On Tuesday, July 27, Massey Energy Company reported a net loss of $88.7 million or $0.88 per share for the quarter ended June 30, 2010, according to a company press release.

The company generated $693.1 million of produced coal revenue in the quarter from the sale of 9.8 million tons of coal, the report stated.

By comparison, Massey reported net income of $20.2 million on produced coal revenue of $603.2 million in the second quarter of 2009 from the sale of 9.4 million tons of coal.

“The second quarter and first half 2010 results include pretax charges of $128.9 million in incurred costs, asset impairments and accrued reserves associated with the tragic accident at the Upper Big Branch mine (UBB) that occurred in April 2010,” the report said. “These charges include estimates for loss of equipment, investigation costs, workers compensation and other compensation and benefits provided to the families of the UBB miners, charges expected to be incurred for litigation, net of insurance proceeds and other related costs.”

Excluding the UBB related charges; the company reported a net loss of $1.6 million or $0.02 per share in the second quarter of 2010 and net income of $32.0 million, or $0.34 per share in the first half of the year.

Commenting on the company’s second quarter results, Massey’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Don Blankenship said, “This was clearly a difficult quarter for everyone associated with Massey. The tragedy at Upper Big Branch and the ensuing, contentious investigation overshadowed our day-to-day operations and largely occupied the time and attention of management and many of our members. We continue to grieve the injury and loss of our miners. Our efforts to provide for the needs of the families of the injured or lost miners continue as well.”

“We remain intensely focused on the safety of all our mines and members even as the investigation to determine the cause of the explosion at UBB continues,” Blankenship added. “We are also continuing our efforts to mitigate the lost production from UBB in order to serve our customers as best we can. These efforts have been disruptive to operations as we move crews and equipment to different locations but they should allow us to improve and stabilize production in the coming quarters.”

According to a report by the Associated Press (AP) on Thursday, July 27, Massey Energy plans to resume extracting coal by constructing a new entrance to its Upper Big Branch mine within months.

Massey told the AP it wants government permission to restart two sections in an area untouched by the blast.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration took control of the mine on April 5 and will not allow production in active areas until it cancels that order, said a spokeswoman, Amy Louviere.