Upper Big Branch Mine Reopening Planned Despite Ongoing Investigations

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Massey Energy plans to resume extracting coal by constructing a new entrance to its Upper Big Branch mine within months, despite continuing investigations of the explosion that killed 29 men there in April, the company's chief executive said Wednesday.

Massey also wants government permission to restart two sections in the far southern reaches of the Raleigh County mine, CEO Don Blankenship said during a conference call with analysts. That area was untouched by the blast and Blankenship estimated it could produce 600,000 tons annually.

"We have the permits from an environmental viewpoint that are necessary to do that and we are going to activate that effort," Blankenship said. "Absent the government stopping us for some unknown reason, which I don't know what that would be, then I suspect that we will be able to access the reserve with that facility in the next five to six months."

The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration took control of the mine April 5 and won't allow production in active areas until it cancels that order, spokeswoman Amy Louviere said. "We would probably allow new entries to be driven provided they were not connected into UBB."

Massey has struggled to replace the high-priced metallurgical coal produced at Upper Big Branch. So-called coking coal is a key ingredient in steel. Shipments fell 1 million tons short of expectations in the second quarter, despite adding shifts and opening new sections in existing metallurgical mines.

Massey lost $88.7 million, or 88 cents per share, in the quarter. The results include $128.9 million in pretax charges tied to the explosion.

Massey estimates legal fees for the blast will total up to $8 million per quarter. The company also expects higher capital expenditures to replace equipment and to open new mines.

Investigators suspect a combination of methane and coal dust caused the explosion, though they only began searching for clues underground in June.

Massey believes that search is nearly done.

"I think we're drawing closer to having a conclusion and probably will within a couple months," Blankenship said.

Massey has been floating a theory that a crack in the mine floor opened unexpectedly and flooded the mine with such a vast quantity of methane that it overwhelmed ventilation equipment and sensors designed to shut off mining equipment before gas hits explosive levels.

MSHA and other regulators have discounted Massey's theory.

Richmond, Va.-based Massey operates mines in West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia.

Comments

[bboyy]

03:26 PM on 07/31/2010

this man should be in jail

[farmilyman]

12:23 AM on 07/31/2010

Does Massey take out "Dead Peasant" Insurance on their employees?

[hulagirrrl]

05:42 PM on 07/30/2010

I just can't get over it that the BP CEO has been fired, and this joker is still in charge. Where is the public pressure here?

[anastomosis]

03:49 AM on 07/30/2010

If someone with such a *Trust me, I'm a mineowner" face turned up at your door and said: "Absent the government stopping us for some unknown reason, which I don't know what that would be" would you buy what he was selling?
Or just laugh?

[LeeCalif]

11:44 PM on 07/29/2010

http://www.off-grid.net/?source=patrick.net

Whistle-blowers Wanted

Off-Grid.net is investigating the Utility companies --power, water and waste.

Do the water companies conceal their knowledge of the pollution of the water supply? Do the power companies conceal the wasted energy inside the system, and their excessive profits? We need help to find the smoking guns: memos, SEC filings,confidential legal advice internal emails..... send off-grid.netrid.net.Anonymity guaranteed

[rr52]

10:27 PM on 07/29/2010

Notice how Massey just tells the government what it's going to do?The attitude is clearly "above the law" as are many states attitudes these days relative to the feds. The psychology behind it is to disparage the sitting president as somehow inferior so he and the current congress can be challenged continuously. It works to breakdown people's respect for authority in general making it far easier to flog federal government and allow big industry to continue on its path toward a complete monarchy that actually does tell the government and everyone else what its going to do.

[nothingchanges]

12:01 PM on 07/29/2010

So to put things into perspective...........Massey speculates that "a crack in the mine floor opened unexpectedly and flooded the mine with such a vast quantity of methane that it overwhelmed ventilation equipment (......) before gas hits explosive levels."

While on the Federal level..."MSHA and other regulators have discounted Massey's theory."

No one really knows (with any degree of certainty) what caused the Upper Big Branch Mine explosion, nor will they likely know in the near future......and the net result will be?

Nothing changes. Back to work, hope for the best, and when more miners die (an almost certainty) it will be an "unforeseen tragedy".

The management of Massey will decry the loss of life in public, while in private the only thing they will actually cry over is their (short term) loss of profits. While government regulators will deflect the blame to private contractors.

The Einstein theory of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results.

Learning from our mistakes is a natural part of life........in cases such as this, not learning is a needless cause of death.

[lonesometx]

11:25 AM on 07/29/2010

It is past time for the Massey miners to unionize.

I have worked in a mine organized by the UMWA. I can attest that the workers forced the company to take safety seriously. You weren't fired or blackballed for pointing out safety problems. We made it safe or we didn't do it. It cost some production but it saved lives and reduced injuries.

There is no amount of coal that is worth the life of one miner.

[SickHippie]

06:26 PM on 07/31/2010

As always, Joe Hill is alive and well.

[politicalguy94]

01:57 AM on 07/29/2010

The federal government is the only thing that can prevent Upper Big Branch from being reopened. Contact the White House/Mine Safety and Health Administration and get them to stop this from happening!

[tullydad]

01:32 AM on 07/29/2010

"Of what importance, it may be said, is such a question of academic freedom in a world distracted by war, tormented by persecution, and abounding in concentration camps for those how will not be accomplices to iniquity? In comparison with such things, I admit, the issue of academic freedom is not in itself of the first magnitude. But it is part and parcel of the same battle. Let it be remembered what is at stake, in the greatest issues as well as those that seem to be smaller, is the freedom of the individual human spirit to express its beliefs and hopes for...humanity...whether they be shared by many or by few or by none."

Bertrand Russell

[SierraSon]

12:18 AM on 07/29/2010

We're back to the days of King George and the Boston Tea Party. No time to wait until 2012, 2016, . . . .
We need a government represented by "we the people." Ban lobbyists, ban multi-million electioneering . . . with modern technology our representatives will hear us without filters and massive amounts of money to purchase votes - change th system from the ground up will probably take a revolution. So be it.
Whatever it takes to rid us of the disease in DC.
No energy bill, a watered down health care program, abandonment of ethical congressional rules, former officials as high paid lobbyists . . . foreign governments lobbying us too to back their own foreign policy initiatves (AIPAC).
This is America, never forget it. The British look good compared to us ! What happened to our pure vision? Answer: IT IS STILL HERE, IT JUST CAN'T GET THE AIRTIME. An d it can not be done thorugh the current system - look Obama tried - and now what? He's just like the rest.

[sak]

11:44 PM on 07/28/2010

I do not understand why Blankenship is not in jail. What does this say about who we are as a country and a people? I guess the miners are simply fodder for the machine. They need the jobs. Blankenship is not held accountable by the government and the beat goes on.

Dead people do not bother people like Blankenship. Business as usual.

[Pleroma]

12:17 AM on 07/29/2010

Dead people apparently don;t bother Eric Holder or President Obama either. They would be the most obvious as enforcers of the law.... well, if the USA has laws any more.

[sunny2009]

12:37 AM on 07/29/2010

Notice how everyone moved so quickly on from this story, too?
It's a shame, because the coal fields have been killing fields for decades.

It's an American travesty....and has been going on for years. If you look at the history of WV and Coal, you will see a road littered with corrupt politicians at every level for years and years and years, inspectors on the take and dead bodies from one mining disaster after another.

The mine owners, like Blankenship, have hearts as black as coal and hands red with the blood of the hard-working miners they have killed.

[joedaplumper]

11:41 PM on 07/28/2010

I have heard from people close to the investigation that most of the miners were killed on a man trip (personnel carrier) supposedly in a fresh air intake far from the working face. It begs the question- "How did methane get to an LEL (Lower Explosion Level) in an intake passage? Was it a roof fall to divert ventilation or, as Massey has suggested, a blow out from the mine floor?
The "crack in the floor" theory would suggest the convergence of two coal seams and would make the entire mine suspect. Yet, Blankenship wants to reopen adjacent sections of the mine. What a piece of capitalist, calculating, non-caring piece of work this man is!!

[kmeccat]

11:00 PM on 07/28/2010

because of his willful negligence 29 miners are dead....why is this man not in jail awaiting trial?
Anyone less wealthy/powerful would be.

[sak]

11:47 PM on 07/28/2010

Look, you sell a little pot, you go to jail. You deliberately risk the lives of hundreds of miners and then 29 are killed, no big deal. We need the coal, thus no one is willing to shut down this mine and put Blankenship in jail. Pot however, interferes with the selling of prescription drugs and alcohol, so we cannot allow anyone to sell it. That is our system. It is all about making money and if people die, so be it.

If I were the empress, things would be different.

[saskatoonie]

03:05 AM on 07/29/2010

Yup, me too!

[lonngfello]

10:44 PM on 07/28/2010

"KING COAL
FOR CONGRESS
Coal Industry Unites To Form New Group To Spend Big Against Democrats"

That is the Headline from breaking news. Notice it says "To Spend Big Against Democrats"
In case you don't know that is so the republicans can help them continue killing workers without repercussion. After that they will kill the rest of us when we can't breath or drink the water.

[sak]

11:47 PM on 07/28/2010

They are doing it now.

[Pleroma]

12:32 AM on 07/29/2010

Republicans can help Democrats kill workers without repercussions?

That's how I read the comment and the way it I see it.