MSHA assistant secretary David Lauriski recognized the achievement on Friday when he visited Alliance Resource Partners wholly-owned Webster County Coal. He recognized the individuals responsible for the successful recovery of the Dotiki mine from an underground fire that originated on February 11, 2004. Dotiki mine resumed production on March 8 after implementing state-of-the-art mine recovery plans to extinguish the mine fire.

"Conventional recovery methods usually require that recovery teams go underground to fight mine fires, which often takes weeks or months. This mine's evacuation plan was implemented quickly and efficiently. This effort should stand as a model on how industry and government can work together toward a common objective," said Lauriski.

Alliance senior vice president operations Charlie Wesley said initial estimates indicated the mine could remain sealed for a period of several months to up to one year. However, due to the unprecedented success of the mine recovery efforts, the Dotiki mine resumed production only twenty-eight days after the fire incident occurred.

The jointly developed recovery plans used remote sensing techniques to ascertain the extent of the fire damage and to monitor mine atmospheric conditions.

MSHA's mine emergency operations team established surface monitoring points in and around the area of the fire. The data it collected assisted the company in developing a plan to install remote seals from the mine's surface. These temporary seals in the main passageways cut off the air supply approximately 3.5 miles from the fire and isolated the fire from the sealed mine works.

The remote seal plan required that 18 seals be pumped from the mine surface, at an average depth of 620 feet. Seal locations were determined, and five drill rigs then drilled 18 injection, five observation, and seven monitoring holes. Surface drilling began on February 12 and continued until February 26.

Inert gases were injected into the fire area and continuously monitored by MSHA's technical support personnel. Through inert injection and state-of-the-art monitoring techniques, the team identified flow patterns through the fire area. These flow patterns helped determine the most effective sequence to install the remote seals. The injection of the remote seals began on February 20 and ended on February 27.

Once the remote seal construction was completed and the mine atmosphere behind the seals was rendered inert, mine rescue personnel from MSHA, Kentucky Department of Mines and Minerals and Alliance’s White County Coal, Gibson County Coal, and Warrior Coal subsidiaries entered the mine, restored ventilation and constructed thirty-two permanent seals effectively extinguishing the mine fire and totally isolating the affected area of the mine behind these seals.

Alliance CEO Joseph Craft said the company would continue working with MSHA’s Technical Support Department to refine the mine recovery methods used at the Dotiki mine in order to benefit the entire coal industry.

The Dotiki mine is an underground mining complex that employs approximately 360 workers. The mine produces low moisture, high sulfur coal from the Kentucky No. 9 coal seam utilizing continuous mining units and room-and-pillar techniques. Production for the mine during 2003 averaged approximately 407,000 tons per month.