TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – US coal producer Arch Coal has six months to, once more, become compliant with NYSE requirements, having been issued a notice of noncompliance with the exchange’s continued listing standards.

Under NYSE rules the average closing price of a listed company's common stock needed be at least $1 a share for 30 consecutive trading days.

As of May 15, the average closing price a share of Arch’s common stock over the previous 30 trading days was $0.99.

Arch, which produced coal for the global steel and power generation industries through its network of mining complexes straddling every significant US coal basin, said that it would provide its response and outline its intent to resolve the deficiency within ten days of receiving the notice. It had six months to, once more, become compliant.

During the six-month period the company's common stock would continue to be listed and traded on the NYSE, subject to complying with other continued listing standards. The deficiency did not affect the company's ongoing business operations or its regulatory reporting requirements.

Arch’s NYSE-listed stock had traded at a low of $0.66 and a high of $3.81 a share during the past 52 weeks.

Coal miners across the globe had been dealing with stubbornly low coal prices, a global supply glut and competition from cheap natural gas, which had forced cash-strapped miners to idle unprofitable mines and retrench thousands of miners. In the US, increasingly strict environmental legislation also had a stranglehold on the thermal coal industry’s growth prospects.

Just last week, several operating affiliates of US coal miner Alpha Natural Resources had notified more than 500 employees that their mining and processing operations would probably be idled.

Coal-producing companies, such as Arch Coal, Cliffs Natural Resources and Walter Energy, had suspended dividends as they tried to stay afloat in the low price environment.