Upper Big Branch mine News

Ex-Massey Mine CEO: ‘I Don’t Want to Go to 100 Funerals’

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 don’t want to go to 100 …

Massey CEO Wins Delay of Criminal Trial Until April

Ex-Massey Energy chief Donald Blankenship won an almost three-month delay of his trial, scheduled to begin later this month, on federal charges tied to a fatal 2010 mine explosion that was the worst U.S. coal industry disaster in 40 years. …

Massey Ex-CEO Blankenship Faces Criminal Charges Over 2010 Mine Explosion

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 industry accident in …

West Virginia Supreme Court Judge Hits Ruling on Massey

West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Robin Davis criticized her colleagues in a dissenting opinion Friday for refusing to let institutional shareholders revive a lawsuit filed against the former Massey Energy two weeks after the Upper Big Branch mine disaster. Earlier …

Remembering 29 Miners Lost in West Virginia Blast 3 Years Ago

As West Virginians marked the third anniversary of an explosion that killed 29 coal miners Friday, congressional Democrats called the lack of action on tougher mine safety legislation “shameful.” Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin placed a photo of white and a …

West Virginia Not Enforcing Mine Coal Dust Standards: Report

State standards aimed at reducing buildups of explosive coal dust in underground mines but regulators haven’t been enforced in West Virginia. More than a fifth of the more than 5,500 dust samples taken from mines by state regulators since August …

Former Massey Mine Executive to Enter Plea Next Month

A former president of Massey Energy’s White Buck Coal Co. will enter a plea on federal conspiracy charges in January as prosecutors continue to investigate the 2010 explosion at another Massey operation that killed 29 men. David C. Hughart is …

Alpha Seals West Virginia Mine Where 2010 Blast Killed 29

Alpha Natural Resources has completed sealing the West Virginia mine where an explosion killed 29 workers in 2010. Alpha spokesman Ted Pile told The Register-Herald that crews put the final concrete seal in place at the Upper Big Branch mine …

Coal Firm Alpha Cites Safety Steps on Coal-Dust

Coal producer Alpha Natural Resources says it has taken steps to avoid coal-dust violations of the kind that investigators say caused the 2010 Upper Big Branch Mine explosion that killed 29 men, according to a letter the Bristol, Va.-based company …

West Virginia Mine Blast Survivors’ Cases Still Unsettled

Nine men who survived West Virginia’s Upper Big Branch mine disaster want to abandon mediation of their personal injury claims and start gathering evidence for trial because they say the mine’s new owner isn’t negotiating in good faith. The miners …