PITTSBURGH, Jan. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Temporary seals were removed and ventilation fans were successfully restarted on Sunday without incident as CONSOL Energy Inc. initiated its first phase to re-enter its Buchanan Mine, near Mavisdale, Va.
Removal of the seals and the restart of the fans were approved by the Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals, and Energy, and by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.
All six of the mine's ventilation fans are operating normally. As required by the agencies, the underground atmosphere now will be monitored during the week to establish that it is safe for re-entry by trained mine rescue teams. All 12 of CONSOL Energy's mine rescue teams are on site. It is expected that team members will enter the mine for evaluation and repairs beginning on Sunday, January 27, 2008.
In late November 2007, in response to a safety agency requirement, the mine was sealed as a final step before re-entry in order to ensure that the mine atmosphere was inert and incapable of supporting combustion.
Production at the mine was suspended on July 9, 2007, after several roof falls in previously mined areas damaged some of the ventilation controls inside the mine, requiring a general evacuation of the mine. The mine employs approximately 520 people and annually produces about 5 million tons of high- quality metallurgical grade coal.
CONSOL Energy Inc., a high-Btu bituminous coal and coal bed methane company, is a member of the Standard & Poor's 500 Equity Index and has annual revenues of $3.7 billion. It has 20 bituminous coal mining complexes in six states and reports proven and probable coal reserves of 4.5 billion tons. In addition, the company is a majority shareholder in one of the largest U.S. producers of coalbed methane gas, CNX Gas Corporation. CONSOL Energy was named one of America's most admired companies in 2005 by Fortune magazine. It received the
U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of Surface Mining National Award for Excellence in Surface Mining for the company's innovative reclamation practices in 2002, 2003 and 2004.
Also in 2003, the company was listed in Information Week magazine's "Information Week 500" list for its information technology operations. In 2002, the company received a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Climate Protection Award. Additional information about the company can be found at its web site: http://www.consolenergy.com/.
For purposes of this press release, references to "CONSOL Energy," the "company," "we," "our," or "us" or similar words (other than the legal names of companies) shall include CONSOL Energy Inc. and its respective subsidiaries.
Forward-Looking Statements
Various statements in this document, including those that express a belief, expectation, or intention, as well as those that are not statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements (as defined in Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995). The forward-looking statements may include projections and estimates concerning the timing and success of specific projects and our future production, revenues, income and capital spending. When we use the words "believe," "intend," "expect," "may," "should," "anticipate," "could," "would," "will," "estimate," "plan," "predict," "project," or their negatives, or other similar expressions, the statements which include those words are usually forward-looking statements. When we describe strategy that involves risks or uncertainties, we are making forward-looking statements. The forward- looking statements in this document speak only as of the date of this document; we disclaim any obligation to update these statements unless required by securities law, and we caution you not to rely on them unduly. We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations and assumptions about future events. While our management considers these expectations and assumptions to be reasonable, they are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, regulatory and other risks, contingencies and uncertainties, most of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond our control. These risks, uncertainties and contingencies include, but are not limited to: an extended decline in prices we receive for our coal and gas affecting our operating results and cash flows; reliance on customers extending existing contracts or entering into new long-term contracts for coal; reliance on major customers; our inability to collect payments from customers if their creditworthiness declines; the disruption of rail, barge and other systems that deliver our coal, or pipeline systems which deliver our gas; a loss of our competitive position because of the competitive nature of the coal industry and the gas industry, or a loss of our competitive position because of overcapacity in these industries impairing our profitability; our inability to hire qualified people to meet replacement or expansion needs; coal users switching to other fuels in order to comply with various environmental standards related to coal combustion; the inability to produce a sufficient amount of coal to fulfill our customers' requirements which could result in our customers initiating claims against us; the risks inherent in coal mining being subject to unexpected disruptions, including geological conditions, equipment failure, timing of completion of significant construction or repair of equipment, fires, accidents and weather conditions which could cause our results to deteriorate; increases in the price of commodities used in our mining operations and could impact our cost of production; obtaining governmental permits and approvals for our operations; the effects of government regulation; the effects of stringent federal and state safety regulations; the effects of mine closing, reclamation and certain other liabilities; uncertainties in estimating our economically recoverable coal and gas reserves; we do not insure against all potential operating risks; the outcomes of various legal proceedings, which proceedings are more fully described in our reports filed under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934; increased exposure to employee related long-term liabilities; our participation in multi-employer pension plans may expose us to obligations beyond the obligation to our employees; lump sum payments made to retiring salaried employees pursuant to our defined benefit pension plan; our ability to comply with laws or regulations requiring that we obtain surety bonds for workers' compensation and other statutory requirements; acquisitions that we recently have made or may make in the future including the accuracy of our assessment of the acquired businesses and their risks, achieving any anticipated synergies, integrating the acquisitions and unanticipated changes that could affect assumptions we may have made; the anti-takeover effects of our rights plan could prevent a change of control; risks in exploring for and producing gas; new gas development projects and exploration for gas in areas where we have little or no proven gas reserves; the availability of field services, equipment and personnel for drilling and producing gas; replacing our natural gas reserves which if not replaced will cause our gas reserves and gas production to decline; costs associated with perfecting title for gas rights in some of our properties; we need to use unproven technologies to extract coalbed methane on some of our properties; location of a vast majority of our gas producing properties in three counties in southwestern Virginia, making us vulnerable to risks associated with having our gas production concentrated in one area; other persons could have ownership rights in our advanced gas extraction techniques which could force us to cease using those techniques or pay royalties; the coalbeds from which we produce methane gas frequently contain water that may hamper production; and other factors discussed in our 2006 Form 10-K under "Risk Factors," as updated by any subsequent Form 10-Qs, which are on file at the Securities and Exchange Commission.
