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Agency Gives Worker Safety Awards to Mines

September 21st, 2007 Posted by Amelia

The Mine Safety and Health Administration in cooperation with the National Mining Association recently recognized 19 mines as Sentinels of Safety in the industry at an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. on September 19, 2007.

With a number of high-profile mining accidents in the news recently, the MSHA is focusing on the positive by recognizing mining operations that exemplify the highest standards in safety.

The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration is the federal agency charged with overseeing worker safety in the mining industry. The MSHA regulates and inspects work conditions for miners, in much the way that OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, does for workers in most other industries.

The National Mining Association is an industry group that is made up largely of mine owners and operators. The organization lobbies Congress on behalf of mine owners and publishes a newsletter, Mine Week.

The Sandersville Mill in Sandersville, Georgia, won the safety award for the third consecutive year in the “Large Metal Nonmetal Mill Group”. The mill is operated by the J.M Huber Corp.

The Peerless Mine of Sainte Genevieve, Missouri won the safety award in the “Large Underground Nonmetal Group” for the third consecutive year. The mine is operated by the Mississippi Lime Company.

Companies were recognized for the highest number of work hours in 2006 without a fatality or an injury that resulted in time lost from work. The 19 companies that were honored had a combined total of almost 2.7 million work hours without an injury. Each company had at least 4,000 work hours without an injury.

“Showcasing examples of good safety programs is very important,” said Richard E. Stickler, assistant secretary of labor for MSHA. “Such recognition encourages safe operations to continue their best practices and shows the rest of the mining industry that it is indeed possible to run safe mining operations every day of the year.”

Other major winners include the Burke Branch Tipple Mine of Myra, Kentucky, Abundance Coal Mine of Kite, Kentucky, Columbiana Pits of Lisbon Ohio, K-2 Mine of Republic, Washington and the Lyons Salt Mine of Lyons Kansas.

The Farmersburg Mine of Evansville and Pimento, Indiana logged 539,695 hours without an accident, the most of any mine honored.

The Sentinels of Safety award is the oldest established award for occupational safety. The first one was announced in 1925 by President Herbert Hoover when he was Secretary of Commerce. Hoover, a former mining engineer, remained interested in mine safety throughout his career. The awards have been presented each year since their inception. A complete list of winners is available on the MSHA website.

In recent months, a number of very high-profile accidents have eclipsed the fact that the overwhelming majority of mines are safe places to work. The MSHA has faced a number of challenges, including the most recent, the tragic Crandall Canyon mine disaster in August 2007.

There were also three major mining accidents in 2006. Those include a January 2006 explosion in the Sago Mine in Sago, West Virginia that trapped 13 miners for nearly two days. Only one of them survived.

That same month, a fire at the Aracoma Alma Mine in Melville, West Virginia poured smoke into the miner’s escape route, killing two people. In May 2006, a methane explosion at the Darby Mine No. 1 in Kentucky killed five workers.

In response, MSHA hired additional mine safety inspectors, tightened regulations and made other changes. Still, critics argue that those changes clearly were not enough.

The events at Crandall Canyon are especially tragic, in part because there were initially hopes that the 6 missing miners would be discovered alive. Initial reports indicated that the men might be trapped in an area with sufficient air to survive. There were emergency stores of food in the mine, and potable water.