Last year, the South Crandall mine moved its longwall machine to the West Ridge mine and idled that mine. The company began using the continuous miner exclusively in the Crandall Canyon Mine. Because of that, he said, South Crandall needed far fewer miners.

The Crandall Canyon operation employed an average of 154 miners in 2006, and projected employment was just 64 this year.

"They planned on mining in the Crandall Canyon Mine with that one continuous miner until 2010, and then they were going back to the South Crandall Mine," Vanden Berg said.

The Crandall Canyon Mine was expected to produce about 600,000 tons this year. In the year's first half, they mined about half that amount, he said. But since the disaster began, normal coal mining has been halted.

If Crandall Canyon Mine does not reopen this year, Vanden Berg said, "they might lose out on producing about 300,000 tons."

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