April 23, 2013
A University of Utah study had rejected a company’s claims concerning the cause of a 2007 collapse at Utah’s Crandall Canyon coal mine that killed nine people. The scientists presented findings of their research last week at the Seismological Society …
March 18, 2013
Federal regulators and safety officials should consider requiring more backup air supplies and work to develop better breathing devices that would help the nation’s coal miners escape underground emergencies, a panel of experts said in a new report. The report …
December 20, 2012
The Office of Mine Safety and Licensing is asking that an eastern Kentucky miner who reported safety violations be put on probation because he worked in unsafe conditions. Mackie Bailey faces a hearing in February with the state Mine Safety …
July 23, 2012
Nineteen mining deaths occurred during the first six months of the year, the second-lowest midyear toll ever recorded, federal regulators said. Fourteen miners died during the same period last year. The Mine Safety and Health Administration said 10 of this …
June 19, 2012
Alpha Natural Resources has significantly cut its accident and injury rates in the six months since a landmark $210 million settlement that spared the company criminal charges over the 2010 mine explosion that killed 29 workers, federal prosecutors say. Alpha …
June 8, 2012
Relatives of three miners killed in West Virginia’s Upper Big Branch disaster are in Washington, D.C., to press for the passage of long-stalled mine safety legislation by July 4. Gary Quarles lost son Gary Wayne in the 2010 explosion that …
May 24, 2012
A coal miner who says he was fired for enforcing safety standards that slowed down both production and the sealing of the Upper Big Branch mine in southern West Virginia is suing Alpha Natural Resources. The State Journal said Glen …
May 22, 2012
Coal producer Alpha Natural Resources says it has taken steps to avoid coal-dust violations of the kind that investigators say caused the 2010 Upper Big Branch Mine explosion that killed 29 men, according to a letter the Bristol, Va.-based company …
April 27, 2012
The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration said 10 miners died in work-related accidents at the nation’s mines during the first quarter of 2012, and half of those occurred on five consecutive weekends. MSHA chief Joe Main said that three …
April 25, 2012
Two years of testing have found a critical defect in a certain model of emergency breathing devices used in U.S. coal mines, but federal regulators have no immediate plans to remove the more than 70,000 air packs that could remain …