The U.S. Department of Labor has awarded $1 million in grants to nine organizations in seven states to support education and training initiatives that will help identify and prevent unsafe working conditions in and around the nation’s mines.
Administered by the department’s Mine Safety and Health Administration, the Brookwood-Sago Mine Safety grants allow recipients to create training materials, promote and conduct mine safety training or educational programs, and evaluate the effectiveness of their efforts.
“In examining the mining industry’s troubling trend of fatalities this year, MSHA has found that training deficiencies continue to be a root cause of fatal accidents,” said Assistant Secretary for Mine Safety and Health Chris Williamson.
“The grants awarded today further key priorities of the agency and the Biden-Harris administration, including preventing fatalities and serious accidents from safety issues, while also addressing miner health, such as preventing exposure to toxic materials like silica dust.”
The 2023 recipients are:
- University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Ala., $169,790
- University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz., $156,722
- Southeast Kentucky Community & Technical College, Cumberland, Ky., $79,068
- University of Kentucky Research Foundation, Lexington, Ky., $102,383
- Nevada System of Higher Education, Reno, Nev., $120,061
- UMWA Career Centers, Prosperity, Pa., $55,546
- Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy, Charlottesville, Va., $50,000
- Marshall University Research, Huntington, W.Va., $99,999
- West Virginia University Research, Morgantown, W.Va., $166,431
Established under the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act of 2006, the grant program honors 25 miners who perished in mine disasters in 2001 at the Jim Walter Resources #5 mine in Brookwood, Ala., and in 2006 at the Sago Mine in Buckhannon, W.Va.
Source: MSHA