Two Colorado groups have been awarded a total of $190,000 to help promote mine safety across the United States.
The U.S. Labor Department’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) announced the funding on Tuesday through its Brookwood-Sago Mine Safety Grants program. Thirteen grants totaling $1 million were awarded.
The program was established in 2006 in honor of 13 miners who died in 2001 in the disaster at the Jim Walter Resources Inc.’s No. 5 Mine in Brookwood, Alabama, and 12 miners who died in 2006 after an explosion at Wolf Run Mining Company’s Sago Mine in Tallmansville, West Virginia.
The grant program provides funding for education and training programs to better identify, avoid, and prevent unsafe working conditions in and around mines, according to the program's website. Those who earn the grants will use the funds to implement education and training programs or to create training on MSHA-identified safety priorities.
“We are seeing an increase in mining fatalities, particularly powered haulage fatalities, and we must reverse this trend. The Mine Safety and Health Administration’s top priority is the safety and well-being of people working in and around mines,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Mine Safety and Health Jeannette J. Galanis. “Mine workers are a critical resource and grants like these help support the mining community’s training and education needs and promote ways to protect miners better.”
Two groups in Colorado were named as grant recipients:
- The Colorado Department of Natural Resources will develop an innovative video that will focus the need for mitigation for mine emergencies, risk, preparedness and readiness assessments | Grant amount: $95,000
- Colorado School of Mines in Golden will develop an energy-based hazard recognition-training module | Grant amount: $95,000
Among the other grants awarded were $140,000 to the University of Arizona in Tucson, $130,000 to the Marshall University Research Corp. in Huntington, West Virginia, and $120,000 to the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City.
Other grant recipients are in Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. Click here to see a breakdown of the other grantees.