Roughly 180 people in Iroquois Falls will lose their jobs three days before Christmas with the closure of Resolute Forest Products.

The newsprint mill is the town's largest employer.

The company announced Friday morning that it will close the site permanently on Dec.22, after more than 100 years in operation.

In a press release issued Friday, Resolute cited a downturn in the global paper market and pointed a finger at environmental groups for "ill-founded attacks" on the forestry industry.

Iroquois Falls has a population of about 4,500 people, according to the 2011 census.