At a Bank of America conference in New York, company chief financial officer William Lyons said the operator needed to improve even though it had fewer than three injuries per 200,000 work hours in 2006 - a good bit lower than the 3.32 national average.

As a company that holds safety as a "core value" at all of its mines, Lyons was positive when speaking via webcast about the progress being made overall in the industry. "Notwithstanding recent high profile accidents, the (US) mining industry has made substantial progress in reducing fatal accidents and we are decades ahead of countries like China where we understand the fatality rate is 13 per day."

To achieve its goals, he noted that Consol will continue install a compilation of safe work practice science and culture. All levels of Consol employees will proactively monitor equipment and methods while improving upon training and efforts for positive reinforcement.

The US has seen 25 coal mining-related deaths to date in 2007. Last year there were 47 total. That average was up from the period of 1997 to 2006, according to a Reuters report, when 33 was the national average.