Around 450 Scottish coal industry jobs are at risk, including dozens in Fife and Clackmannanshire.
Scottish Resources Group (SRG), which owns Scottish Coal, is struggling with financial difficulties and has entered into a formal consultation with its 758 employees.
The company said competition from overseas and the impact of cheap imports have put global pricing trends at “record low levels”.
The firm’s HQ at Castlebridge Business Park, near Alloa, is set to close.
The company is understood to be downsizing to two locations, with its mines at St Ninian’s/Loch Fitty, near Kelty which employs around 90 workers Mainshill in South Lanarkshire, and Binston Hill and Dalfond, both East Ayrshire, said to be “working to a close” within 12 months.
A spokesman for SRG said the mines are not strictly closing forever, but they are being put on hold pending economic investment.
The two locations that will continue working as normal are at Broken Cross in South Lanarkshire, and Dunston Hill, Ayrshire.
Fife Council leader Alex Rowley said: “Fife Council is aware of the challenges facing the coal industry in Scotland and senior officers have been meeting with the Scottish Government and individual coal companies to understand the current market conditions and to identify what support and assistance is needed.”
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