The announcement was made by United States Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham during a visit to the Loveridge Mine on Thursday last week. The Department of Energy was one of several government groups that assisted the company in its effort to extinguish a fire at the Loveridge Mine near Fairview, West Virginia.
A GAG jet engine was flown over from Australia with a team of engineers and technicians from the Queensland Mines Rescue Service, allowing rescue teams to enter the mine during April.
When the fire occurred, the Loveridge Mine was being prepared for restart after being idled for a number of months.
Alterations to the ventilation system at the Loveridge Mine after the February fire cost $0.16 per diluted share (pre-tax). The cost of extinguishing the fire originally was estimated to be $0.10 per diluted share (pre-tax).
In a statement in October last year, Consol said it had resumed development work with all four of its continuous mining machine sections and was expecting to begin longwall production in April 2004.
The mine presently is fully staffed, employing approximately 480 people and is expected to produce approximately 5.2 million tons per year once normal operations resume. The mine produces coal utilized by power generators to produce electricity.
