ST. LOUIS (AP) — The coal industry is struggling, but a spokesman for St. Louis-based Peabody Energy says neither coal nor the company is going away.

Heavy debt loads are weighing on companies like Peabody that made acquisitions when coal prices peaked, prompting a lengthy slump. Peabody, the nation’s largest coal company, warned earlier this month that it may have to file for bankruptcy. But Vic Svec, Peabody’s spokesman and vice president of investor relations, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the company intends to stay in St. Louis “for a long time to come.”

Peabody was founded in Chicago in 1883 but relocated to downtown St. Louis.