MSHA Awards Half-Million Dollars in Mine Safety Grants

MSHA Awards Half-Million Dollars in Mine Safety Grants

October 2, 2007

The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) 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:

Grantee Amount Awarded Type of Program

College of Eastern Utah $54,000
Mine Emergency Training

Colorado Department of Reclamation, Mining & 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 & Energy $85,000
Mine Emergency Training Vincennes University (Indiana) $50,000
Mine Emergency Training West Virginia Miners Health Safety & 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, with a special emphasis on smaller 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.Va., claimed 12 lives in early 2006.
SOURCE U.S. Department of Labor