CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - Coal producer Massey Energy Co. has won a federal court order temporarily barring mining protesters from its southern West Virginia properties.

Massey wants the ban imposed for good. It will seek an extension at a hearing Thursday after winning the temporary order last week.

U.S. District Judge Irene Berger granted the request in conjunction with a lawsuit filed by Massey targeting protesters who've spent the past year invading the Richmond, Va.-based company's mine sites. They've variously climbed trees, chained themselves to heavy equipment, and repeatedly been arrested in hopes of stopping mountaintop removal coal mining.

Though highly efficient, many environmentalist groups say the practice is simply too devastating and want it banned in West Virginia and several surrounding states.

Massey's court filings contend it's the one being damaged.

"Defendants, and their cohorts affiliated with Climate Ground Zero and Mountain Justice, have represented by their words and proven through their actions that they will not be deterred by the imposition of a monetary fine or the prospect of serving a jail sentence for their criminal conduct, but will continue to trespass on mining properties," Massey says in its suit.

The lawsuit lists five individuals involved in a recent tree-sitting protest at a Massey surface mine, but the order reaches well beyond. At Massey's request, Berger applied it to the defendants' officers, agents, lawyers and anyone working with the defendants, including Climate Ground Zero and Mountain Justice. Both have been involved in numerous protests aimed at Massey.

Berger's order likewise bars trespassing on any mining properties in the Southern District of West Virginia, home to most of the state's surface coal production.

Massey, Climate Ground Zero and Mountain Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The lawsuit is the latest in a string of litigation Massey has filed over the protests. None of the earlier cases, which were filed in state court, has deterred protesters.

The five named defendants, for instance, were arrested during the course of an eight-day protest that ended Friday at Massey's Beetree surface mine about 41 miles south of Charleston. Three of the defendants climbed trees and refused to come down, while two others helped from the ground.

Massey says the protest "amounts to nothing more than a reckless publicity stunt" that endangered the protesters, the mine's employees and contract workers.

Protester David Aaron Smith, one of the defendants arrested last week, said he welcomes the opportunity to take this case before "a grander stage" in federal court.

"As a campaign, we don't quite know the implications of what this injunction can do to really keep us away," he said.