TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – US coal and gas producer Consol Energy on Thursday morning reported a partial structural failure on its above-ground clean-coal conveyor belt at the Bailey preparation plant, in south-western Pennsylvania.
No one was injured and the system operations were immediately halted.
Consol said the belt system conveyed coal from the Bailey and Enlow Fork mines, at the clean coal silos, to the Bailey complex train lead-out facility.
The company said it had undertaken a thorough assessment of the failure and reconstruction of the affected systems started on Tuesday.
The incident has affected long-wall production at the company's Bailey and Enlow Fork mines.
The continuous miner units remained fully operational and the company expected that engineering of the affected belt system would be complete by Saturday.
Production would, however, only resume on August 12.
Last year production was also temporarily suspended at both mines on July 30 after a structural failure on the conveyor system at the Bailey preparation plant.
Consol recorded a second-quarter net loss, despite producing more coal in the three months ended June 30 than had been expected. The NYSE-listed company reported a net loss of $13-million, or $0.05 a share, compared with net income of $153-million, or $0.67 a share, in the same period in 2012.