A Navajo Nation company is taking over the operation of a coal mine it owns in northwestern New Mexico.
The Navajo Transitional Energy Co. has owned the Navajo Mine since 2013 but had contracted with a subsidiary of the North American Coal Corp. to run it.
Clark Moseley, the company’s chief executive, said the Navajo company will take over on Friday.
The mine that feeds the adjacent Four Corners Power Plant has nearly 400 employees — 85% of whom are Native American. Moseley said the Navajo Transitional Energy Co. will retain the workforce.
The company is one of the largest coal producers in the United States as the resource increasingly is falling out of favor. The company owns three coal mines in Montana and Wyoming, and a share of the Four Corners Power Plant near Farmington, New Mexico.