Latest Mining Headlines
All the headlines from our Mining Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Regulators in West Virginia Cite 2 Companies in Fatal Mine Accidents
Sep 3 2015 // Two companies have been cited by West Virginia regulators for alleged violations found during investigations of separate fatal mine accidents. The Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training issued two citations to...
Ex-Massey CEO’s Lawyers: Keep West Virginia Mine Blast Out of Criminal Trial
Jul 28 2015 // Attorneys for former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship want evidence about the 2010 explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia kept out of his criminal trial this fall. The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports the...
Lawmakers Vow to Review Abandoned Mine Insurance Program
Jun 26 2015 // Lawmakers will examine whether a program that allows coal companies to forgo mine cleanup insurance could leave taxpayers with billion dollar costs, leading members of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources said on...
U.S. Regulators Scrutinizing Coal Mines’ Clean-Up Insurance Program
Jun 8 2015 // Coal giant Peabody Energy has been among the harshest critics of federal energy policies, joining a court challenge to the Obama administration’s new clean air regulations and denouncing its promotion of renewable...
U.S. Judge Denies Motion to Drop Mine Blast Charges Against Ex-Massey CEO
Jun 5 2015 // A federal judge has denied nine motions to dismiss charges against former Massey Energy Chief Executive Officer Don Blankenship related to a 2010 mine explosion in West Virginia that killed 29 people. Blankenship faces...
Alpha Mining Faces Surety Bond Challenge Due to Finances
Jun 2 2015 // Alpha Natural Resources Inc. no longer qualifies for a government program that subsidizes a share of mine cleanup insurance, requiring the coal company to find another way to cover roughly $400 million in liabilities,...
New Mining Map Tool from Environmental Activists Finds West Virginia Most at Risk
Apr 30 2015 // Environmental activists said that mountaintop removal coal mining has been expanding closer to communities in central Appalachia in recent years, with nearly half of the 50 areas most at risk in West Virginia. As part of...
Alpha Natural Facing Big Insurance Buy for Abandoned Mines Shortfall
Apr 20 2015 // Alpha Natural Resources Inc, a struggling U.S. coal company, may be forced to buy costly new insurance or otherwise ensure it can cover obligations for cleaning up any abandoned mines, according to officials in West...
Ex-Massey Mine CEO: ‘I Don’t Want to Go to 100 Funerals’
Apr 9 2015 // Former Massey Energy Co. Chief Executive Officer Donald Blankenship, facing criminal trial over an April 2010 explosion that killed 29 miners, said the year before that he feared a disaster with 100 deaths. “I...
Former Massey CEO Pleads Not Guilty to New Indictment in Mine Blast
Mar 25 2015 // The former chief executive of Massey Energy Co. pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to a revised federal indictment arising from a 2010 West Virginia coal mine explosion that killed 29 miners. The former chief executive, Donald...
Former Kentucky Mine Inspector Pleads Guilty to Bribery
Mar 20 2015 // A former state mine inspector has pleaded guilty in federal court to taking bribes from former Kentucky lawmaker Keith Hall. Kelly Shortridge agreed to a plea that was filed in court on Wednesday. It says Shortridge, who...
Lawsuit in 2011 Nevada Gold Mine Death Settled
Mar 3 2015 // A lawyer for the Utah family of a contract worker at a Nevada gold mine that paid more than $100,000 in U.S. safety fines after he was killed there in 2011 says they’ve settled a wrongful death suit with Newmont USA,...
Australia Cyclone Causes Power Cuts, but Spares Miners, Farmers
Feb 23 2015 // Commodities producers were spared the full wrath of a powerful cyclone that smashed into the east coast of Australia packing winds up to 285 kph (175 mph), but thousands of coastal residents on Monday faced a third day...
Former Massey CEO Requests Dismissal of Charges from West Virginia Mine Explosion
Feb 10 2015 // A former coal company executive is seeking the dismissal of charges stemming from a 2010 mine explosion that killed 29 workers in West Virginia. Don Blankenship, former chief executive officer of Massey Energy, also has...
More Inspections, Fewer Mines Result in Lowest Number of Miner Deaths
Dec 30 2014 // Less than five years after an explosion fueled by excess coal dust killed 29 men deep inside a West Virginia underground mine, the nation’s coal mines are on pace for an all-time low in work-related deaths. Federal...
Third Worker This Year Dies at Kentucky Patriot Mine
Dec 17 2014 // A worker was killed Tuesday in a Kentucky mine owned by Patriot Coal Co., the company’s third such fatality this year. Eli Eldridge, 34, of Sturgis, Kentucky died after he was struck by a vehicle shuttling coal to...
Workers Inhaled Uranium at Wyoming Mine, NRC Says
Dec 9 2014 // Six workers at a Wyoming uranium mine inhaled the radioactive element while cleaning up a spill inside a processing building just days before the mine delivered its first shipment last year, according to the Nuclear...
Blankenship Pleads Not Guilty to Charges Linked to Massey Mine Explosion
Nov 21 2014 // Former Massey Energy chief Donald Blankenship pleaded not guilty to charges linked to the West Virginia mine explosion that killed 29 workers in the worst U.S. coal industry disaster in almost 40 years. The former...
Massey Ex-CEO Blankenship Faces Criminal Charges Over 2010 Mine Explosion
Nov 18 2014 // The former Massey Energy chief, scorned by regulators and a U.S. senator, may face three decades in prison if convicted of charges stemming from a West Virginia mine explosion that killed 29 workers, the worst U.S. coal...
Hydraulic Leak Contributed To Wyoming Coal Mine Death
Nov 14 2014 // A hydraulic leak and the failure to use a safety block contributed to the crushing death of a contractor at a Wyoming coal mine. The Mine Safety and Health Administration investigated the June 6 death of 25-year-old Joshua...
