WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced an effort to raise awareness of regulations that give coal miners with development of pneumoconiosis, or black lung, the right to work at a section of a mine with lower levels of dust without having their pay reduced or fearing discrimination or termination.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the department’s Mine Safety and Health Administration’s “Mine Emergency Unit” bested competitors from around the world and finished first at the International Mines Rescue Competition, held Sept. 11-16, 2022, in Beaver, West Virginia.

WASHINGTON – The Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission has ruled unanimously that the operator of a Francisco, Indiana coal mine violated mandatory safety standards when it continued to operate an energized drill during a methane inundation, creating the risk of a catastrophic explosion.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration today launched an app for use on iPhone and Android devices that will help get timely information directly to miners and members of the mining community.

WASHINGTON – A federal appeals court ruled unanimously on Aug. 22, 2022, that the operator of a Lake County, Minnesota, iron ore mine flagrantly violated the federal Mine Safety and Health Act when it directed miners to work on an elevated walkway known to be unsafe for more than a year.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced a funding availability of up to $1 million in grants through its Brookwood-Sago grant program to support education and training to help the mining community identify, avoid and prevent unsafe and unhealthy working conditions in and around the nation’s mines.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration has proposed nearly $1.2 million in civil penalties to M-Class Mining LLC, a Macedonia, Illinois, coal mine operator. MSHA cited the operator for continuing to operate the mine without evacuating miners with a fire underground and failing to notify MSHA of the fire. The fire broke out on a longwall section on Aug. 13, 2021.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration has launched a new enforcement initiative to better protect the nation’s miners from health hazards resulting from repeated overexposure to respirable crystalline silica. MSHA reports silica dust affects thousands of miners each year and, without adequate protection, miners face risks of serious illnesses, many of which can be fatal.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration today announced the availability of more than $10.5 million in fiscal year 2022 state grant funding to provide federally mandated training and retraining of miners and mine operators working at surface and underground coal and metal and nonmetal mines.

WASHINGTON – A federal appeals court has ruled unanimously that the operator of a Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, coal mine violated the federal Mine Safety and Health Act more than a decade ago by giving underground miners advance notice that mine inspectors were conducting an inspection.

HANNIBAL, MO – A federal administrative law judge in Washington, D.C., has ordered a Hannibal cement company to pay a worker the company penalized for assisting federal safety investigators during a site visit.

WASHINGTON – A federal district court judge issued an injunction to prevent a Missouri mine operator and its owner from stopping federal inspectors from completing workplace safety inspections now and in the future at the Partridge Sand & Gravel mine in Stone.

WASHINGTON – Over the past year, dozens of miners have been injured or killed in mining incidents, many of which could have been prevented with proper training and attention to tasks. This unacceptable trend has prompted the U.S. Department of Labor to initiate a new safety campaign to reach miners and educate mine operators on their responsibility to ensure a safe workplace and prevent deadly accidents.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced a new program designed to encourage and help America’s miners to get the COVID-19 protections that vaccinations offer.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor will reopen the rulemaking record and hold a virtual public hearing on Jan. 11, 2022, on the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s proposed rule for Safety Program for Surface Mobile Equipment to improve safe usage of mobile, powered-haulage equipment.

WASHINGTON – For the seventh year in a row, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration found none of the nation’s 12,000 mining operations met the criteria for one of the agency’s toughest enforcement tools, its pattern of violations screening.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration has awarded $10,537,000 in grant funding to support safety and health training, and other programs. MSHA awarded grants to 46 states, the Navajo Nation and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration today announced the award of $1 million in Brookwood-Sago Mine Safety grant program funding to support education and training to help identify, avoid and prevent unsafe working conditions in and around the nation’s mines.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration today announced a proposed rule to require mine operators employing six or more miners to develop a written safety program for mobile and powered haulage equipment (excluding belt conveyors) at surface mines and surface areas of underground mines.

WASHINGTON, DC – On the 11th anniversary of the explosion at West Virginia’s Upper Big Branch mine, U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh today issued the following statement: