In fact, today's outlook reflects a drop of about 80 percent in sales of large mining trucks from our peak year of 2012," Oberhelman added. Caterpillar Inc. announced plans to close a plant in Pearisburg, Va., the latest in a series of closures of smaller facilities. The Pearisburg plant repairs and rebuilds underground mining machinery and employs about 50 people, who will be offered severance packages, Caterpillar said. The company stated that work currently done at the plant will be transferred to Caterpillar dealers as of July. The plant was part of Bucyrus International Inc., acquired by Caterpillar for $8.8 billion in 2011.Caterpillar has announced plans to close nearly a dozen plants in North America and Europe over the past year or so.