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Friday roundup, Feb. 22, 2013
An employee of Hellas Gold, looks at a burnt mining facility near the village of Skouries, located on the northern peninsula of Halkidiki Greece, on Sunday, Feb. 17 2013. About 40 masked attackers...
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W.Va. mine safety: ‘Everything we possibly can’?
Last Thursday, I sat through another maddening discussion among members of the West Virginia Board of Coal Mine Health and Safety. They were talking again about new rules to implement the tougher...
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What’s next in the Upper Big Branch criminal probe?
Well, in case you missed it, yesterday’s big news is in today’s Gazette: A former Massey Energy official who is cooperating with prosecutors on Thursday implicated the company’s former chief executive...
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More inaction on mine safety in West Virginia
On Friday, not long after our West Virginia House of Delegates voted 99-0 in favor of a selenium water pollution bill favored by the coal industry (with the House Judiciary Chairman citing as the main...
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AP: Former UBB superintendent now in prison
Gary May, former UBB mine superintendent walks away from the U.S. District Court in Beckley Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013 with his attorney, Tim Carrico, after his sentence hearing. May was sentenced to 21...
View ArticleUpdate on Blacksville coal-mine fire
There were some scary moments there yesterday, with some conflicting information about whether all of the workers at CONSOL Energy’s Blacksville No. 2 Mine had made it out in an evacuation ordered...
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Another West Virginia coal miner dies on the job
The bad news came in late last evening, as we reported in this morning’s Gazette: A miner was killed Wednesday evening at a Boone County coal operation, the fifth death in West Virginia’s coal...
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Report: More work needed on coal-mine rescue
There’s a new report out today from the National Academy of Sciences’ National Research Council. It’s called Improving Self-Escape from Underground Coal Mines, and here’s the conclusion: Although...
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How coal miners die on the job
The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration has just issued the report of its investigation into the July 2012 death of Johnny Mack Bryant II, a 35-year- old coal miner from Lenore, W.Va., at Coal...
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Three years after the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster: ‘Why are we failing our...
Mine helmets and painted crosses sit at the entrance to Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch coal mine Tuesday, April 5, 2011 in Montcoal, W.Va. The memorial represents the 29 coal miners who were killed...
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The Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster, April 5, 2010
Three years ago this afternoon, an explosion tore through Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch Mine in Raleigh County, W.Va. Twenty-nine coal miners died and two others were seriously injured. For many of...
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Getting to zero: Coal death rate drops slightly in 2012
In late January, the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration issued a press release that touted an “all-time low” in U.S. mining fatality rates. Oddly enough, the news release didn’t include the...
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CONSOL cited in Blacksville mining death
The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration has just issued the report on its investigation of the September 2012 death of William Mock, a 61-year-old coal miner killed in a roof fall at CONSOL...
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Sen. Rockefeller reintroduces mine safety bill
This just in: Senator Jay Rockefeller today reintroduced his landmark mine safety legislation aimed at fixing the glaring safety issues revealed in the wake of the Upper Big Branch mine disaster on...
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Miners facing more problems with SCSRs?
The Ocenco M-20 shown donned and ready for escape. On the heels of last year’s announced phase-out of the long-troubled CSE Corps. SR-100 model, the last thing coal miners need to hear is that there...
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‘The Price of Justice’: Book examines Massey case
The Gazette’s Dr. Paul Nyden had a review in Sunday’s paper of Laurence Leamer’s major new book, “The Price of Justice: A True Story of Greed and Corruption. ” The book focuses on the Harman...
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Why coal miners die on the job
This morning, the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration made public the report of its investigation into the death last November of a coal miner at the Pocahontas Mine, a Greenbrier County site...
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Latest SCSR problem blamed on testing procedures
The Ocenco M-20 shown donned and ready for escape. There’s an update just out from the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration about the latest problem with self-contained, self-rescuers that coal...
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Review confirms black lung at Upper Big Branch
Just out from Howard Berkes at NPR is a piece headlined, Doctors Confirm Black Lung In Victims Of Mine Blast, reporting: The tragic deaths of 29 coal miners in a has provided new evidence of a...
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The Kentucky Darby Disaster, May 20, 2006
Today is the 7th anniversary of the May 20, 2006, explosion that killed five miners at Kentucky Darby LLC’s Darby No. 1 Mine in Harlan County, Ky. The Kentucky Darby Disaster claimed the lives of coal...
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