region.