Shares of Western Canadian Coal Corp. rose another 24 per cent Wednesday, after a 23 per cent gain the previous day, when the company said it has signed enough new sales contracts to continue running its Brule mine and Wolverine operation in British Columbia.

In trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange, Western Canadian rose 23 cents to $1.19. a gain of just under 24 per cent, on a volume of 11.9 million shares. That made the Vancouver coal producer the most actively traded stock on the senior Canadian market.

On Tuesday, the company said its new contracts would allow it to keep the B.C operations going.

Both locations have slashed their operations in recent months, but the Vancouver-based coal company’s chief executive said it won’t cause Western Canadian to shut down either site.

“Despite the significant curtailments taken by our customers during the current economic environment, we are pleased to achieve coal sale prices that are the second highest on record,” president and CEO John Hogg said in a release.

However, the company will also follow through with a pledge to match its production with demand, and replace its contractor with company employees.

A spokesman for the Western Coal said that means the company will reduce its 400-person workforce by about 130 people, while the rest of the contract workers will be hired as employees on May 19.

Earlier this year, those 400 workers had been given notice by the company.

The new sales contracts, worth US$175 million, cover the fiscal year ending March 31, 2010, and the company expects to produce about 1.7 million tonnes of coal from the two operating mines.

Western Coal is also merging with its largest shareholder, Cambrian Mining, in a deal valued at $52 million intended to help both companies weather the global economic turmoil.

Cambrian, a British coal and gold mining company, already owns about 34 per cent of Western Coal’s shares before the deal was announced in December.

Find More Other News : Coal, Mineral Exploration, mining companies