According to an October 12 US Securities and Exchange Commission filing by the company, its Rhino Eastern joint venture subsidiary in West Virginia – where it serves as manager and owns a 51% membership – received the order October 5 at about 9.20am local time.

“A mining machine operator … was observed changing cutter bits on a continuous miner while the cutter head was lifted in the air and the power had not been removed from the machine,” officials said.

“Rhino Eastern ensures that all employees who work with continuous miners are given safety training on remote control miners and when to remove power from the machines. After receiving the citation, all operators of continuous miners were reminded of the proper safety procedures when working with a continuous miner machine.”

The producer said that the conditions of the citation were immediately abated and the order was terminated later the same day.

No injuries were reported as a result of the condition and Rhino did not release any further statement.

Imminent danger orders are issued by MSHA under section 107(a) of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act, also known as the Mine Act.

Section 1503 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street and Consumer Protection Act, amended last July, now requires disclosure of all imminent danger incidents as part of new reporting requirements regarding mine safety.

The Rhino Eastern complex in Raleigh and Wyoming counties had an estimated 22.4 million tons of proven and probable premium mid-vol and low-vol metallurgical coal reserves and an estimated 34.3 million tons of non-reserve coal deposits as of March 2010.

Its JV partner, Patriot, controls the amount and terms of sales of the coal produced from the operation.