The company earned the 2011 Best Completed Deep Mine award from the Virginia Division of Mined Land Reclamation and the Virginia Mining Association at the VMA's 41st annual meeting and awards event in Norton on March 31.

The producer implemented a post-mining land use of unmanaged forest on the site. 

The portals site was approved to operate within the Dismal Creek’s buffer zone, officials said, and while reducing sediment to a stocked trout stream it was able to achieve a productive forest on breaker rock fill using forest reclamation approach guidelines. 

The state released the mine’s permit in March 2011.

To be eligible for the award, a mine site must be recommended by a Virginia Department of Mines Minerals and Energy inspector.

Consol senior vice president of environmental strategy Katharine Fredriksen said the honor reflected the company’s commitment to environmental stewardship.

“We consider being a good steward of the environment as one of the most important obligations we have,” she said.

The producer’s manager of closed operations Charlie Bauguess said the company was especially proud of the protected trout stream.

"The reclamation we conducted on E-2 is proof positive that industry and the environment can and do coexist," Bauguess said.

"Design and implementation of our reclamation plans oftentimes serves to not only protect wildlife and fish habitat, but to enhance it.”

Consol has 12 active bituminous coal mining complexes in four states and controls 4.5 billion tons of proven and probable coal reserves.