Alpha Natural Resources, the world’s third largest supplier of metallurgical coal, said September 26th that it would be shuttering three mines in West Virginia due to sustained weak market conditions and government regulations challenging the Central Appalachian mining industry.

The closures will put 261 people out of work. The news has a familiar refrain; more than 20,000 coal miners have lost their jobs since 2011.

But coal mining jobs have been disappearing for more than 30 years. As of March 2014, there were around 79,000 jobs in coal mining in the United States, 8.3% fewer than a year earlier.

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