The new facilities place operating, maintenance, and support personnel all under one roof with quicker access to the operation’s active workings.

Improvements include a dual compartment air shaft with exhaust fans, a new mine portal facility with elevator, an employee bath house and office complex, an additional water source to the underground workings, as well as various other support installations.

The new portal lessens crew travel time from the surface to the coal face, where coal is mined. RAG said this would reduce the amount of time miners spend underground during a given shift as well as help lower labor costs, reduce wear and tear on transport equipment, and provide faster access to underground mine sections for maintenance and delivery of supplies.

“Any successful coal mine in today’s competitive environment must be safe, efficient, and cost effective in order to survive and thrive,” said RAG Pennsylvania Services president Michael Mishra.

Emerald’s capital improvement program is the second in just over a year at a RAG mine in Pennsylvania. In July 2002, the Company announced a new US$39.1 million longwall underground mining system at the nearby Cumberland mine.

RAG American Coal Holding is the fourth largest U.S. coal producer with 13 mines in the East, the Southeast, the Midwest, and the West. The Company employs 3,000 people nationwide and mined more than 70 million tons of coal in 2002, mostly for electric utilities.