Hallador Energy Restructures Sunrise Coal Division, Significantly Reducing Operating Costs
February 23, 2024 - Hallador Energy Company (NASDAQ: HNRG) has announced a restructuring of the company’s Sunrise Coal Division designed to strengthen its financial and operational efficiency and create significant operational savings and higher margins. “As we transition Hallador from a coal production company to a vertically integrated independent power producer, we will idle production at our higher cost Freelandville and Prosperity Mines, reduce our capital reinvestment for coal production in 2024 by approximately $10 million, and focus our seven units of underground equipment on four units of our lowest cost production. We will further improve the cost structure of these units by increasing their run time from five and a half days per week to seven days per week. We expect our coal production to generate 4.5 million tons annually,” said Brent Bilsland, Hallador’s CEO.
As part of the initiative, the company will reduce its workforce by approximately one hundred and ten employees. The workforce reduction will be based on job category and personal performance ratings and will primarily affect Sunrise Coal employees. All affected personnel will be notified over the next several days. “We value the contribution of all of our employees and recognize that these actions, while the right thing to do for the company, are also very hard for many of our employees and their families,” Mr. Bilsland continued.
“We are very excited about the future of Hallador – especially our Hallador Power subsidiary. We continue to see strong demand for capacity and energy in future years and a growing interest from our customers to secure longer term opportunities,” Mr. Bilsland concluded.
Hallador is headquartered in Terre Haute, Indiana and through its wholly owned subsidiary, Sunrise Coal, LLC, produces coal in the Illinois Basin for the electric power generation industry and through its wholly owned subsidiary, Hallador Power Company, LLC, produces electricity at its 1GW facility at the Merom Generating Station. To learn more about Hallador, Hallador Power or Sunrise, visit our website at www.halladorenergy.com.