Federal mining regulators say 2012 had the lowest injury and fatality rates on record. The Mine Safety and Health Administration says the number of U.S. mines fell by about 120 last year, but the number of miners working was actually …
Labor Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis announced a final rule to strengthen safety in the nation’s most dangerous mines. Solis said that the rule, which revises the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s pattern of violations regulation, seeks to ensure …
With a driver and his bulldozer missing in a thick, dark lake of coal slurry, a mine safety expert and critic of the coal industry says regulators are ignoring stricter construction standards that could prevent more failures at hundreds of …
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 …
The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration’s continuing crackdown on the coal industry hasn’t deterred the industry’s growth, director Joe Main said Friday. From April 2010 to June 2011, the number of underground mining employees grew by about 11 percent, …
Three former West Virginia coal miners have been sentenced this week for lying about their credentials to perform pre-shift safety inspections underground. In Huntington, U.S. District Judge Chuck Chambers sentenced 31-year-old Neil Hasen of Alkol to three years of probation …
Coal industry officials this week roundly criticized two sets of new safety rules proposed by federal regulators following an explosion that killed 29 West Virginia miners last year. The West Virginia Coal Association and Alpha Natural Resources, the third-largest U.S. …
Federal Mine Safety and Health Administration investigators blame an Alpha Natural Resources subsidiary for a roof collapse that killed a West Virginia miner last October. Investigators conclude in a report that Kingston Mining Inc.’s failure to follow the roof control …
The company that owned the coal mine where 29 miners died in the worst U.S. mining disaster in four decades concluded the explosion was the result of unpreventable natural gas buildup and not coal dust, contradicting the findings of an …
Government figures show the U.S. coal industry remains well short of meeting a 5-year-old congressional mandate to equip underground mines with high-tech communications and tracking gear. Mine Safety and Health Administration official Dave Chirdon says 192 of 529 coal mines …
