Last week Judge Robert Chambers ruled the mine could continue to operate and use its six valley fill areas past his previous deadline of January 23.

Consol planned to lay off about 104 workers at the Little Eagle mine and 378 at Fola’s Ike Fork mine in February.

Last month Chambers imposed the January 23 deadline following an appeal of the operation’s mine permits by activist group Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.

The coalition’s arguments centre on a lack of public consultation in the mine’s permit approval process.

More legal action is expected and the future of the operations remains unclear.

The two operations produced just under 2 million tons of coal in 2007. Portfolio-wide, Consol produced 65Mt that same year.