Raspadskaya Coal Company said its recently commissioned longwall 4-9-25 was extracting coal from a 262m wide face while the coking coal panel was 3.27km long.

“Coal is extracted using Bucyrus [Caterpillar] heading machine coupled with 4LS20 shearer [from Joy] and transferred to the Raspadskaya processing plant using belt conveyors,” RCC said.

RCC general director Sergey Stepanov said he was pleased.

“For the first time since 2010, Raspadskaya mine is now operating with four sections at a time,” he said.

“Over the last four years the team has done a great job to recover the mine. Commitment to safety issues is the key to maintain the achieved results.”

Underground gas explosions rocked the mining complex in May 2010, killing 91 miners.

According to the Moscow Times, the disaster was caused by miners that “laid a wet cloth over sensors, hampering their ability to monitor the level of explosive methane gas”