PITTSBURGH, July 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Buchanan Mine, near Mavisdale, Virginia, recorded two suspected roof caving events that are believed to have occurred in longwall panels that had been mined. These two roof caves, which occurred at approximately 9:43 AM and 9:45 AM EDT yesterday, created compression air waves that disrupted ventilation controls along several nearby mine entries. As a precaution, miners exited the mine following standard evacuation procedures. Several supervisors made a preliminary assessment of the situation underground before exiting the mine. All employees are accounted for and there were no injuries as a result of the roof cave. The company is continuing to ventilate the mine and is monitoring various gas levels in the mine to determine the overall impact on the mine. Based on gas readings thus far, the company believes there is no active combustion occurring in the mine. The company will continue to monitor various gas levels until the trend at all monitoring stations confirms that it is safe to re-enter the mine and repair the areas where ventilation controls were damaged. State and Federal safety agencies are at the scene and must concur in the assessment regarding safety prior to employees re-entering the mine. During the period when production is idle, the company expects to ship coal from inventory. CONSOL Energy Inc., a high-Btu bituminous coal and coal bed methane company, is a member of the Standard & Poor's 500 Equity Index and has annual revenues of $3.7 billion. It has 15 bituminous coal mining complexes in six states and reports proven and probable coal reserves of 4.3 billion tons. In addition, the company is a majority shareholder in one of the largest U.S. producers of coalbed methane gas, CNX Gas Corporation. CONSOL Energy was named one of America's most admired companies in 2005 by Fortune magazine. It received the U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of Surface Mining National Award for Excellence in Surface Mining for the company's innovative reclamation practices in 2002, 2003 and 2004. Also in 2003, the company was listed in Information Week magazine's "Information Week 500" list for its information technology operations. In 2002, the company received a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Climate Protection Award. Additional information about the company can be found at its web site: http://www.consolenergy.com/ . "Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this news release regarding CONSOL Energy's business which are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report or Form 10-K for the most recently ended fiscal year. DATASOURCE: CONSOL Energy Inc. CONTACT: Thomas F. Hoffman of CONSOL Energy Inc., +1-412-831-4060 Web site: http://www.consolenergy.com/

Copyright