Company spokesperson Kim Link told ILN on Thursday afternoon that one continuous miner has been restarted and it is in the initial process of resuming operations.
“Dugout crews assigned to other operations temporarily are now returning,” she said.
“We are not yet in a position to estimate when the longwall might restart,” noting that it will make further statements at that time.
The US Mine Safety and Health Administration confirmed for ILN that the mine’s crews had reventilated and examined the longwall.
“There is no evidence of any ongoing problems,” the complex’s MSHA district manager said.
“The company is in the process of revising their ventilation plan to put more protections in place to indicate any developing problems, since they have had problems with spontaneous combustion in the past.”
The federal official projected normal production of the longwall could resume in a few days, following ventilation plan modifications being completed to address MSHA concerns.
In the meantime, the DM said, Dugout workers are performing maintenance on the longwall to prepare it for restart.
The Carbon County mine was initially shut down June 22 after an ignition at the longwall panel. No injuries were reported in the incident.
On July 9, Arch officials confirmed it had been given federal approval to re-enter the mine for a review, and that Dugout would remain idle for at least 30 days.
Due to that status, the producer alerted customers at that time of a likely adverse impact to shipments.
"While we remain focused on resuming normal operations at the earliest possible date, our first priority is to ensure the safety of our workforce," Arch Western Bituminous Group president Gene DiClaudio said last month.
The June closure was the second in as many months for Dugout Canyon. A similar incident on April 29 in another part of the mine idled production until MSHA approved resumption of normal mining on May 21.
The mine, operated by Arch subsidiary Canyon Fuel, is staffed by 275 workers. The complex produced 3.3 million tons of coal in 2009.
During the first quarter of the year alone, Dugout Canyon produced about 200,000t per month of low-sulfur bituminous coal, or about 2% of Arch’s total production.
