A coal company is planning to reopen a mine in Western Kentucky next year, creating about 900 jobs with 
starting pay of $19 an hour, officials said.

“We’re excited,” said Dudley Cooper, a consultant to the Ohio County Industrial Authority. “This should 
mean an influx of people into Ohio County.”

St. Louis-based Armstrong Coal Co. announced Thursday that it will reopen the Big Run mine in Centertown, 
about 30 miles south of Owensboro.

Coal was king of the county’s economy for decades. In 1979, a total of 2,343 Ohio Countians worked in 
five underground mines and 33 surface mines. But environmental concerns about the high sulfur content 
of Western Kentucky coal led to a coal bust in the 1980s from which the region has yet to recover. 
By 2005, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics counted only 109 mining jobs in Ohio County.

“So many miners have retired,” Judge-Executive David Jones said Thursday. “They’ll have to train young 
miners for some of these jobs. We have a real opportunity for growth. This should really stimulate our 
economy and benefit the entire region.”

Lexington attorney Mason Miller, spokesman for Armstrong, said the company will spend $60 million 
getting the mine ready to reopen.



The Equality Boot Mine is a surface mine owned by Armstrong and has been in operation since 2010 and 
last year the mine sold 0.3 million tons of coal. According to Armstrong's website, the company owns 
and operates seven coal mines around Centertown in western Kentucky. 

The mines owned by Armstrong are the Big Run Mine (an underground mine near Centertown that is scheduled 
for closure before the end of this year), Midway Mine (surface mine near Centertown), Parkway Mine and 
Preparation Plant (underground mine near Central City), East Fork Mine (surface mine near Centertown), 
Lewis Creek (surface mine near Centertown), Kronos (underground mine near Centertown, opened on early 
October to replace the Big Run Mine). 

Armstrong also owns and operates the Armstrong Dock -- a preparation facility that preps coal and loads 
it onto barges to be moved down the Green River. 

Big Run was listed as the county's last remaining underground mine when it closed in 2006. It had about 140 employees at the time.