All the headlines from our Mining Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Nov 3 2015 // The director of West Virginia’s mine safety office says there is a growing substance abuse problem among miners.Director Eugene White of the Office of Mine Health, Safety and Training told legislators last month that...
Oct 26 2015 // A key government witness testified in West Virginia that prosecutors had threatened to charge him alongside his old coal boss, and he was under an immunity agreement Friday when he took the stand.In the criminal trial of...
Oct 15 2015 // Patriot Coal and West Virginia environmental regulators have reached an agreement in which the company will set aside more than $50 million to cover cleanup costs at its former mine sites in the state.The Department of...
Oct 14 2015 // Ex-Massey Energy Chief Executive Officer Donald Blankenship downplayed the threat that miners develop black-lung disease in shafts choked with coal dust, jurors in the executive’s criminal trial heard in a recorded...
Oct 12 2015 // Donald Blankenship’s own words may come to haunt the former Massey Energy Co. chief executive officer at his criminal trial as a federal judge said prosecutors can let the jury hear conversations secretly recorded...
Oct 9 2015 // Massey Energy executives used an advanced warning system at the company’s Upper Big Branch mine to alert workers as soon as federal inspectors arrived on site, a former miner testified Thursday at the criminal trial...
Oct 6 2015 // Before death came to Upper Big Branch Mine, Donald L. Blankenship managed his patch of Appalachia like King Coal incarnate.Outside homes in rural West Virginia flew the banner of his company, Massey Energy Co.: a flame...
Oct 5 2015 // On Aug. 5, 2015 an environmental contractor acting under the EPA’s authority breached a bulkhead at the entrance to the Gold King Mine in Southwestern Colorado. As a result, 3 million gallons of heavy metal laced...
Sep 29 2015 // Former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship hits the courtroom for a criminal trial Thursday, facing charges that he conspired to break safety laws and lied to financial regulators about safety practices at the site of the...
Sep 3 2015 // Two companies have been cited by West Virginia regulators for alleged violations found during investigations of separate fatal mine accidents.The Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training issued two citations to...
Jul 28 2015 // Attorneys for former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship want evidence about the 2010 explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia kept out of his criminal trial this fall.The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports the...
Jun 26 2015 // Lawmakers will examine whether a program that allows coal companies to forgo mine cleanup insurance could leave taxpayers with billion dollar costs, leading members of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources said on...
Jun 8 2015 // Coal giant Peabody Energy has been among the harshest critics of federal energy policies, joining a court challenge to the Obama administration’s new clean air regulations and denouncing its promotion of renewable...
Jun 5 2015 // A federal judge has denied nine motions to dismiss charges against former Massey Energy Chief Executive Officer Don Blankenship related to a 2010 mine explosion in West Virginia that killed 29 people.Blankenship faces...
Jun 2 2015 // Alpha Natural Resources Inc. no longer qualifies for a government program that subsidizes a share of mine cleanup insurance, requiring the coal company to find another way to cover roughly $400 million in liabilities,...
Apr 30 2015 // Environmental activists said that mountaintop removal coal mining has been expanding closer to communities in central Appalachia in recent years, with nearly half of the 50 areas most at risk in West Virginia.As part of...
Apr 20 2015 // Alpha Natural Resources Inc, a struggling U.S. coal company, may be forced to buy costly new insurance or otherwise ensure it can cover obligations for cleaning up any abandoned mines, according to officials in West...
Apr 9 2015 // Former Massey Energy Co. Chief Executive Officer Donald Blankenship, facing criminal trial over an April 2010 explosion that killed 29 miners, said the year before that he feared a disaster with 100 deaths.“I...
Mar 25 2015 // The former chief executive of Massey Energy Co. pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to a revised federal indictment arising from a 2010 West Virginia coal mine explosion that killed 29 miners.The former chief executive, Donald...
Mar 20 2015 // A former state mine inspector has pleaded guilty in federal court to taking bribes from former Kentucky lawmaker Keith Hall.Kelly Shortridge agreed to a plea that was filed in court on Wednesday. It says Shortridge, who...