COAL REPORT May 13, 2008
The operators of the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah, where nine miners died last year, withheld information from the government, according to a Congressional study. The study said that the deadly accident would probably never have happened if the Murray Energy company had given the government the information it held. In March 2007 the mine suffered a collapse or bump that clearly indicated the mine was becoming unstable. But the company never told the government about the bump, as it was required to do, instead going ahead with plans for similar mining elsewhere in the mine. In August 2007 another bump killed six miners; three more died during rescue efforts.
The Congressional study said that by withholding information, the mine managers may have some criminal responsibility for the deaths. Moreover, the report said that, even with the incomplete information it held, the government should never have approved the fatal mining plan.
The company’s lawyer accused the Congressional committee of spreading unfounded conclusions based on “a radically incomplete view of the facts.” A lawyer for relatives of the dead miners, however, said, “the company continued with its same plan to pull out all the coal because of their greed and that makes their conduct worse than negligent.”

Consol Energy will expand production at its Buchanan Mine by nearly a million tons a year, reports the Virginia Mountaineer. The mine, which was closed much of last year following a roof fall, will add as many as 40 jobs in an expansion that will be completed in 2011. John Zachwieja, a Consol official, said, “The world wants what Buchanan County produces. We think this is the right level of response to the world’s demand for our product.”

Alpha Natural Resources reported a tripling of its profit in the first quarter of 2008, reports the Mountain Eagle. Alpha earned $25.5 million dollars in the period, 39 cents a share. The good times are a result of high prices for coal sold abroad. This should continue, the company believes. Alpha’s stock rose 12 percent on the news. Last week Alpha gave its employees a generous package of additional benefits, hoping to ensure they will stay around and keep mining coal. The industry is facing a shortage of qualified miners just as demand is soaring.

A veteran mining regulator is the new head of Kentucky’s Department of Natural Resources. Carl Campbell is a 25-year veteran of the old Department of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. The Department of Natural Resources oversees mine permits, mine safety and licensing, mine reclamation and enforcement, abandoned mine lands, forestry, conservation, and oil and gas. DNR is expected to be part of a new Energy Cabinet in Kentucky’s government.