St. Louis, US-based coal producer Arch Coal's subsidiary Canyon Fuel Company announced on September 9 that its Dugout Canyon mine in Carbon County, Utah, has restarted its longwall mining system and is in the process of resuming production.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, the mine, where production has been temporarily idled since June 22, 2010 due to an ignition incident at the longwall, has had a remote monitoring system installed that will help determine whether any combustion activity is occurring.
The Dugout Canyon mine and its 275 employees produced approximately 200,000 mt of low-sulfur bituminous coal per month in the first quarter of 2010, which equates to about two percent of Arch Coal's total production.
The company worked closely and cooperatively with the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) to assess the situation and restart the mine, the Arch Coal statement said. "We want to extend our great appreciation to the MSHA team for its diligence and hard work during the outage," pointed out Gene DiClaudio, president of Arch Western Bituminous Group.