Patriot spokesperson Janine Orf told International Longwall News that the operation, located near Fairview, resumed operations as of the midnight shift Sunday evening.

“The suspension on Friday was due to a measurement in an abandoned area that was found to be out of compliance with the ventilation plan,” she said, noting that no one was injured as a result of the issue.

The company also confirmed that its amended ventilation plan had been approved by the US Mine Safety and Health Administration as well as state officials at the West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training.

An MSHA spokesperson did not provide additional details on the closure or recommencement of production by press time. WVOMHST representative Jama Jarrett confirmed the restart to ILN and verified that the state agency had not called for last Friday’s idle.

Federal No. 2 originally suspended mining activity on February 18 when potentially adverse atmospheric conditions were found. It had resumed production Wednesday last week.

In a February 22 announcement, Patriot said the conditions had been discovered in an abandoned area of the mine. However, MSHA spokesperson Amy Louviere told ILN in an interview recently that the mine had been shut down on two separate occasions – February 12 and again February 18, after which the issue was made public.

On February 23, MSHA and the WVOMHST confirmed that federal authorities had commenced an investigation into falsified safety records at Federal.

Jarrett told ILN at that time that the state’s mine inspectors had opened an investigation at the complex in late January after then foreman John Renner admitted to mine staff that he had falsified his records.

“He entered in the record books a mandatory safety check, but admitted that he did not actually perform the entire safety examination, which included checking methane levels behind a sealed portion of the mine,” she said.

His false report was entered January 24, according to court documents, when he claimed he had checked the No. 27 block seal.

Jarrett noted that Renner was subsequently fired and the WVOMHST was seeking the suspension and ultimate revocation of Renner’s certification.

Per court documents from the US Attorney’s Office, Renner is facing one count of making false statements, representations and certifications.

Patriot Coal said in a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing last week that three workers at the Federal mine had been disciplined in connection with the falsified reports.

The Associated Press reported that one employee had been fired and two put on administrative leave, though the operator declined to identify the workers.

While Orf did not comment to media last week following the filing, she did tell the AP that Patriot took safety seriously.

The Federal mine is a union-represented longwall and room and pillar operation that extracts from the Pittsburgh seam under an average seam height of 7 feet.

Other Patriot Coal complexes in Appalachia include Big Mountain, Blue Creek Campbell’s Creek, Corridor G, Kanawha Eagle, Logan County, Paint Creek, Panther, Rocklick and Wells.

The producer sold more than 20.6 million tons of coal from all of its mines in the region in 2008.

Patriot Coal was spun off from Peabody Energy in 2007 and purchased Magnum Coal in 2008, doubling its Appalachian production base.