Two mine accidents in China leave 17 dead, 104 injured, 24 trapped

Xinhua – China

August 1, 2010

TAIYUAN/HARBIN, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- The death toll in an explosion at a coal mine in Linfen City of north China's Shanxi Province early Saturday has risen to 17 after another two bodies were found, local authorities said.

The blast at Liugou Coal Mine of Yicheng County also left 104 persons injured, seven of them seriously, as of 11 p.m. Saturday, said Wang Jianshe, head of the county's People's Hospital, where all the injured were admitted.

All the injured are in stable condition, Wang said.

Basic search and rescue work is over, said a senior official of Yangquan Coal Industry (Group) Co. Ltd, which owns the mine. The official said that the blast took place in the dormitory area, where most of buildings were destroyed by the powerful explosion.

A miner surnamed Zhang told Xinhua that families of many miners had come to live here because the children were currently on their summer vacation.

But officials so far have not disclosed how many children and women had died during the accident.

Zhang said he saw a couple died after huge stones fell on them in a dormitory room.

Initial investigation showed that the blast was caused by explosives hidden illegally in the area, and a suspect has been detained by the police, the official said.

A further Investigation into the cause of the blast is underway.

Also on Saturday, 24 people were trapped in a flooded coal mine in northeast China's Jixi City, Heilongjiang Province.

The city government said the accident at Hengxinyuan Mine took place at around 5 p.m. Saturday. No further detail is available immediately.

_________________________________

U. S. Mine Rescue Association

http://www.usmra.com/

Methane at issue in mine blast probe

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

By Daniel Malloy and Dennis B. Roddy

August 01, 2010

ARLINGTON, Va. -- Nearly four months after the deadly explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine in southern West Virginia, there is no end in sight for the mostly secret investigations into the blast.

But a handful of publicly disclosed pieces of evidence have shown the path investigators are following to determine how methane gas could have amassed at such a level to fuel the massive explosion that left 29 dead.

In an interview last week with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Joe Main, the head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, said he believes the completed investigation will make it clear the blast could have been prevented. This view contrasts with recent statements from Massey Energy, the company that owns Upper Big Branch, suggesting the tragedy was the result of a freak accident.

"But until we get all the facts in, it's just not wise for us, and it's just not good investigative practice to talk about things before you've got them figured out," Mr. Main said. "I think the process going forward is just aimed at doing that."

MSHA has opted to interview witnesses in private, Mr. Main said, to protect the integrity of a simultaneous criminal investigation by the Department of Justice and protect the confidentiality of whistleblowers. Had MSHA decided to conduct interviews publicly, the agency would have had the power to subpoena witnesses. Mr. Main would not say how many witnesses have declined to speak to his investigators.

The secrecy has frustrated family members of the victims, who meet with Mr. Main and other MSHA officials regularly for updates on the probe.

"It's usually hogwash," said Clay Mullins, brother of Rex Mullins. "I learn more from reading the newspapers."

"It's frustrating that we can't tell them what they want," Mr. Main said. "The one thing that I do not like to do and will not do is, 'Oh, we found this piece of evidence, that may mean one of 15 things.' Because it's harmful to them."

But during a wide-ranging interview in his office across the Potomac River from Washington, Mr. Main did confirm several threads that his investigators are exploring as they work to pull together the causes of America's worst mine disaster in four decades.

Ventilation questions

One person directly involved in the investigation has made it clear that investigators are zeroing in on the mine's ventilation -- the system of walls, curtains and fans used to move fresh air through the working areas, providing oxygen and carrying out dangerous dust and gases.

Because methane is chief among the potential culprits in the initial blast, teams are exploring how effectively Massey ventilated the mine. At the same time, the company has mounted an aggressive public relations campaign arguing that MSHA did not approve a ventilation plan that would have assured maximum airflow in the work area.

Two significant issues have emerged: whether MSHA or Massey ever acted on a problem with sudden methane "outbursts" that appeared at the mine six years ago, and whether the mine was adequately ventilated by conventional standards.

A set of internal MSHA memos from 2004 outline a problem with "methane outbursts" -- sudden rushes of explosive methane gas from a series of cracks that appeared in the working area of the mine's longwall section.

Ventilation experts at MSHA's Pittsburgh Safety and Health Technology Center in South Park offered recommendations that included an increase in longwall face airflow to "more effectively dilute the methane released from the outburst closer to the source and safely remove it from the face area," as well as diligent methane checks in the work area and a plan to seal fractures after an outburst occurred.

J. Davitt McAteer, the former MSHA secretary who is overseeing an independent investigation of the explosion on behalf of West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, has said remedial steps should have been put and kept in place after the 2004 study.

Yet, a check of MSHA records fails to turn up any set of orders or instructions from the agency to Massey directing specific actions.

Mr. Main, during last week's interview, would not say what, if anything, MSHA did in response to those memos. The memos ultimately came to Mr. Main's attention when someone slipped them under the door to his Arlington office after the Upper Big Branch explosion.

"What I'm trying to say is we're aware of that report that was issued in 2004. What the investigation is trying to determine is what happened after that report was issued all the way up to now," Mr. Main said.

Massey has argued that the explosion might have been unavoidable and has released accounts of a mine recovery team member spotting a crack in the mine floor following the blast. The company also released data showing high levels of methane underground immediately after the blast.

But whether the company adequately addressed the problem of a mine known for high methane output is still a subject of inquiry by the investigating team.

Seven months before Upper Big Branch exploded, MSHA issued two "D" orders -- mandating immediate evacuation of a portion of the mine -- after inspectors discovered air flowing the wrong way across the work face of the longwall section.

"Air flow had reversed in the longwall setup entries and air flow was reversed in neutral air courses. The condition was minewide and the existence of the underlying ventilation conditions were both extensive and obvious," inspectors wrote.

With the airflow reversed -- essentially recirculating polluted air from the mined areas -- the potential for trouble was real enough that inspectors closed the operation until ventilation was restored.

Methane evidence

Massey recently released measurement data showing extremely high levels of methane gas a few hours after the explosion -- which, the company said, implies a sudden burst of gas that would have overwhelmed the safety apparatus.

"To put it in perspective, a methane release of this size would completely fill a 2,000 [square-foot] house with an explosive atmosphere in under 40 seconds, and could fill the volume of a typical mine entry to explosive levels in under 25 seconds," Massey Upper Big Branch investigation team member Christopher Schemel said in a statement.

"While the UBB investigation is still ongoing and it is far too early to determine the exact cause of the April 5 accident, the methane gas data is a very important piece of evidence."

MSHA called that conclusion into question, saying the explosion likely caused a sudden spike in methane levels by pulling the gas in from other parts of the mine.

Still, Mr. Main said the idea of methane suddenly pouring into the longwall area through a crack in the floor is possible.

"There's cracks in the floor that appear commonly through mines, cracks in the floor that, if you know methane, basically the stresses are in place that's as common a phenomenon as you'd find.

"The best I can say is that's one of the possibilities in the investigation."

Massey released the methane data -- which MSHA had given the company weeks earlier -- on July 22, the same day Massey CEO Don Blankenship appeared at the National Press Club in Washington. Mr. Blankenship made only oblique mention of the methane burst in his remarks but in general terms said such unpredictable occurrences are central to mine disasters.

The company later took umbrage at news media reports that suggested Mr. Blankenship was calling mine disasters acts of God, but he unquestionably has a different view than Mr. Main, the former safety chief for the United Mine Workers.

"I think we know enough about mining to predict different outcomes," he said, "and I think whenever the investigation is completed on this we will be looking back no different than we have at events in the past to say this is a preventable event."

Mr. Main noted that Upper Big Branch had more "D" orders in 2009 than any other mine in the country. He also confirmed -- as previously reported by the Post-Gazette -- that MSHA is examining the practice of disabling methane monitors in order to continue mine production. An electrician has told investigators that he was forced to "bridge out" a malfunctioning monitor on a continuous mining machine to keep the machine in operation.

"We would hope that it is not" a widespread practice, Mr. Main said.

"There is without question, with regard to the UBB investigation a lot of attention being paid to that very issue and we would hope that by the time the investigation concludes we'll have a better handle about what was going on there."

_________________________________

U. S. Mine Rescue Association

http://www.usmra.com/

Children among victims as toll from coal mine blast grows
Shanghai Daily

August 1, 2010

THE death toll from an explosion at a coal mine in Linfen City in north China's Shanxi Province early Saturday had risen to 17 after another two bodies were found, local authorities said yesterday.

The blast at the Liugou Coal Mine of Yicheng County also left 104 people injured, seven of them seriously, said Wang Jianshe, head of the county's People's Hospital, where the injured are being treated.

All of those hurt are in stable condition, Wang said.

Basic search and rescue work is over, said a senior official of Yangquan Coal Industry (Group) Co Ltd, which owns the mine.

The official said the blast took place in the dormitory area of the coal mine, where most of buildings were destroyed by the powerful explosion.

A miner surnamed Zhang said that families of many miners had come to live there because their children were currently on their summer vacation.

Officials have not disclosed how many children and women died during the incident.

Zhang said he saw the dead bodies of one couple after huge stones had fallen on them in a dormitory room.

Initial investigations show that the blast was caused by explosives hidden illegally in the area, and a suspect had been detained by the police, the mine official said.

Further investigation into the cause of the blast is under way.

Linfen City had nine major coal mine disasters, with more than 10 deaths in each incident, between 2003 and 2008.

On September 8, 2008, a massive landslide from an illegal mining operation submerged a village in Linfen and killed at least 277 people.

This year, coal mine disasters in China had killed 351 people up to July 18, according to the website of China's work safety administration.

_________________________________
U. S. Mine Rescue Association
http://www.usmra.com/

Here’s something to mull over.  Total world Internet users will soon top 2 billion.

That’s just 28.7% of the world’s population.

The total USA users is 220 million.

See more at http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

_________________________________
U. S. Mine Rescue Association
http://www.usmra.com/

Death Toll from Man's Drunken Rampage Rises to 11

CRIENGLISH.COM

August 2, 2010

The death toll due to a man's drunken rampage in a shovel loader at a mine in north China's Hebei Province on Sunday has risen to 11, government authorities said Monday.

Thirty others were injured.

Police have detained a suspect, 38-year-old Li Xianliang.

After he was arrested, Li's blood alcohol reading was 154 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood.

According to the initial police investigation, Li, a driver at the Shengxing Coal Depot in Nanzuo Township, Yuanshi County, drank liquor during his lunch Sunday.

He later quarreled with a customer surnamed Qian. To take revenge on Qian, he drove the shovel loader into a make-shift office at about 3:47 p.m. Sunday.

Qian escaped, but another customer, surnamed Ding and from east China's Shandong Province, was killed.

Li continued the rampage and drove the vehicle into 40 to 50 vehicles, including cars, trucks, buses and motorcycles. Several roadside shops were also damaged or destroyed.

The suspect Li is a local from Chicun Village, Yuanshi County.

_________________________________

U. S. Mine Rescue Association

http://www.usmra.com/

No Progress in Rescuing 24 Trapped Miners

CRIENGLISH.COM

August 2, 2010

The whereabouts of the 24 miners who had been trapped for two days in a flooded colliery in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province remained unknown Monday, local authorities said.

Rescuers had drilled nearly 100 meters down the pit but were still unable to get in contact with any of the victims, a result of high gas density and rising water levels, said Fang Dongchu, deputy chief of the emergency rescue headquarters at Hengxinyuan Coal Mine in Hengshan District of Jixi City.

The maximum gas density was 6 percent after the flood, making it impossible to pump the flood water, said Fang.

Rescue work could continue only when the gas density was below 1 percent, he said.

"By the time two pumps began working Monday morning, the water level in the main shaft had risen to 140 meters," said Fang. The water level was 87 meters Saturday afternoon.

The accident happened at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, when 26 people were working in the pit. The only escapees were two managers in charge of production.

Two safety officials have been removed from their posts for dereliction of duty, including Qin Xuyuan, a deputy official in charge of work safety in Hengshan District, and Zhang Yidong, director of the district's coal mining bureau.

Hengxinyuan Mine was founded in 1997 with a designed annual output of 60,000 tonnes. The mine was scheduled to be closed before the end of this year.

_________________________________

U. S. Mine Rescue Association

http://www.usmra.com/

9 dead, 7 trapped in central China coal mine

Associated Press

August 2, 2010

BEIJING — A state news agency says nine workers have been killed and seven others trapped in a central China coal mine.

The official Xinhua News Agency says a "gas outburst" occurred at 11:19 p.m. Monday at the Sanyuandong Coal Mine in Dengfeng, a city in Henan province.

Xinhua said Tuesday 127 miners were underground and 111 escaped unharmed.

China's mining industry is the world's deadliest with accidents killing more than 2,600 miners throughout the country last year.

_________________________________

U. S. Mine Rescue Association

http://www.usmra.com/

10 confirmed dead in flooded manganese mines in central China

Xinhua – China

August 3, 2010

Ten people have been confirmed dead after two manganese mines in central China's Hunan Province were flooded two weeks ago, local authorities said Monday.

Water gushed into the two mine pits run by Leixin Mining Development Co. and Wenhua Manganese Co. in Huayuan County of Xiangxi Tujia-Miao Autonomous Prefecture at about 6:10 p.m. on July 20, trapping a total of 13 miners underground.

Rescuers pulled three miners alive out of the mines on July 29 and sent them to hospital. Currently, they are in stable condition, a spokesman with the Hunan Provincial Work Safety Administration said Monday.

Rescuers had earlier retrieved seven bodies, and they found the last three bodies on Sunday morning, the spokesman said.

Local authorities are further investigating the cause of the accident, he added.

_________________________________

U. S. Mine Rescue Association

http://www.usmra.com/

21 dead, 12 trapped in China mine accidents

AFP

August 3, 2010

BEIJING — Twenty-one people were killed and 12 others were trapped in two coal mine accidents in China, officials and state media said Tuesday, in the latest incidents to hit the industry.

An explosion rocked a colliery Tuesday in the southwestern province of Guizhou, killing 12 and trapping five, the state Xinhua news agency said.

Sixty miners were working underground when the accident happened in Renhuai city, but 43 managed to escape or were saved, it added.

Late Monday, nine workers were killed and seven trapped when deadly gas leaked into a pit at the Sanyuandong coal mine in Dengfeng city in central Henan province, the State Work Safety Administration said in a statement.

A total of 127 miners were in the pit at the time, but 111 of them were quickly brought to safety, Xinhua reported, citing an official with the Zhengzhou Coal Industry Co. Ltd., which owns the colliery.

The mine manager was sacked and the company's chief engineer suspended after the incident.

Rescuers have been unable to enter the mine in Dengfeng because of the high concentration of gas in the pit and chances of survival for the seven missing were slim, Xinhua quoted emergency worker Yu Haisen as saying.

The Henan provincial government declined immediate comment on the fate of the missing miners. AFP's calls to the company were not answered.

China's vast coal mining industry is plagued by lax regulation, corruption and inefficiency, as mines rush to meet soaring energy demand.

At the weekend, 24 miners were trapped in a flooded pit in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, while 17 others were killed in an explosion at a mine in the northern province of Shanxi, China's coal-producing heartland.

Last year 2,631 miners were killed in China, according to official figures, but independent labour groups say the actual figure could be much higher as many accidents are covered up to avoid costly shutdowns.

_________________________________

U. S. Mine Rescue Association

http://www.usmra.com/

Massey holds closed door briefing with the families of the miners killed in the UBB mine explosion

Philadelphia Examiner

August 2, 2010

Today Massey Energy held a briefing on the developments of the investigation into the Upper Big Branch Mine explosion. The meeting was for the families of the 29 miners that were killed in the explosion. Fifteen of the 29 families showed up to hear them out.

The meeting was held behind closed doors at The Embassy Suites Hotel in Charleston. Security was tight as three uniformed and armed Charleston police officers guarded the doors.

Here is what Massey energy CEO, Don Blankenship, had to say about the reasoning behind the briefing:

‘The purpose of today’s meeting was to keep the families informed of key developments associated with the UBB investigation. Massey Energy will continue to do our part in updating families on key information obtained during this continuing inquiry.’

It appears that the agenda was to convince the families that no orders were given to disable the methane monitors and that the monitors in the long wall were working at the time of the explosion.

Investigators, however disagree with Massey Energy’s conclusions. They state that it is too soon to determine if the methane monitors had or had not been disabled.

This briefing appears to be just another Massey Energy attempt to save face. Sadly it appears it will be a while before the families get the answers they need to bring closure to their lives.

_________________________________

U. S. Mine Rescue Association

http://www.usmra.com/

Mine safety alphabet soup 2: What’s going on with SCSRs, CSE, MSHA and NIOSH?

Charleston Gazette

Coal Tattoo Blog

August 4, 2010

http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2010/08/04/mine-safety-alphabet-soup-2-whats-going-on-with-scsrs-cse-msha-and-niosh/

_________________________________
U. S. Mine Rescue Association
http://www.usmra.com/

China mines still deadly, as bosses ordered below

Associated Press

By Cara Anna and Yu Bing

August 4, 2010

BEIJING — A month ago, China's premier ordered mining officials to go down into the shafts with their workers, but the step meant to improve safety in the world's deadliest mines hasn't saved lives.

More than 100 people have died in that time, with 21 people killed in two mine accidents reported Tuesday. State media have noted with surprising sharpness that none of the dead seemed to have been mine managers or bosses.

"Who knew that every boss who goes into the shaft is a god: Flooding, explosions, whatever it is, they can always fly free," the official Xinhua News Agency said in a pointed commentary Tuesday.

The editorial came in response to a weekend disaster, where a flooded mine trapped two dozen workers in northern China. Only two people escaped; both were managers.

At a news conference Monday near the mine in northern Heilongjiang province, one reporter asked: Had the managers even been inside the mine at all?

By Tuesday, both managers and the mine's owners were in police custody, China National Radio reported. It wasn't clear why.

"After the accident, only the bosses miraculously emerge. What could this mean?" the Xinhua commentary said.

In the latest accidents, lethal gas leaked into a coal mine in Dengfeng in central Henan province late Monday and killed nine workers, Xinhua said. On Tuesday morning, gas exploded at another coal mine in southwestern Guizhou province, killing at least 12.

The outspokenness by China's normally muffled state media — and Premier Wen Jiabao's order itself — points to a problem that has worried the country's leadership for years.

More than 2,600 people died in mining accidents in China last year, though deaths have decreased in recent years as the government closed many illegal mines.

But deaths jumped again in the first half of this year. Coal mine deaths through June were 1,261, up from 1,175 in the same period last year, Xinhua reported. A spokesman for the work safety administration told the China Daily newspaper the jump was due in part to China's recovery from the economic crisis.

Wen issued his order at a meeting of the State Council, China's Cabinet. "Coal mine and non-coal mine leaders should work shifts and descend into mine pits with workers," he said.

International mining experts say they know of no other country that requires mine bosses to go underground with workers. The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration has no such requirement, spokeswoman Amy Louviere said in an e-mail.

Enforcement of any order from the central government can be a challenge in vast China, but mining is especially tricky. Thousands of illegal mines, most of them small operations, exist to profit from the country's roaring need for coal, the main energy source for the economically booming nation.

"The only people in a position to change safety standards are mine managers. And their focus is as much production in as short a time as possible," said Geoffrey Crothall, spokesman for the Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin, which tracks industries in China.

A former mine consultant who works in China said he's not sure of the wisdom of regularly sending managers who aren't mining engineers underground.

"They will not have the skills and experience to inspect and locate problems or suggest remedial measures. They will be at risk from accident and will also divert resources to look after them," David Creedy, who now works for Sindicatum Carbon Capital, said in an e-mail.

But for China's state media, the presence of mining bosses is about making a statement.

"If these mine bosses have enough confidence in the safety of their own mining shafts, they could go down the shafts with their workers with complete assurance. So what does it mean if they haven't done so?" the Nanfang Daily commentary asked.

_________________________________

U. S. Mine Rescue Association

http://www.usmra.com/

W.Va. Mine Owner's Blame Game Tactics Draw Fire

AOL News

By Laura Parker

August 4, 2010

Federal and state investigators scouring the West Virginia coal mine where 29 miners were killed in an explosion in April say it will take another month to finish mapping the blast patterns and pinpointing debris deep inside the mine. But the mine's owner, Massey Energy, has already arrived at its own conclusions, and it's not keeping them to itself.

To the outrage of officials, the company is engaged in an unusually high-profile campaign seeking to establish that the evidence gathered so far shows the disaster could not have been prevented.

Massey's claims were laid out most recently at a meeting Monday with relatives of the dead miners.

"We have only reached one of the three major sections of the mine. How can you draw conclusions when you haven't reached two major sections?" asked Davitt McAteer, a former mine safety official who was appointed by West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin to oversee an independent review that supplements the federal and state probes.

"Massey's statements are not supported by the evidence," McAteer told AOL News. "There is contradictory evidence. There always is. It's unfortunate that they are making conclusions not based on the facts as we know them."

Earlier this week, Joe Main, the head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, went further, telling the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the investigation will show that the explosion could have been prevented.

Main also cautioned: "But until we get all the facts in, it's just not wise for us, and it's just not good investigative practice, to talk about things before you've got them figured out." (An MSHA spokeswoman said Main is on vacation this week and unavailable to comment.)

Judge Questions Company's 'Motives'

The April 5 explosion was the worst mining disaster in 40 years. In addition to the state and federal mining agency investigations, Congress is conducting its own inquiry. The blast is also the subject of a Justice Department criminal probe.

It's common for companies involved in accidents to put their spin on potential causes and tamp down bad publicity. BP has blamed its partners on the Deepwater Horizon rig for shoddy work. Continental Airlines, to cite an earlier example, suggested wake turbulence from another aircraft was to blame for a 1987 accident that the NTSB ultimately concluded was caused by pilot inexperience and iced wings.

But Massey has been especially aggressive in its approach to the disaster at its Upper Big Branch mine. The company's public relations team has tapped Dave Lauriski, who headed the mine safety agency in the Bush administration, to criticize MSHA's handling of the case. In late July, it held a news conference to theorize that the explosion may have been caused by "a sudden inundation of unusually high levels of methane gas" that may have been released through a crack in the mine floor.

Massey CEO Don Blankenship, in a speech to the National Press Club in Washington last month, suggested the accident was unpreventable. "The politicians tell you that we're going to do something so that this never happens again ..." Blankenship said. "I believe that the physics of natural law and God trump whatever man tries to do."

The speech led to a dust-up over what Blankenship really meant. The company later issued a clarification that Blankenship did not say that blow-up was "an act of God," a precise phrase that could absolve the company of legal liability. The play-by-play was laid out on Ken Ward's Coal Tattoo blog in the Charleston Gazette.

Massey is also quarreling with the mine safety agency about how the investigation should be conducted. The company is conducting its own investigation and sued MSHA, charging that the agency won't allow it to take its own photographs inside the mine, gather its own physical evidence or draw its own maps of conditions underground.

On July 21, an administrative judge on the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission, based in Denver, admonished the Massey subsidiary that owned Upper Big Bend, Performance Coal, for "grandstanding" and impeding the investigation. Margaret Miller wrote in a six-page order denying Performance's request for an expedited hearing that it had "overstated allegations" and "waste(d) time and resources" by filing documents that lacked information helpful to resolving the dispute.

"I should note that I am troubled by the misrepresentations made by Performance in the documents submitted in this matter, and specifically with the misrepresentations made about the procedure in this case," Miller wrote.

Miller also wrote that she was "concerned" about the company's "motives," adding: "Instead of focusing on the issues at hand and submitting legal authorities that entitle it to an expedited hearing, it uses this venue to attack the investigative techniques of MSHA, which are not really at issue here."

Settlement Offers Go Out as Intricate Investigations Proceed

Monday's meeting with the miners' relatives occurred behind closed doors and was attended by about 30 people, according to an attorney for one of the families.

Company officials explained their points and then released a summary of the "key issues" discussed.

"Massey Energy understands that we have an obligation to ensure that UBB families are made aware of important facts as they are acquired," Shane Harvey, Massey Energy vice president and general counsel, said in the statement.

Massey declined to make Harvey or other company officials available to comment further.

The company repeated its contention that the mine experienced a "sudden inundation of usually high levels of methane gas." Officials also told the family members that the methane gas monitors had not been disabled, and that the mine seals, which close off inactive parts of the mine, had not been breached.

"If that's true, it may strengthen the argument that the methane seeped through the mine floor," said Tony Oppegard, a former Kentucky mine safety official and private attorney. "In the Sago mine disaster in 2006, the seals blew out."

Investigators for MSHA and the state Office of Miners' Health, Safety and Training entered the mine to conduct their physical investigation on June 24. About 20 investigators are involved and are divided into teams examining electronics and blast patterns and mapping the mine. The last is intricate work. A typical investigation map labels what is found in 2foot sections and includes conditions or debris found.

Massey's investigators are part of the teams examining the mine. Representatives from the United Mine Workers of America are also participating in the investigation.

Last month, Massey estimated in an SEC filing that expenses for the mining disaster may run to $129 million. The company has offered $3 million to families to settle legal claims against the company. Rachel Moreland, an attorney representing two families said she has not heard that anyone has taken the offer.

"That sounds like a lot of money, but when you're talking about a family that has lost a husband and father, it's not that much," she told AOL News. "Coal miners make a lot of money, some of them $80,000 or $90,000 a year. They have children who need to be raised."

_________________________________

U. S. Mine Rescue Association

http://www.usmra.com/

Thanks to Harry Lovely, Joe Denk and Don Foster, the National MNM Contest files are now available.

http://www.usmra.com/2010_Contests/

And the contest results are posted at MSHA’s web site.

http://www.msha.gov/MineRescue/CONTEST/2010MNM/standings/2010Results.asp

_________________________________
U. S. Mine Rescue Association
http://www.usmra.com/

After reading about this for the umpteenth time, 2 thoughts entered my feeble brain:

1. I'm glad I don't have worry about this.
2. Why aren't those that do have to worry about it not outraged?  Or is this yet another example of it won't happen here?

I would think that at least those that spent the thousands of dollars on this POS might have something to say.

Rob

--- In MineRescue@yahoogroups.com, Rescue1UK@... wrote:
>
> should've carried on;
> "come on, its only 7 months and countless lives at ris
>

Methane Monitors Recovered In Mine Blast Probe

NPR

August 5, 2010

NPR News has learned that investigators have recovered three key pieces of evidence in the explosion that killed 29 mine workers in West Virginia on April 5.

The evidence includes two safety devices called methane monitors, which sound alarms and shutdown mining machines when methane gas approaches explosive levels. Investigators have also recovered a data recorder that works like so-called "black boxes" on passenger aircraft.

The two methane monitors were recently removed from the massive longwall mining machine that some investigators believe is the source of the deadly blast at the Upper Big Branch mine. They've been taken to the Approval and Certification Center of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration in Triadelphia, W. Va. Investigators are scheduled to begin inspection and analysis of the monitors Saturday, according to Kevin Stricklin, MSHA's chief of coal mine safety.

"The company, the state, the United Mineworkers and MSHA all have the ability to participate in the testing of [those] monitor[s]," Stricklin says.

The company, Massey Energy, owns the Upper Big Branch mine and has been under fire for a litany of safety citations and violations at the mine. NPR documented an incident in February in which a Massey supervisor ordered an electrician to deliberately "bridge" or disable a methane monitor that had been shutting down a continuous mining machine.

The incident is being investigated by a federal grand jury, which has also asked witnesses about similar incidents, because disabling a methane monitor and continuing to cut rock and mine coal without one is a federal crime.

The methane monitors now in the possession of investigators have been sought for months. Lingering toxic gases and widespread destruction underground have plagued the investigation and delayed the gathering of evidence.

If the monitors were not working properly the day of the blast, methane gas could have formed without warning and the cutting tool or shear on the mining machine could have sparked an explosion.

"We have visually inspected the methane monitors on the longwall face and there is no evidence of them being bridged out," says Shane Harvey, Massey Energy's Vice President and General Counsel. "If they had been bridged out, we believe it would have been apparent."

But that doesn't match what West Virginia investigators have told Ronald Wooten, who oversees the state's mine disaster probe and directs the West Virginia Office of Miners' Health, Safety and Training.

"I can't say whether [the monitors were] bridged or not," Wooten says. "I can't tell you whether [they were] in working order or not…We'll know more when we check the [monitors] this weekend."

MSHA's Stricklin agrees. "I just think there's more testing to be done before we can conclusively say that's the case," Stricklin says.

He also adds that monitors can be rendered useless in other ways.

"[You] could put a plastic bag over the sensor head," Stricklin explains. "[You] could move the sensor to a location that it wouldn't pick up methane very readily and [you] could do it electronically, so there's a number of ways to defeat the methane sensor from actually detecting gas."

Methane monitors can also be recalibrated so they won't shutoff mining machines when gas approaches the danger zone. This would be done to continue producing coal if the methane monitors keep shutting down the machines.

Some types of tampering with monitors could be detected by the device that operates like a black box recorder. Its recovery was first reported Wednesday by Ken Ward of the Charleston Gazette.

Wooten told the Gazette and NPR that the device recorded key information about the methane monitors and the longwall mining machine in the minutes, hours and days before the explosion.

"The black box on the longwall system is very similar to a black box on an airplane that you hear so much about in that it looks for functions," Wooten said in an NPR interview. "It looks for when the longwall is shutdown. It looks for when the longwall is cutting. We have about six days worth of data on this particular box."

The black box data has revealed at least two key pieces of information so far. First, the methane monitors didn't pick up much methane gas in those six days before the blast. And second, an emergency shutoff button was used to shut down the longwall machine about 90 seconds before the explosion.

Stricklin suggests that one reason for the use of the emergency shutoff button just before the blast was that there may have been "methane gas in the area and they wanted to try to knock the power so the gas didn't get to any electrical components on that machine."

Wooten says there may also be a benign explanation. The shutdown occurred during a shift change. "You can call it an emergency stop if you like," Wooten explains. "But it's often used, usually used, frankly, to shut a machine down."

Still, the low methane readings before the blast point to a fundamental conundrum for investigators. If there was enough methane for an explosion, why didn't the methane monitors shut down the machines? As Wooten puts it, "Why weren't bells and whistles going off?"

This seeming contradiction explains why there's so much interest in the recovered monitors and any evidence of tampering.

Now, four months to the day the mine was ripped apart by the explosion, investigators are finally in a position to determine whether the longwall methane monitors were tampered with or disabled.

Wooten is mindful of the anniversary and the task.

"There's nothing, nothing at all that we can for these 29 lives that were lost except do our very best to make sure it doesn't happen again," Wooten says. "And that's what we're doing."

Stricklin says federal investigators won't reveal the results of this weekend's analysis of the monitors until he can brief the families of those 29 mine workers killed. That briefing is expected in West Virginia Tuesday.

_________________________________

U. S. Mine Rescue Association

http://www.usmra.com/

Death Toll Rises to 16 in Southwest China's Mine Accident

CRIENGLISH.COM

August 5, 2010

The final death toll from a coal mine gas leak in southwest China's Guizhou Province Tuesday has risen to 16, after rescuers retrieved the last body Thursday.

The body was found at around 9:55 a.m., said a rescue headquarters spokesman.

An investigation has found that 59 miners were working underground when the accident happened at around 9:30 a.m. at the Mingyang Coal Mine in Changgang Township, Renhuai City.

Forty-three managed to escape or were rescued.

Mingyang Coal Mine is a licensed private coal mine with a production capacity of 90,000 tonnes per year.

The investigation into the cause of the accident is continuing.

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U. S. Mine Rescue Association

http://www.usmra.com/

Mining rescue teams are in Blacksburg for annual competition

WDBJ7.com

August 6, 2010

This year the annual mining rescue competition in Blacksburg included many of the miners who were involved in the search at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia in April.

Thirty-six teams from five states have been here since Monday, competing in what they do best, mine search and rescue.

The Virginia Mining Institute has held the event here for several decades now, because Blacksburg is a central location for miners traveling from nearby states.

The challenges are timed and focus on being prepared to respond to serious mine disasters.

Miners are judged on their physical response to hazards as well as written tests.

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U. S. Mine Rescue Association

http://www.usmra.com/

Chile mine collapse leaves around 30 trapped

Reuters – Africa

August 6, 2010

The collapse of a small mine in northern Chile left around 30 miners trapped late on Thursday, though they could have taken refuge in an underground shelter with oxygen and food, authorities said.

Firemen and rescuers rushed to the mine located 50 miles (80 km) from the northern city of Copiapo, but authorities had no details about the health of the trapped miners.

The region's superintendent Ximena Matas told a local radio miners could have huddled in a shelter inside the mine with enough oxygen and food "for them to last for some time."

Emergency officials said that the cause of the accident was unknown and that difficult access to the mine had complicated rescue efforts. It was not immediately known who was the owner of the San Esteban mine.

Local media said it was a small copper and gold operation.

Chile is the world's top copper producer, but serious mining accidents are uncommon in an industry closely monitored by authorities.

A mine blast at a small coal mine in Colombia killed some 70 miners in June.

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U. S. Mine Rescue Association

http://www.usmra.com/

32 confirmed dead in China mine accident

Sydney Morning Herald

August 6, 2010

Authorities have confirmed 32 people were killed in two coalmine accidents in China earlier this week, state media said on Friday, in the latest incidents to blight the industry.

In the central province of Henan, rescuers have recovered 16 bodies from a colliery in Dengfeng city following a lethal gas leak, Xinhua reported, citing a spokesman for the local work safety watchdog.

The leak happened late on Monday at the Sanyuandong coalmine. A total of 127 miners were in the pit at the time, but 111 were quickly brought to safety, Xinhua reported.

In southwest China's Guizhou province, 16 other miners died in a similar gas outburst on Tuesday at the Mingyang coal mine in the city of Renhuai. Forty-three others managed to escape or were rescued.

Both accidents are under investigation.

China's vast coal mining industry is plagued by lax regulation, corruption and inefficiency, as mines rush to meet soaring energy demand.

Last year 2631 miners were killed in China, according to official figures, but independent labour groups say the real figure could be far higher as many accidents are hushed up to avoid costly shutdowns.

_________________________________

U. S. Mine Rescue Association

http://www.usmra.com/

Sorry about my absence.  My computer crashed on Aug. 6th and I'm just getting back now.

I realize I missed a number of events.  Since there were about 400 news alerts waiting in my e-mail, I've decide to ignore them all and start again from today.

New messages will be slow in coming as I lost all my local data in the crash and am now in the process of restoring things.

Rob

Mining Teams Compete at RLC in Mining Rescue Contest

WJBD Radio

August 13, 2010

29 teams from all over coal country took part in the Illinois Mine Rescue Association's 2010 State Mine Rescue Contest at Rend Lake College earlier this week.

Teams had to work through disaster scenarios outdoors when heat index readings topped 100 degrees. Webster County Coal's Dotiki Mine of Nebo, Kentucky took home the top prize in Mine Rescue. Gibson Mine of Princeton, Indiana took second and Big Ridge, Incorporated of Equality, Illinois took third.

Safety Director, Bill Sanders of Knight Hawk Coal in Cutler, says competitions like the one held at Rend Lake College are invaluable. "If you had an incident, it's very good training for them... I think they learn a lot from them," he says. "Their lives depend on one another, they need to have camraderie and trust each other."

Knight Hawk came in fifth during the competition. Officials from the IMRA were very complitmentary of Rend Lake College and the efforts to accomodate the event. This is the second straight year the event has been held at the college.

Download the complete competition results.

http://www.wjbdradio.com/docs/docarchive/137.pdf

Search resumes for miners feared dead in Nevada

Associated Press

By MARTIN GRIFFITH

August 13, 2010

RENO, Nev. — Rescuers searched for a second day Friday for two miners missing and feared dead in a Nevada gold mine where a pipe had broken loose from a wall and severely damaged a cage that was lowering the two men into a shaft.

Crews had made progress on how to safely access the men inside the Meikle mine in northern Nevada and hoped to reach them by the day's end, said Lou Schack, a spokesman for Barrick Gold of North America. The pipe had apparently broke roughly near the middle of the shaft, Schack said, but the company would not speculate on what level the men were at.

The vertical pipe, about 2 feet in diameter, runs the entire length of the 1,330-foot-deep shaft and is used to carry crushed stone and rocks, Schack said.

"It's not a good situation, but we're continuing to do what we can to gain safe access and get a resolution," Schack said.

Schack confirmed five fatalities have occurred at the mine, which opened in 1996 about 55 miles northwest of Elko and 275 miles northeast of Reno. There have been 26 mining deaths over the last decade in Nevada, the world's fourth largest gold producer behind South Africa, Australia and China.

"When the pipe failed everything falls so we have to remove debris to make sure we can get in safely," Schack said.

The men were being lowered in the cage to inspect the pipe when the accident occurred, according to the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration.

An official for MSHA in Washington, D.C., told The Associated Press that a camera lowered into the shaft found an obstruction at about 800 feet underground — what appeared to be electrical cables coiled on top of the cage.

One section of pipe was seen at the bottom of the shaft but the rest of the pipe is believed to be wedged in the shaft, said the official, who was not authorized to disclose the information publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The official on Friday referred to the search as a "rescue effort" being coordinated by MSHA.

Toronto-based Barrick has not identified the men or confirmed any deaths.

Barrick, the largest gold company in the world, owns several mines in Nevada.

The Meikle mine, which has about 300 workers, is operated by its subsidiary Barrick Goldstrike Mines. It's underground operations have been closed since the accident.

Train-the-Trainer

Seek Refuge: Your Third Line of Defense

The Penn State Miner Training program will be conducting a train-the-trainer workshop on mine emergency preparedness.

This program, part of an MSHA 2009-2010 Brookwood-Sago Grant, is titled, Seek Refuge: your third line of defense? It is designed to better prepare responsible persons, trainers, safety directors, and supervisors to train and educate miners on the proper use of refuge alternatives.

Date: September 22, 2010

Location: DEP—The Cambria District Mining Office

286 Industrial Park Drive, Ebensburg, PA

Time: 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Download Brochure (7.0 MB pdf)

http://www.usmra.com/documents/PSU_BWS_TTT_Announcement.pdf

_________________________

U. S. Mine Rescue Association

www.usmra.com

Two bodies found at site of Nevada mine accident

CNN

August 14, 2010

Crews have found the bodies of two people believed to be the workers in a Nevada mining accident, operator Barrick Gold Corp. said late Friday.

The miners' names have not been released pending official confirmation. The bodies were found about 1,300 feet underground, Barrick said.

The accident occurred at 1:15 a.m. (4:15 a.m. ET) on Thursday in Elko County, Nevada. According to Barrick, two miners in an elevator were inspecting a large pipe in a vertical shaft when the pipe fell into the shaft, damaging the elevator.

All underground operations at the Meikle mine were suspended, the company said.

"This is a tragic event and we remain focused on assisting these miners' families," Greg Lang, president of Barrick's North America region, said in a statement. "The hearts and prayers of every Barrick employee are with them at this time. We place great value in our coworkers' health and safety, and we will do everything we can to prevent an incident like this from happening again."

The company said Barrick and the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration worked for more than 32 hours to reach the area where the bodies were found.

The MSHA reports at least 53 fatalities so far this year, including at least 42 coal-related deaths and at least 11 metal-related deaths.

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U. S. Mine Rescue Association

www.usmra.com

http://www.rlc.cc.il.us/pressroom/newsstory.php?id=4129