The Colorado-headquartered producer said in a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing that federal inspectors issued the order October 29 at the Rosebud operation in Colstrip, following up with a written order on October 31.
The order alleged the mine’s wheel loaders were working in an area where material was hanging on the highwall face, causing it to slide in large quantities.
Miners were ordered from the area and no injuries occurred.
Rosebud, a 25,000-acre surface mine complex in the northern Powder River Basin, operates three active pits with four draglines.
Its average 12.3 million tons of annual production is almost all for the adjacent Colstrip Power Station, a four-unit , 2100-megawatt facility specifically designed to burn Rosebud coal.
Rosebud, which opened in 1968, operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Denver-based Westmoreland is the oldest independent coal company in the US.
