By Robb M. Stewart

Core Natural Resources is working to temporarily seal a part of its Leer South coal mine in West Virginia in an effort to extinguish an underground fire.

The fire began Monday and all mine workers were evacuated, with no injuries reported.

Core said Thursday it was taking steps to seal the mine's active longwall panel, a block cut from the wall of the coal mine. It said it believes Leer South will be able to resume development work using continuous miners within the next three months, and resume longwall mining mid-year.

Based on the estimate, Core could lose about two quarters of longwall mining at the operation. The company plans to temporarily seal the active panel and apply water and nitrogen to put out the fire.

Re-entry will be phased, beginning with the construction of ventilation controls followed by the resumption of continuous miner development, Core said. It said it expects to advance development work on future longwall panels, which should enable its longwall system to operate efficiently in the second half of the year.

George Schuller Jr., Core's chief operating officer, said the company had already initiated efforts to help ensure Core avoids such incidents in the future, including looking at monitoring, degassing, and the installation of proactive mitigation systems that could help avoid future outages.

Core was officially created this month with the merger of Consol Energy and Arch Resources. The company produces thermal and steelmaking metallurgical coal from its Pennsylvania Mining Complex, Leer, Leer South and West Elk mines.

Core earlier this week said it doesn't believe the "combustion-related event" at Leer South has caused any material damage to the longwall or other mining equipment.

Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 16, 2025 08:40 ET (13:40 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.