The Mine Safety and Health Administration announced seven recipients of a total of $500,000 in grant funds for education and training at underground coal mines. MSHA established the competitive grants program through a provision in the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act of 2006.
“These grants will go a long way toward providing mine emergency training for coal miners,” said Richard E. Stickler, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health. “The program is a fitting tribute to the miners lost at both the Sago and Jim Walter #5 mines.”
Twelve applications were submitted. The selected grantees are as follows:
College of Eastern Utah, $54,000, mine emergency training;
Colorado Department of Reclamation, Mining and Safety, $53,000, training materials for mine emergencies;
Pennsylvania State University, $135,000, mine emergency training;
United Mine Workers of America Career Center, $73,000, mine emergency training;
Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy, $85,000, mine emergency training;
Vincennes University (Indiana), $50,000, mine emergency training;
West Virginia Miners Health
Safety and Training, $50,000, training materials for mine emergencies.
Applicants for the Brookwood-Sago grants must be states or nonprofit entities. MSHA may award as many as 10 separate grants a minimum of $50,000 each with a 12-month period of performance. These grants will be made on an annual, competitive basis to provide education and training for employers and miners.mines.
In 2001, 13 men died in two explosions at the Jim Walter Resources #5 mine in Brookwood, Ala. Another explosion at the Sago Mine in Buchannon, W.V., claimed 12 lives in early 2006.
[dfads params='groups=4969&limit=1&orderby=random']
[dfads params='groups=1745&limit=1&orderby=random']