PHILIPPI — The Leer South coal mine in Barbour County will remain temporarily sealed after miners were evacuated due to a fire on Jan. 13, according to officials.

Core Natural Resources, Inc. announced that it was taking steps to temporarily seal the Leer South mine’s active long-wall panel “in order to extinguish isolated combustion-related activity there.” 

Based on “collaborative, ongoing discussions” with regulatory authorities, Core officials said they believe Leer South will be able to resume development work with continuous miners within the next three months, and to resume long-wall mining mid-year.

“On behalf of the Core management team, I want to commend Leer South personnel for their exceptional efforts in managing a challenging situation safely and effectively, and I want to thank the regulatory agencies for their great support during this process,” Paul A. Lang, Core’s chief executive officer, said in a press release. “While we are disappointed that we may be losing around two quarters of longwall production at Leer South, we are confident we are taking the right steps to protect the mine, mining equipment and infrastructure.”

According to published reports, the fire began around 1 a.m. on Jan. 13 and was still burning into the late afternoon as mining operations were suspended throughout the day while the cause of the blaze was investigated. Officials stated that no one was injured during the fire and all miners who were working when the fire started were safely evacuated.

The fire reportedly started in the long mine section and spread to the “gob” area of the complex, the space that is left in the mine after coal has been extracted. The area is typically filled with a mixture of coal, clay, rock and other materials.

Lang said Core has a “good understanding” of where the combustion-related activity is occurring and officials are confident that this limited activity does not currently present a threat to the longwall equipment. Core plans to apply water and nitrogen to extinguish the combustion-related activity, which, Lang said, should lead to “the most expeditious resumption of mining.”

The re-entry process will be multi-phased, according to the release, beginning with the construction of ventilation controls followed by the resumption of continuous miner development. As a result, the company stated that officials expect to advance development work on future long-wall panels, which should enable the longwall system to operate in a “highly efficient” manner in the second half of the year.

“Looking ahead, the Core operations team has already initiated efforts to help ensure that we avoid such incidents in the future,” George J. Schuller Jr., Core’s chief operating officer, said in the release. “We are confident that there are steps we can take – in the areas of monitoring, degassing, and the installation of proactive mitigation systems – that should enable us to avoid future outages.”

The Leer South mine was previously part of Arch Resources, which was the leading U.S. producer of metallurgical products for the global steel industry, and the leading supplier of premium High-Vol A metallurgical coal globally. On Jan. 14, just a day after the fire began, Arch Resources announced that it would be merging with CONSOL Energy, Inc., to form Core Natural Resources, Inc.

In addition to West Virginia, Core owns mines in Colorado, Pennsylvania and Wyoming.

The Leer South long-wall mine has consistently ranked among the lowest-cost U.S. metallurgical mines, and produces a product quality that is recognized and sought-after worldwide, officials said. The Leer South Mine sold 2.7 million tons of coal in 2023.