February 8, 2025 - An official from a mine that was temporarily sealed after a fire in January will address the public during a special Barbour County Chamber of Commerce event Monday.

The public is invited to the third in its event series, “Information: Barbour County,” on Monday, Feb. 10 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. in Burbick Hall on the campus of Battlers Knob, the former Alderson Broaddus University. Light refreshments will be served.

Monday’s session will feature Larry Gore, general manager of Leer South Mine, the Barbour County site of Core Natural Resources. Gore has been asked to share his thoughts on the impact of Leer South on the community and the impact of the temporary closure of the mine on the community.

“Information: Barbour County” is a new initiative of the Chamber of Commerce. The purpose of the new series of information sessions is to keep Barbour County citizens aware of what is happening in their community, and the activities that impact the community.

“We hope that our citizens will join us as we learn about what is happening in our county and in our area,” Chamber President Ed Larry said in a press release.

Future guest topics and the speakers will be announced in upcoming weeks.

The Leer South coal mine in Barbour County will remain temporarily sealed after miners were evacuated due to a fire on Jan. 13 at the Leer South coal mine.

Core Natural Resources, Inc. announced days later 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.

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.