MSHA sues Darby for unpaid penalties from disaster
Kentucky.com - Lexington,KY,USA February 2, 2009
HARLAN, Ky. -- The federal government has sued an eastern Kentucky mine operator for nonpayment of civil penalties assessed after a 2006 explosion that killed five miners.
The U.S. Labor Department's Mine Safety and Health Administration announced the lawsuit Monday. It is seeking $505,012 from Kentucky Darby LLC, which includes unpaid civil penalties as well as interest and administrative fees.
Assistant Labor Secretary Michael A. Davis said in a statement that Darby had yet to pay for several violations, despite an agreement to do so. The company has 20 days after the summons is served to respond.
Two miners died immediately during the May 20, 2006, blast at Darby Mine #1 in Harlan County. Three others died from carbon monoxide poisoning while trying to escape.
_______________________________ U. S. Mine Rescue Association http://www.usmra.com
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A contract truck driver was killed Friday morning at a Massey Energy strip mine in eastern Kanawha County, state and federal officials said.
William Wade, 70, of Bloomingrose, lost control of his truck on a haul road at Massey subsidiary Elk Run Coal Co.'s Republic Energy Surface Mine, said Jama Jarrett, spokeswoman for the state Office of Miners' Health, Safety and Training.
Amy Louviere, spokeswoman for the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration, said the truck was traveling downhill on the paved road.
"An eyewitness saw the truck travel a short distance up an embankment and then flip over," Louviere said. "The driver was ejected from the truck and was fatally injured when he was pinned under the cab."
Louviere said the drive died "at about 12:50 p.m. after efforts began to rescue him from his trapped position."
Jarrett said state officials are not yet sure if Wade was ejected or if he tried to escape before the truck overturned.
Wade was employed by Medford Trucking, a contractor for the Massey operation.
The death is the first to be counted as a 2009 mining fatality in West Virginia and the United States. However, officials have not yet decided if they will count the earlier death of a worker in a vehicle accident as he drove home, taking a shortcut across a strip mine haul road.
Jarrett said state investigators and MSHA would examine the truck today to see if there was a mechanical failure.
_______________________________ U. S. Mine Rescue Association http://www.usmra.com
World's new deepest mine ‘safe, cheap' - AngloGold
Creamer Media's Mining Weekly - Garden View,South Africa February 9, 2009
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The world's new deepest mine was both safe and low-cost, AngloGold Ashanti vice-president Southern Africa Johan Viljoen said of the Mponeng gold mine in South Africa, which had broken through the 3,777 m (12,391.7 ft.) depth level to create a global record.
Viljoen reported that the company had beaten the record held by Savuka gold mine, also an AngloGold Ashanti asset, for the past 28 years.
"Last week, we actually went past the deepest point in the world, and every day that we blast at Mponeng, we are actually going deeper," he sold Mining Weekly Online.
Important, was that the company had accomplished its task without a single fatality and two lost-time incidents in the three-year period.
"It's official, and we will now apply to the Guinness Book of Records," said Viljoen.
The cash costs at Mponeng were far lower than any other deep-level mine, as well as many shallow mines, proving, said Viljoen, that "deep can also be cheap".
He said the world's deepest mine was producing gold at $222/oz.
Mponeng last year again achieved a million fatality-free shifts and was runner-up in the fall-of-ground and the national safety campaign on low fatality, lost-time injuries and dressing cases.
"It's leading stuff," Viljoen reiterated.
With the current sink the mine would go down to 4,100 m (13,451.4 ft.), which was another 300 m from current depth, and a prefeasibiity was under way for the Carbon Leader project, which would take Mponeng to 4,500 m (14,763.8 ft.) below surface.
_______________________________ U. S. Mine Rescue Association http://www.usmra.com
5 Peru miners buried alive after explosion in Lima
Living in Peru - Lima,Peru February 9, 2009
Five Peru mining workers were buried alive early Sunday after a tunnel collapsed and trapped them 200 meters (656 feet) below the earth.
It was reported that the accident took place in the Limean province of Huarochiri at El Carmen mine.
According to Casapalca mining company, the workers were buried alive after a "natural rock explosion" took place as the miners were extracting minerals.
Those trapped in the mine have been identified as 32-year-old Lucio Chipana, Edgar Villarreal (44), Alex Taype (22), César Herrera (20) and Carlos Corpus (35).
While several brigades of rescue workers have been organized and working around the clock to rescue the miners, none of them have been located yet.
Labor Minister Jorge Villasante affirmed that 17 tons of earth have already been moved in efforts to rescue the trapped men.
_______________________________ U. S. Mine Rescue Association http://www.usmra.com
-----Original Message----- From: MineRescue@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MineRescue@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
USMRA Sent: Monday, February 09, 2009 10:22 PM To: minerescue@yahoogroups.com Subject: [USMRA] 5 Peru miners buried alive after explosion in Lima
5 Peru miners buried alive after explosion in Lima
Living in Peru - Lima,Peru
February 9, 2009
Five Peru mining workers were buried alive early Sunday after a tunnel collapsed and trapped them 200 meters (656 feet) below the earth.
It was reported that the accident took place in the Limean province of Huarochiri at El Carmen mine.
According to Casapalca mining company, the workers were buried alive after a "natural rock explosion" took place as the miners were extracting minerals.
Those trapped in the mine have been identified as 32-year-old Lucio Chipana, Edgar Villarreal (44), Alex Taype (22), César Herrera (20) and Carlos Corpus (35).
While several brigades of rescue workers have been organized and working around the clock to rescue the miners, none of them have been located yet.
Labor Minister Jorge Villasante affirmed that 17 tons of earth have already been moved in efforts to rescue the trapped men.
_______________________________
U. S. Mine Rescue Association http://www.usmra.com
Subject: RE: [USMRA] 5 Peru miners buried alive after explosion in Lima
Natural Rock Explosion?
-----Original Message----- From:MineRescue@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MineRescue@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of USMRA Sent: Monday, February 09, 2009 10:22 PM To:minerescue@yahoogroups.com Subject: [USMRA] 5 Peru miners buried alive after explosion in Lima
5 Peru miners buried alive after explosion in Lima
Living in Peru - Lima,Peru February 9, 2009
Five Peru mining workers were buried alive early Sunday after a tunnel collapsed and trapped them 200 meters (656 feet) below the earth.
It was reported that the accident took place in the Limean province of Huarochiri at El Carmen mine.
According to Casapalca mining company, the workers were buried alive after a "natural rock explosion" took place as the miners were extracting minerals.
Those trapped in the mine have been identified as 32-year-old Lucio Chipana, Edgar Villarreal (44), Alex Taype (22), César Herrera (20) and Carlos Corpus (35).
While several brigades of rescue workers have been organized and working around the clock to rescue the miners, none of them have been located yet.
Labor Minister Jorge Villasante affirmed that 17 tons of earth have already been moved in efforts to rescue the trapped men.
_______________________________ U. S. Mine Rescue Association http://www.usmra.com
A judge on Tuesday ordered the federal agency that regulates coal mining to strengthen rules designed to make the nation’s 38,000 underground coal miners safer by creating better-trained rescue teams.
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Judge Stephen Williams ordered the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration to reconsider rescue team rules covering small coal mines. Current rules allow teams at mines with fewer than 36 employees to train just once a year.
Williams ruled that violates a federal law passed after the deaths of 12 West Virginia coal miners following a January 2006 methane gas explosion and two other high-profile underground mining accidents that killed seven workers in West Virginia and Kentucky later that year.
Williams also ordered MSHA to eliminate a rule allowing teams of state mine inspectors to substitute work for rescue practice.
MSHA said it will make the necessary changes, which will require state employee teams to train twice a year at small mines and participate in two contests for mine rescue teams, the agency said in a statement. Teams at small mines will be required to train twice a year as well, MSHA said.
United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts, whose labor union challenged the rules in court, praised the ruling.
"MSHA attempted to water down the requirement that mine rescue teams train at least twice a year, but the court said no," Roberts said in a statement. "Coal miners and our families have learned the hard way that well-trained mine rescue teams, responding immediately to incidents in the mines, can save lives."
It’s unclear how much the added requirement might cost the nation’s 600-plus underground coal mines.
A National Mining Association spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Williams did uphold several other portions of the regulations, including a provision that allows training exercises to be substituted for rescue contests.
Raleigh woman says wrongly fired her from MSHA job
West Virginia Record - Charleston,WV,USA February 10, 2009
BECKLEY -- A Raleigh County woman alleges she was terminated from her job as a maid at the Mine Safety and Health Administration after attempting to bring awareness to illegal practices.
Regina A. Williams, who had been working at MSHA since Oct. 15, 1997, was fired Oct. 3, 2007, for reporting possible fraudulent practices against the government, according to the complaint filed Sept. 29 in Raleigh Circuit Court.
The fraud began shortly after Basic Contracting Services Inc. entered into a contract in 2001 with MSHA in which it agreed to provide cleaning services, the suit states.
From then on, Williams claims she began to notice BCSI double billing MSHA.
According to the complaint, this is how BCSI's scheme worked:
It billed MSHA for both the number of hours a janitor worked and the number of rooms a maid cleaned. Any janitor time not used was to be reimbursed to MSHA under the contract, according to the complaint.
When it was shorthanded, BCSI would ask a janitor to perform the maid's work. But when it billed MSHA at the end of the month, BCSI would charge both the janitor's hourly rate and the maid's room rate, even though the janitor had performed only maid's work, the suit states.
"This way the defendant did not reimburse or otherwise make up for the lost janitor time while continuing to receive monies for the maid's services," the suit states. "Since the defendant only had to report janitor's work according to time spent and the maid services according to the number of rooms cleaned, it could avoid letting MSHA know it was double billing."
In addition, maids were only supposed to clean a certain number of rooms per day, but were routinely asked to clean more than that, Williams alleges.
"Thus, BSCI, would get paid the number of rooms without hiring additional maids," the suit states.
Williams claims she approached several people, including the superintendent of the Mine Academy, an MSHA employee and a union representative, about her concerns, but no one would do anything.
However, there was one person Williams did not approach - her project manager.
"The plaintiff perceived that the defendant, BCSI, created an intimidating and hostile environment toward anyone who complained," the suit states.
But during one of Williams' conversations with the MSHA employee, her co-worker overheard her complaints and told their supervisor of Williams' suspicions on Sept. 11, 2007, according to the complaint
On Sept. 24, 2007, Williams claims she was suspended for insubordination and for improperly cleaning a room.
"The defendant BCSI's, definition of insubordination involved the plaintiff having gone outside the BCSI chain of command to the 'customer' (MSHA) with complaints," the suit states.
Williams returned to work Sept. 28, 2007, according to the complaint.
Because she feared additional repercussions for her whistle-blowing activities, Williams claims she approached an EEO counselor at MSHA about her worries.
The counselor sent an e-mail detailing Williams' fears to the counselor's boss, which eventually was sent to BCSI's CEO on Oct. 2, 2007, according to the complaint.
On Monday, Oct. 1, 2007, Williams claims she was told to leave because she was under investigation for "a room."
Only two days later and one day after the e-mail was sent to the CEO, Williams was fired for continued failure to meet job standards and insubordination, according to the complaint.
"Although the defendant, BCSI, referenced job performance in its termination letter of October 3, 2007, the motivating factor behind her termination was BCSI's perception that she had complained to the EEO officer and the MSHA COTR, rather than job performance," the suit states.
Because she was terminated, Williams claims she suffered annoyance, inconvenience, embarrassment, humiliation and loss of dignity.
She has also lost wages and employment benefits and has suffered emotional distress and financial hardship, according to the complaint.
Because BCSI is a corporation operating out of New Mexico and Williams is a West Virginia citizen and because the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000, BCSI has removed the case to federal court.
Williams is seeking actual damages, including back and front pay and the value of lost benefits, plus compensatory, exemplary and punitive damages.
She is also seeking an injunction prohibiting BCSI from engaging in discriminatory behavior in the future, plus pre- and post-judgment interest, costs and other relief to which she may be entitled.
Karen B. Kostol of Beckley will be representing her.
A. Patricia Diulus-Myers and Denise R. Brossman of Jackson Lewis in Pittsburgh will be representing BCSI.
U.S. District Court case number: 5:09-0049
_______________________________ U. S. Mine Rescue Association http://www.usmra.com
Mine rescue team tackle Corsham blaze with liquid nitrogen
This is Wiltshire.co.uk - Swindon,England,UK February 12, 2009
The Wessex Mine Rescue team has been tackling the blaze at Monk's Park former underground mine with liquid nitrogen.
The fire which is thought to be contained within one chamber started yesterday morning and is thought to be slowly lowering in temperature making the situation safer.
A fork lift truck is thought to be the cause of the fire 100ft underground, which was attended by crews from all over Wiltshire yesterday and is being supervised by crews from Chippenham, Trowbridge and a specialist unit from, Devizes.
Wiltshire Fire press officer Louise Knox said: "Yesterday it was deemed to dangerous for them to go down there and as there was nobody in danger, the team decided it would be senseless to take dangerous risks.
"The liquid nitrogen is being used to try and extinguish the fire by starving it of oxygen."
The Health and Protection Agency and NHS Wiltshire are working with the fire service and the mine rescue team to give precautionary advice to residents living in the immediate vicinity, advising them to keep windows and doors closed until further notice.
There is also thought to be asbestos in parts of the mine, however experts from the Health Protection Agency have said that the risk from the asbestos to the local community is low.
_______________________________ U. S. Mine Rescue Association http://www.usmra.com
Does anyone have any contacts at the mine? I'd be glad to tell or show them how to convert the liquide nitrogen into a nitrogen foam that can fill any part of the mine with the soaking, ventilation controlling, gas displaceing foam from the safety of the surface.
To: minerescue@yahoogroups.com From: usmra@... Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2009 11:14:49 -0500 Subject: [USMRA] Mine rescue team tackle Corsham blaze with liquid nitrogen
Mine rescue team tackle Corsham blaze with liquid nitrogen
This is Wiltshire.co.uk - Swindon,England,UK February 12, 2009
The Wessex Mine Rescue team has been tackling the blaze at Monk's Park former underground mine with liquid nitrogen.
The fire which is thought to be contained within one chamber started yesterday morning and is thought to be slowly lowering in temperature making the situation safer.
A fork lift truck is thought to be the cause of the fire 100ft underground, which was attended by crews from all over Wiltshire yesterday and is being supervised by crews from Chippenham, Trowbridge and a specialist unit from, Devizes.
Wiltshire Fire press officer Louise Knox said: "Yesterday it was deemed to dangerous for them to go down there and as there was nobody in danger, the team decided it would be senseless to take dangerous risks.
"The liquid nitrogen is being used to try and extinguish the fire by starving it of oxygen."
The Health and Protection Agency and NHS Wiltshire are working with the fire service and the mine rescue team to give precautionary advice to residents living in the immediate vicinity, advising them to keep windows and doors closed until further notice.
There is also thought to be asbestos in parts of the mine, however experts from the Health Protection Agency have said that the risk from the asbestos to the local community is low.
_______________________________ U. S. Mine Rescue Association http://www.usmra.com
GUIYANG, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Eight miners were killed Friday in a coal and gas outburst at a mine in southwest China's Guizhou Province, local work safety officials said.
The outburst happened at 1:36 a.m. at the Zhihe mine in Zhijin County when 33 miners were working underground. Twenty-five miners managed to escape, said officials of the Guizhou provincial work safety bureau.
Local authorities are investigating the cause of the accident.
_______________________________ U. S. Mine Rescue Association http://www.usmra.com
I appreciate the detailed information you have provided. It was a very interesting type of fire and we were all waiting to see how it would be handled.
I noticed that there was a mention about asbestos particulate matter and smoke exposure might be a concern to the population early in the response. I’m really glad to hear that your agencies take that serious and respond in the interest of the citizens and the environment.
I have one more comment that I hope may be of some value for your future applications. We have been studying and testing the ability of Compressed Air Foam Systems (CAFS) to be used as an air scrubbing or filtration system for gases and particulate matter that need to be controlled in enclosed areas or even in the outside air. The surfactants in the foam are very carbon loving and attract carbon based gas and particulate matter and sticks it to the thin films of the very small durable bubbles.
This allows the fire fighters to use a fan spray of foam to swath a clean area of space or use it to capture escaping smoke. We often use this technique to clear a smoke filled room without having to ventilate toxic vapors and smoke to the outside air.
I hope this information is useful and please don’t hesitate to call if you ever need us.
Two rescue workers killed in coal mine blast in Siberia
RIA Novosti - Moscow,Russia February 14, 2009
KEMEROVO, February 14 (RIA Novosti) - Two rescue workers were killed on Saturday in an explosion at a coal mine in southwest Siberia, an official from the Kemerovo region administration said.
A team of rescue workers descended in the Voroshilov mine in the town of Prokopyevsk in the the Kuznetsk coal basin, or Kuzbass, to investigate the cause of a high concentration of carbon monoxide underground.
"The accident occurred at about 10:14 a.m. Moscow time (07:30 GMT) on Saturday, after 172 mine workers were evacuated from the mine following a gas leak warning," the official said.
The work at the mine has been suspended until the end of an investigation into the accident.
The Voroshilov mine and other mines in Kuzbass have recently underwent safety inspections following a minor methane gas blast at the Voroshilov mine last June, when seven miners received burns of varying degrees.
_______________________________ U. S. Mine Rescue Association http://www.usmra.com
A fire which began in an underground storage site in Corsham three days ago is unlikely to be out till Sunday at least, Wiltshire Fire Service said.
The blaze, contained in a former mine up to 100ft (30m) below the surface, is believed to have been started by an electric forklift.
Crews are using liquid nitrogen to extinguish the flames.
Nigel Thomas, commercial director of Leafield Logistics, which owns the site, said smoke was the main problem.
"It's been a situation where we can't commit mines rescue employees to the site of the fire because of the smoke," he said.
"The nitrogen will remove the capacity for oxygen to feed the fire, finally remove any doubt that there's a fire there, then we will move into the mine sometime [over] the weekend."
The Monk's Park site, which covers 18 acres, is used by Leafield Logistics to store surplus MoD equipment.
The company said no explosives were kept in the former mine.
_______________________________ U. S. Mine Rescue Association http://www.usmra.com
GUIYANG -- Eight miners were killed Friday in a gas and coal eruption at a mine in southwest China's Guizhou Province, local work safety officials said.
The outburst happened at 1:36 a.m. at the Zhihe mine in Zhijin County when 33 miners were working underground. Twenty-five miners managed to escape, said officials of the Guizhou provincial work safety bureau.
Most of the victims were migrant workers from neighboring Chongqing.
Their relatives are en route to the mine, a spokesman with the rescue headquarters said.
The accident also injured one miner, who was being treated at a local hospital, the spokesman said. "The injured miner was in a coma but has regained consciousness," he said.
The mine was ordered to halt production on January 19 for safety reasons, but it resumed production without approval Thursday.
Local authorities are investigating the cause of the accident.
_______________________________ U. S. Mine Rescue Association http://www.usmra.com
Brian, I'll be looking for your email, I'm very interested in how this fire is handled because this is my kinda fire.
Another comment I hope might be helpful, is when using the liquid nitrogen to inert and cool a compartment or sealed fire such as a mine, the cold gas stratifies and causes a laminar flow with the heated fire gases remaining in the upper zones. And most important, for every cubic foot of liquid nitrogen (expanded into gas) that is injected into the mine, there is an equal volume of toxic products displaced and discharged into the exhaust. Ventilation is very important and inert positive pressure is a goal that can be more easily obtained with a little steam created with a conservative injection of compressed nitrogen foam. I know you mentioned that they don't want to get anything wet, but the fact is that the products of combustion produces co2 and water and a lot of other related chemistry. And as I mentioned in a earlier posting, the foam adsorbs toxic emissions.
BOGOTA, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Four coal miners were killed and two injured on Saturday in an accident at a mine in central Colombia, one of the country's worst such incidents in months, an official said.
"At the moment, they're carrying out a rescue operation to retrieve the bodies but by Monday or Tuesday we should have more details about the cause," said Adriana Cuevas, an emergency official.
She said an explosion of gases was the likely cause of the accident at the small mine in the province of Boyaca.
Last August, a methane explosion killed eight miners in an illegally operated coal mine in neighboring Cundinamarca province.
Colombia is among the world's top five coal suppliers.
_______________________________ U. S. Mine Rescue Association http://www.usmra.com
WASHINGTON (AP) — When the Beal Mountain mine opened in 1988 near Butte, Mont., its owner promoted open-pit cyanide leaching for extracting gold from ore as modern and environmentally friendly.
Pegasus Gold Corp., a Canadian company, extracted nearly 460,000 ounces of gold over a decade before closing the mine and declaring bankruptcy in 1998.
It left behind a 70-acre, cyanide-contaminated leach pond with a leaky liner and tons of rubble that sends selenium-laced runoff into streams, threatening cutthroat trout and other fish. The $6.2 million reclamation bond posted by the company doesn't come close to covering the cost to clean up the mine, which could total nearly $40 million.
Efforts to clean up one of the West's most enduring and dangerous legacies — tens of thousands of abandoned hardrock mines, many dating to the 19th century — should get a boost from the economic stimulus bill awaiting President Barack Obama's signature.
The bill contains more than $1.5 billion for construction and maintenance projects in the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service and the Forest Service. That includes addressing pollution and safety hazards caused by abandoned mines on public lands.
The three agencies together spent about $25 million on mine cleanup in the budget year that ended last Sept. 30, according to the staff of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., one of the lawmakers who sought the money.
The Government Accountability Office estimates there are at least 161,000 abandoned hardrock mines in Alaska and 11 other western states, plus South Dakota.
The Environmental Protection Agency says it could cost as much as $50 billion to clean up all the nation's abandoned hardrock mines.
Estimates of abandoned mines in 13 states
Estimate by the Government Accountability Office of the number of abandoned hardrock mines and hazards by state:
Occupational Health Safety - Dallas,TX,USA February 17, 2009
MSHA today begins a series of stakeholder meetings and has announced a Feb. 23 workshop, all designed to help regulated parties win approval of alternative refuge chambers in underground coal mines. Meanwhile, the agency said it will comply with a Feb. 10 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that means small-mine rescue teams must train semi-annually rather than annually and must participate in two mine rescue contests annually rather than one. MSHA's final mine rescue teams rule was less demanding, and the United Mine Workers of America sued to force the federal agency to abide by the MINER Act. While UMWA did not win on all counts, the decision essentially says the MINER Act is clear that semi-annual training and two rescue contests are required, and merely judging one of the contents is not enough -- the team member must participate.
The meetings will help stakeholders comply with the Dec. 31, 2008, MSHA final rules on Refuge Alternatives for Underground Coal Mines and Flame-Resistant Conveyor Belt, Fire Prevention and Detection, and Use of Air from the Belt Entry. The Feb. 23 workshop on the approval process for refuge alternatives will cover application procedures for refuge alternatives approval, found in 30 CFR Subpart L of Part 7. The workshop will be held from 1-4 p.m. at the MSHA Approval and Certification Center in Triadelphia, W.Va. Contact Carlene Falck at 304-547-2007 or falck.carlene@... to reserve a seat.
MSHA's Coal Mine Safety and Health unit will conduct district stakeholder meetings to discuss the Refuge Alternatives and belt air rules and how MSHA will enforce them today at the Holiday Inn in Indiana, Pa., beginning at 1 p.m.; tomorrow at the Sheraton Four Points in Greensburg, Pa., at 1 p.m.; Feb. 26 at Jenny Wiley State Park in Prestonsburg, Ky., at 9 a.m.; and Feb. 26 at the Double Tree Hotel in Grand Junction, Colo., at 9 a.m.
_______________________________ U. S. Mine Rescue Association http://www.usmra.com
Home of the largest and most comprehensive collection of mine safety training materials on the web http://www.usmra.com/repository/
Kentucky man killed in southern Illinois when lumber falls on him at mine
WQAD - Moline,IL,USA Associated Press
February 18, 2009
CUTLER, Ill. (AP) — Authorities say a Kentucky man was killed when lumber he was unloading at a southern Illinois coal mine shifted and tumbled onto him.
Perry County sheriff's investigators say 27-year-old Jarod Kacer of Hopkinsville, Ky., died at the scene of the accident shortly after noon Tuesday at Knight Hawk mine near Cutler.
Kacer was a driver for Kacer Farms Trucking, a family-owned business near his hometown.
The investigation continues.
_______________________________ U. S. Mine Rescue Association http://www.usmra.com
Home of the largest and most comprehensive collection of mine safety training materials on the web http://www.usmra.com/repository/
Uniontown Herald Standard - Uniontown,PA,USA February 19, 2009
Employees at Foundation Coal's Emerald Mine near Waynesburg returned to work Monday, one week after the mine was evacuated because of a potentially explosive mixture of methane gas and oxygen that was discovered in a sealed portion of the mine.
About 600 employees were evacuated from the mine at 11 a.m. Feb. 9 after monitoring equipment in a sealed portion of the mine detected the explosive combination of methane and oxygen, according to Rick Nida, manager of investor and media relations at Foundation Coal Corp.
Nida explained that methane naturally builds up in sealed areas of mines and Foundation Coal captures the gas and sells it as natural gas. If too much oxygen enters a sealed area with a buildup of methane, however, the mixture becomes explosive, he said.
The combination becomes explosive when the level of methane is 4.5 to 17 percent methane and the amount of oxygen is more than 10 percent, he said.
A barometric pressure change on Feb. 9 caused oxygen-containing air to get sucked into the mine, he explained.
"When that situation occurs, you have to evacuate the mine," Nida said.
Officials from the U.S. Labor Department's Mine Safety and Health Administration were then notified and they issued the evacuation order. Nida said workers injected and pumped nitrogen, an inert gas, into the mine throughout the later part of the week to force the oxygen out.
"This action ultimately got the methane and oxygen levels back into balance," he said.
MSHA lifted the evacuation order early Monday and the employees were able to return to work, Nida said.
"(Mine officials) anticipated that it could take as long as two weeks to remove the threat of a potential explosion, but we're pleased to see that it was taken care of in only a week and that Emerald Mine was able to resume its normal production on Monday," he said.
The temporary loss of coal production did not and will not interfere with supply contracts Foundation has with its customers, he added.
_______________________________ U. S. Mine Rescue Association http://www.usmra.com
Home of the largest and most comprehensive collection of mine safety training materials on the web http://www.usmra.com/repository/
Kentucky man killed at region coal mine The Southern - Carbondale,IL,USA February 19, 2009
CUTLER - Perry County authorities are investigating the death of Kentucky man at a Southern Illinois coal mine.
Jarod Kacer, 27, of Hopkinsville, Ky., was killed just after noon Tuesday when a load of lumber he was hauling fell from a truck bed and crushed him. Kacer was a driver for Kacer Farms Trucking, a family-owned business in Kentucky, police said.
Kacer was pronounced dead at the scene by Perry County Coroner Paul Searby, police said.
Steve Carter, president of Knight Hawk Coal LLC, said the accident was devastating to company personnel.
"He was delivering lumber to our Prairie Eagle Mine near the Perry and Randolph County line," Carter said. "The truck was being unloaded, and the lumber shifted and fell off the back side onto where Mr. Kacer was standing. It came down on top of him."
Carter said Kacer was accompanied by a mine employee who was using equipment to unload the lumber from the truck. He said the mine uses the lumber for support underground.
"We take everyone's safety very much to heart," Carter said. "Although we did not know Mr. Kacer, it is still a very deep shock to us. It shows that accidents can happen when you least expect it."
Carter said the Mine Health and Safety Administration is investigating the accident, as are the Perry County sheriff's and coroner's offices.
BEIJING (AP) — At least 11 miners died and nearly 100 remained trapped underground after a gas blast ripped through a coal mine in northern China, state media said Sunday.
The official Xinhua News Agency said 96 miners were trapped in a pre-dawn blast at a mine belonging to the Shanxi Jiaomei Group in Gujiao city near Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province.
It said 340 miners were rescued, but 11 of those died in a hospital. Another 24 were seriously injured, Xinhua said.
An official with the provincial government duty office confirmed the accident, but did not have any details. He would give only his surname Chen.
The Shanxi Jiaomei Group is China's largest producer of coking coal, and operates 28 mines.
Although China has worked to cut mine accidents by closing more than a 1,000 small, dangerous mines last year, the country's mining industry is still the world's deadliest. About 3,200 miners died in accidents last year, a 15 percent improvement over the previous year.
Many of the smaller mines have lax safety measures, and are plagued by fires, explosions, floods and other accidents.
_______________________________ U. S. Mine Rescue Association http://www.usmra.com
Home of the largest and most comprehensive collection of mine safety training materials on the web http://www.usmra.com/repository/
One killed, one injured in central China coal mine cave-in
Xinhua - China February 22, 2009
ZHENGZHOU, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- One person was killed and another injured in a coal mine cave-in in central China's Henan Province, local authorities said on Sunday.
The accident happened at around 4 p.m. Saturday, when 34 people just finished their shift in the shaft of the Yangcheng No. 2 Coal Mine in Dengfeng city.
Thirty-two miners escaped while two others were trapped, said Li Weiguang, Dengfeng's vice mayor.
One of the trapped died after being pulled out and rushed to hospital. The other, who suffered a broken arm, was transferred to a hospital in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan and some 90 kilometers away from the mine.
The mine was collectively owned with an annual output of 600,000 tons. It was undergoing an overhaul.
Dengfeng is the location of the famous Shaolin Temple.
_______________________________ U. S. Mine Rescue Association http://www.usmra.com
Home of the largest and most comprehensive collection of mine safety training materials on the web http://www.usmra.com/repository/
GUJIAO, Shanxi, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- The death toll in north China's coal mine blast has risen to 73 by 3:00 p.m. Sunday, according to rescuers.
The accident occurred at 2: 17 a.m. at the Tunlan Coal Mine of Shanxi Coking Coal Group in Gujiao City, about 50 km away from Taiyuan, the provincial capital, when 436 miners were working underground.
Rescuers said among 113 hospitalized miners, 21 miners are still in critical condition.
_______________________________ U. S. Mine Rescue Association http://www.usmra.com
Home of the largest and most comprehensive collection of mine safety training materials on the web http://www.usmra.com/repository/
Death toll in north China coal mine blast jumps to 74
Xinhau - China
February 22, 2009
GUJIAO, Shanxi, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- The death toll in north China's coal mine blast rose to 74 as of 6 p.m. Sunday after one more body was retrieved from the shaft, the rescue headquarters said.
The headquarters did not specify how many bodies were found in the mine shaft, only saying the fatalities included bodies found by rescuers in the mine and workers who died in hospital care.
Rescuers said that among 114 hospitalized miners, six are in critical condition.
The accident occurred at 2:17 a.m. Sunday while 436 miners were working underground at the Tunlan Coal Mine of Shanxi Coking Coal Group in Gujiao City, about 50 km away from Taiyuan, the provincial capital.
As of 1 p.m., 65 miners were confirmed to be trapped in the mine.
The Tunlan Coal Mine with an annual production capacity of 5 million tonnes boasts one of the best mining facilities in China. The mining company, Shanxi Coking Coal Group, is China's largest coking coal producer.
The mine has had no major accidents for the past five years.
Xue Huancheng, 27, said on his hospital bed that he had been working in the coal mine for four years.
"We didn't feel anything unusual before the accident this morning," recalled Xue, a native of Shanxi.
He told Xinhua that when the accident occurred, they just felt choked. At about 3:30 a.m., someone outside the shaft told them that "the ventilation system broke down," and ordered the miners to escape.
"At that time power supply underground was cut off and we had to walk," he said.
Fortunately, Xue had received regular trainings for self-rescue, which the mine conducts twice a year. After walking for about 40 or 50 minutes, he switched on his personal oxygen tank, but fainted when he was about to reach the exit.
Xue woke up at 5:30 a.m. in the hospital.
"I still felt dizzy and doctors brought me oxygen bottles. They measured my body temperature, blood pressure and recorded the electrocardiogram for me," he said, adding that he felt better by noon.
Most of the miners suffered carbon monoxide poisoning, according to doctors in the Xishan Hospital of Coal and Electricity in Gujiao, one of the nearest hospitals to the mine.
All of the 68 hyperbaric oxygenic chambers in hospitals in Taiyuan are open for admitting the injured miners.
Zhang Baoshun, the provincial Communist Party committee chief, who is leading the rescue work at the accident site, called for effective rescue efforts to prevent secondary disasters.
So far, 80 rescuers from seven professional rescue teams were searching for trapped miners.
A rescuer told a Xinhua reporter Sunday morning that some relatives of the trapped miners said had received cell phone calls from their loved ones in the mine, which meant they were still alive.
More than 40 ambulances have been called to the accident site to provide the first aid.
Luo Lin, head of the State Administration of Work Safety, and Zhao Tiechui, head of the State Bureau of Coal Industry, arrived at the accident Sunday afternoon.
Huang Yi, spokesman for the administration, urged all mining companies to carry out safety overhaul.
_______________________________ U. S. Mine Rescue Association http://www.usmra.com
Home of the largest and most comprehensive collection of mine safety training materials on the web http://www.usmra.com/repository/
Send Email
