All the headlines from our Mining Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Jul 27 2012 // West Virginia mine regulators have failed to meet internal goals for timely inspections and permits, a legislative audit concluded, but agency officials disagree with the auditors over why.The report released this week to...
Jul 25 2012 // The West Virginia Supreme Court has set an October argument date to consider the issue of whether Mine Safety and Health Administration inspectors can be held liable for coal miners’ deaths. A federal appeals court...
Jul 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...
Jul 19 2012 // A federal appeals court said this week that the state Supreme Court should decide whether Mine Safety and Health Administration inspectors can be held liable for coal miners’ deaths, calling it “a matter of...
Jul 17 2012 // A published report says Kentucky’s state investigators found few problems at a Harlan County mine where federal investigators found enough violations during a surprise safety blitz in May to shut the facility down...
Jul 11 2012 // Black lung diagnoses have doubled in the last decade, and a new investigation blames a combination of factors, including operators who cheat the system and lax enforcement by regulators.Experts have warned of the...
Jul 2 2012 // Alpha Natural Resources has completed sealing the West Virginia mine where an explosion killed 29 workers in 2010.Alpha spokesman Ted Pile told The Register-Herald that the seals are covered with fill dirt. The mine...
Jun 22 2012 // Alpha Natural Resources has completed sealing the West Virginia mine where an explosion killed 29 workers in 2010.Alpha spokesman Ted Pile told The Register-Herald that crews put the final concrete seal in place at the...
Jun 21 2012 // Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear is promoting a newly passed law that permanently revokes the credentials of miners who fail drug tests.Beshear was in Pikeville on Tuesday where he said the law sends a clear message that drug...
Jun 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...
Jun 15 2012 // The former superintendent of the Upper Big Branch Mine will be sentenced Oct. 4 for his actions before the disaster that killed 29 men.U.S. District Judge Irene Berger had scheduled Gary May’s sentencing for August...
Jun 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...
Jun 4 2012 // The Mine Safety and Health Administration says it issued 254 citations, 19 orders and one safeguard during special inspections at West Virginia coal mines last month.Among those targeted was Argus Energy’s Deep Mine...
May 31 2012 // A published report says Kentucky coal operators owe more in delinquent fines to federal authorities for mine safety violations than any other state.The Courier-Journal said the finding is from an analysis it did of records...
May 29 2012 // The former general foreman of the Drumlummon gold and silver mine northwest of Helena, Mont. says he was fired for enforcing safety standards and has filed a lawsuit against mine owner RX Gold and Silver.The Independent...
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...
Apr 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...
Apr 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...
Apr 11 2012 // Nine men who survived West Virginia’s Upper Big Branch mine disaster want to abandon mediation of their personal injury claims and start gathering evidence for trial because they say the mine’s new owner...
Apr 6 2012 // Federal regulators are issuing a final set of rules for underground coal mine examinations that aim to hold operators more accountable for finding and fixing dangerous conditions — and preventing the deaths of their...