By Alabama Public Radio
Brookwood, AL – Some employees with the Jim Walter Number Five mine in Tuscaloosa County could lose their jobs Tuesday. Company officials say they have immediate plans to layoff 80 employees. About 400 people work at the mine in Brookwood, and they'll have to start looking for jobs, as well. The mine will close next year. Officials with Jim Walter Resources had planned to close the mine in 2006, but they say it's just not economically feasible to keep it open. The Number Five is one of the nation's deepest vertical shaft mines at at more than 21 hundred feet deep. It also was the site of one of the nation's worst mining accidents in history. Thirteen miners died in September 2001 after two explosions inside the shaft.