PHILIPPI — Officials have begun laying off up to 165 employees at the Leer South Mine in Barbour County, just days after the parent company reported that the mine was on schedule to reopen this year.

The mine was closed after an underground fire in January. Last week the quarterly report for Core Natural Resources, the company that owns the mine, stated that efforts at Leer South were “well on track to resume longwall production mid-year.”

However, on Friday, some mine employees began reporting that they had just been laid off, and had no idea it was coming.

In response, Core Natural Resources issued the following statement over the weekend:

“Wolf Run Mining, LLC, a subsidiary of Core Natural Resources, Inc. announced a decision to reduce its workforce at the Leer South mine located in Barbour County, WV, impacting approximately 165 employees across multiple departments,” the statement reads.

“This decision is a result of the ongoing downturn in metallurgical coal markets globally causing economic challenges and is necessary to ensure the mine’s long-term sustainability and competitiveness.”

According to last week’s report, released on Wednesday, Feb. 19, Core’s total expenditure from the Leer Mine fire totaled about $30 million.

The Leer South Mine is reportedly a non-union mine.

The mine was evacuated early Jan. 13 and mining operations were suspended throughout the day while the cause of the blaze was investigated. No one was injured during the fire, which started in the long mine section and spread to the “gob” area of the complex.The “gob” refers to the space that is left in the mine after coal has been extracted. The area is typically filled with a mixture of coal, clay, rock and other materials. The fire began at 1 a.m.

The next day, Jan. 14, it was announced that Arch Resources, the coal company that owned the Leer South mine, had merged with CONSOL Energy to form a new company, Core.

Later in January, it was announced that the mine would remain temporarily sealed “in order to extinguish isolated combustion-related activity there.”

A public informational meeting that was scheduled in Barbour County earlier this month, which was to feature Larry Gore, general manager of the Leer South Mine, was canceled.

The Feb. 10 event was to have been part of the Barbour County Chamber of Commerce’s Information: Barbour County series.

Officials said Gore “had to cancel due to unforeseen problems.”