The Covia Corporation says in the face of dwindling revenues right now, it has to reduce costs, so it’s idling the Utica Unimin mine. It’s also idling a facility in Kermit, Texas and reducing staff at other facilities. Those are just some of what it’s doing to try to cut costs by $25 million this year, according to a news release issued this morning.
A company spokesman tells WCMY, 65 employees are affected at Utica. We also asked if there would be layoffs at other Covia facilities in the area, such as at Wedron. We have not received a reply.
While the company is dealing with limited demand for sand and energy products, Covia is also making changes to protect employees from the corona virus. It’s eliminating non-essential travel for its employees and enabling some of them to work from home.