The director of Pennsylvania's Bureau of Mine Safety said yesterday that he was heartened -- but not surprised -- by the results of statewide mine inspections ordered by Gov. Ed Rendell following the coal mine tragedies in neighboring West Virginia.

"In general, our mines are usually pretty darn good," said Joseph Sbaffoni. "Most of our operators are very good operators. They're smart enough to know that a safe mine is a productive mine."

State inspectors found 361 violations at 79 mining sites.

Pennsylvania's inspections coincided with additional checks of conveyor belts conducted by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration. MSHA officials found 97 violations in bituminous coal and 10 in anthracite coal mines, Mr. Sbaffoni said.

None of the violations was considered serious enough to warrant closing any part of the mine operations and all were corrected before inspectors left the mine that day.

"We didn't have anything that raised a flag. We didn't have to put anyone out of the mine," he said.

Two mines, Bailey Mine in Greene County and the Enlow Fork Mine in Washington County, each had more than 30 violations, but they are also two of the largest mines in Pennsylvania. Both are operated by Consol Energy, based in Upper St. Clair.

Because both have two longwall operations, their number of violations is proportionally "in the ballpark" with other operations, Mr. Sbaffoni said.

Overall, the most frequent violation -- 20 percent of the total -- related to electrical equipment, such as an improperly set breaker or damaged cables. Another 10 percent each fell into three categories related to the care, maintenance and testing of equipment.

Inspectors found 21 violations of roof support standards, and 17 were cited for not having minimum required fire protection.

Emerald Mine in Greene County, operated by Emerald Coal Resources, LP, is one of the larger mines with 490 employees but it had only three electrical violations and three mine inspection violations. Another large mine, Cumberland in Greene County, had seven mine violations and no electrical violations.

Eight mines, the largest of which is the Ondo Extension Mine in Indiana County with 70 employees, had no mining violations. Ondo, operated by AMFIRE Mining Co. of Latrobe also had only one electrical violation.