Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Probation, Fines for Two More Willful Violators

Mine operators Clark and Carl Johnson got three years of probation and $8,000 in fines for not following their ventilation plan and not having a working fire suppression system at the C & C Mining No.6 Mine, Floyd County, Ky.

Full story from WKYT Television: http://www.wkyt.com/Global/story.asp?S=3500304

Monday, June 20, 2005

Military Training for Women Enhances Safety?

Reuters reports that 67 women workers at a coal mine were given special training to "enhance their self-discipline and awareness of safety at work."

Military training included.

The womens' job is to maintain lamps for the underground miners' use. Photo and details at:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050617/ids_photos_wl/r536483919.jpg.

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

U.S. Mine Fatalities To Date

Coal mining: Nine fatalities as of today compared with 12 at this time last year and lower than most recent years, including years that set records. The industry had a similar record on this day in 2001, but a major explosion claimed 13 lives and brought the year-end death toll to 42.

Metal and nonmetal mining: Thirteen deaths as of today, compared with 11 at this time last year; matches the count as of this date in 2003, which turned out to be the industry's historic record low year.

Several fatal mine accidents this year have involved young miners in their 20's, possibly due to the evolving workforce. For many years, the typical miner and average mine accident victim would be in his 40's or 50's.

Historically, growth and turnover in the mining industry presented special safety challenges often led to increased accidents. Today, with mandatory safety and health training in place for all miners, safety problems do not necessarily have to follow.

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

That Sinking Feeling

The hazards of old, worked-out operations came to the fore again last month, this time in Montana. The Daily Interlake reports that a sinkhole opened up in an old but recently reactivated mine on the order of 100 feet from where miners were working.

"In his report, the [State] inspector noted that two miners happened to be in an underground tunnel when the collapse occurred 'with enough noise that two miners at the power magazines ran eastward about 100 feet to see what the noise was about.'

"What they found was a fan of rock debris that had entered an old mine room, just about 250 feet below the surface.

"The inspector noted that 'a shallow collapse feature' was discovered on the surface next to a road leading to a mine entrance on May 1.

"'The collapse feature deepened and by May 6, 2005, it was approximately 50 feet deep and 30 feet across,' he said."

See full story at:


http://www.dailyinterlake.com/articles/2005/06/07/news/news04.txt

MSHA has this on the mine:

2401467
Operator: Genesis Inc.
Mine Name: Genesis Inc., Troy Mine
Controlling Company: Revett Silver Company
Ownership Date: 10/14/1999
Mine Status: Active
Status Date: 1/18/2005
Mined Material: Copper Ore NEC
Type of Mine: Underground
Location: Lincoln County, MT
Address of Record: 18 Miles S of Troy on Hwy 56 P.O. Box , Troy, MT 59935

...but nothing about any accident investigation this year. The fall apparently was in a mined-out area.

Le Plus Ca Change in China

"Le plus ca change, le plus c'est la meme chose," or the more things change, the more they stay the same.

More bad news out of China. Reuters says, "At least 30 people were killed in two mine explosions in China on Wednesday, the deadliest blast involving a state-run coal mine already flagged for safety violations, state media reported."

Full story: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/PEK355367.htm

Ironically, the news comes just as China's Xinhua news service reports: "Local police arrested five suspects accused of the responsibility for a deadly coal mine blast which claimed 22 lives on April 28 in Hancheng...."

See http://english.people.com.cn/200506/08/eng20050608_189180.html

MSHA Posts News Release on Diesels

MSHA has now posted its news release on the latest revision of the metal/nonmetal diesel particulate rule. The rule went on open file Friday and was published Monday in the Federal Register; the Steelworkers criticized the revisions of the 2001 rule, which were prompted by an industry lawsuit. (See previous posts, Saturday and yesterday.)

"The health and safety of workers is a top priority of this Administration, and this is one more way to demonstrate that commitment," said David G. Dye, acting assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health.

http://www.msha.gov/MEDIA/PRESS/2005/NR050606.asp

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Steelworkers React to Revised MSHA Diesel Particulate Rules

After holding an invitiation-only telephone press conference on Friday to announce the changes (see blog entry on June 4), MSHA on Monday published the latest revisions to the metal/nonmetal diesel particulate rule in the Federal Register and posted them on the Web for all to see:

http://www.msha.gov/REGS/FEDREG/FINAL/2005finl/05-10681.asp

The agency's summary:

"In this final rule, MSHA changes the interim concentration limit measured by total carbon (TC) to a comparable permissible exposure limit (PEL) measured by elemental carbon (EC), which renders a more accurate DPM exposure measurement. Also, this final rule increases flexibility of compliance for mine operators by requiring MSHA's longstanding hierarchy of controls for its other exposure-based health standards at M/NM mines, but retains the prohibition on rotation of miners for compliance. Furthermore, this final rule: Requires MSHA to consider economic as well as technological feasibility in determining if operators qualify for an extension of time in which to meet the final DPM limit; deletes the requirement for a control plan; and makes conforming changes to existing provisions concerning compliance determinations, environmental monitoring and recordkeeping."

The United Steelworkers were highly critical:

"A key part of the revision makes the union especially angry, where the new standard expands situations under which mine operators are allowed to use respirators, instead of engineering controls. But MSHA did not require operators to test workers for their ability to use a respirator safely, although such testing is required by OSHA health standards, and is recommended by every major industrial hygiene and occupational medical organization and by the National institute for Occupational Safety and Health," the Steelworkers said in a news release.

The full USWA news release is at:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/usnw/20050607/pl_usnw/united_steelworkers_union_angered_by_administration_s_weakening_of_mine_safety_standard_for_diesel_fumes302_xml

Monday, June 06, 2005

Tracing KY Company Histories, continued

MSHA data is available today that I was struggling to locate yesterday. Apparently the website was being updated, which can make some of the data unavailable for a while. It's back up, so here's part 2.

Just as an example, I was tracing business connections to Misty Mountain Mining, Inc., which is the subject of a safety-related discrimination complaint.

Yesterday I was demonstrating how to use KY state records to locate related businesses.

One related KY company (same official listed by MSHA as the controller), for instance, is now out of business:

Organization Number 0478082
Name SISTER BEAR MINING, INC.
Profit or Non-Profit P - Profit
Company Type KCO - Kentucky Corporation
Status I - Inactive
Standing B - Bad
State KY
File Date 8/2/1999
Organization Date 8/2/1999
Last Annual Report 9/23/2003
Principal Office P.O. BOX 100
JONANCY, KY 41538
Registered Agent STANLEY WAYNE OSBORNE
8410 HWY. 122
VIRGIE, KY 41572
Authorized Shares 1000
Current Officers
President Stanley Osborne
Incorporators and Initial Directors
Incorporator STANLEY OSBORNE

Turning now to the MSHA data retrieval system on the agency website, and remembering to request abandoned as well as active operations, we find the folowing for Sister Bear:

1517616 KY Sister Bear Mining Inc Mine No 7 Underground C Abandoned* Coal (Bituminous)
1517633 KY Sister Bear Mining Inc No 6 Underground C Abandoned* Coal (Bituminous)
1517919 KY Sister Bear Mining Inc 1 Underground C Abandoned* Coal (Bituminous)

And here's the basic information for the first of that company's three abandoned mines:

Mine ID: 1517616
Operator: Sister Bear Mining Inc
Mine Name: Mine No 7
Controlling Company: Stanley Osborne
Ownership Date: 9/21/2000
Mine Status: Abandoned*
Status Date: 7/12/2002
Mined Material: Coal (Bituminous)
Type of Mine: Underground
Location: Pike County, KY
Address of Record: P.O. Box 100, JONANCY, KY 41538

The "ownership date" is 9/21/2000, meaning that is when Sister Bear became the operator.

The "overview" report shows no fatalities at the mine in the less than 2 years that Sister Bear operated it. Neither did the mine operator report any injuries in that period. You can see that production dipped drastically compared with the previous operator.

You can go to the "Inspections" report and, being sure to enter the beginning date of 9/21/2000 when the company became the operator, check the inspection record.

You can see that MSHA gave the company a no-penalty "reopening inspection" on 10/4/2000. You can also see that in April 2002 MSHA cited the company for not informing the agency when the mine was shut down and for not securing the entrance of the abandoned operation.

Between those dates, the federal mine safety agency visited the mine 19 times and wrote 77 health and safety violations addressing a wide range of hazards, and it appears that the company never paid any of the fines. The status of all penalties is given as "Treasury," which may mean they have been written off as uncollectible. That would appear to fit with the KY Secretary of State categorizing the company standing as "Bad," though I haven't checked.

I won't go through all the availabile information on this and other related companies, but it's kind of interesting as an example of analyses can be done fairly easily these days, thanks to the Internet.

Sunday, June 05, 2005

Tracing KY Company Histories

Four miners are waiting for a judge's decision on their complaint that Misty Mountain Mining, Inc., fired them for complaining about safety conditions in the company's underground coal mine near Jenkins, Ky. Company officials deny the charge. The Courier-Journal story is here:

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050526/NEWS0104/505260435/1008/NEWS01

Curious about the history of this company or others? The Kentucky Secretary of State lets you search online at http://sos.ky.gov/online.htm

For instance, you can find out more about Misty Mountain Mining:

Organization Number 0548511
Name MISTY MOUNTAIN MINING, INC.
Profit or Non-Profit P - Profit
Company Type KCO - Kentucky Corporation
Status A - Active
Standing G - Good
State KY
File Date 11/20/2002
Organization Date 11/20/2002
Last Annual Report 5/17/2004
Principal Office PO BOX 165
JONANCY, KY 41538
Registered Agent WAYNE OSBORNE
# 8410, HIGHWAY 122
VIRGIE, KY 41572
Authorized Shares 1000
Current Officers
President Wayne Osborne
Vice President Stanley Osborne
Incorporators and Initial Directors
Incorporator WAYNE OSBORNE


The following information in bold has been added/revised since the original post:

MSHA apparently has company vice president Stanley Osborne listed as the "Controlling Company" for the mine where the discrimination complaint happened:

Mine ID: 1516643
Operator: Misty Mountain Mining, Inc.
Mine Name: #4
Controlling Company: Stanley Osborne
Ownership Date: 3/9/2004
Mine Status: Abandoned*
Status Date: 3/22/2005
Mined Material: Coal (Bituminous)
Type of Mine: Underground
Location: Pike County, KY
State: KY

Through a name search on the KY Secretary of State's website, you can find out that Stanley Osborne has headed several previous coal companies:


Osborne, Stanley President PACE MINING AND PROCESSING, INC. I-Inactive 0253802
Osborne, Stanley President GUNSTOCK MINING, INC. I-Inactive 0418267
Osborne, Stanley President TORIE MINING, INC. I-Inactive 0402010
Osborne, Stanley President SISTER BEAR MINING, INC. I-Inactive 0478082


And links let you find out more about each:

Organization Number 0253802
Name PACE MINING AND PROCESSING, INC.
Profit or Non-Profit P - Profit
Company Type KCO - Kentucky Corporation
Status I - Inactive
Standing B - Bad
State KY
Organization Date 1/24/1989
Last Annual Report 6/29/2000
Principal Office 10448 ROBINSON CREEK ROAD
VIRGIE, KY 41572
Registered Agent RANDY L. TACKETT
10448 ROBINSON CREEK ROAD
VIRGIE, KY 41572
Common No Par Shares 100
Current Officers
President Stanley Osborne
Secretary Randy L Tackett
Treasurer Randy L Tackett
Incorporators and Initial Directors
Incorporator JIM G. VANOVER


Organization Number 0418267
Name GUNSTOCK MINING, INC.
Profit or Non-Profit P - Profit
Company Type KCO - Kentucky Corporation
Status I - Inactive
Standing B - Bad
State KY
File Date 7/1/1996
Organization Date 7/1/1996
Last Annual Report 6/29/2000
Principal Office 10448 ROBINSON CREEK RD.
VIRGIE, KY 41572
Registered Agent RANDY TACKETT
10448 ROBINSON CREEK RD.
VIRGIE, KY 41572
Authorized Shares 1000
Current Officers
President Stanley Osborne
Secretary Randy L Tackett
Treasurer Randy L Tackett
Incorporators and Initial Directors
Incorporator STANLEY OSBORNE
Incorporator RANDY TACKETT


Organization Number 0402010
Name TORIE MINING, INC.
Profit or Non-Profit P - Profit
Company Type KCO - Kentucky Corporation
Status I - Inactive
Standing B - Bad
State KY
File Date 6/21/1995
Organization Date 6/21/1995
Last Annual Report 10/5/2000
Principal Office P.O. BOX 615
179 ELWOOD RD.
VIRGIE, KY 41572
Registered Agent STANLEY OSBORNE
P.O. BOX 615
179 ELWOOD RD.
VIRGIE, KY 41572
Authorized Shares 1000
Current Officers
President Stanley Osborne
Secretary Wayne Osborne
Treasurer Wayne Osborne
Incorporators and Initial Directors
Incorporator STANLEY OSBORNE


Organization Number 0478082
Name SISTER BEAR MINING, INC.
Profit or Non-Profit P - Profit
Company Type KCO - Kentucky Corporation
Status I - Inactive
Standing B - Bad
State KY
File Date 8/2/1999
Organization Date 8/2/1999
Last Annual Report 9/23/2003
Principal Office P.O. BOX 100
JONANCY, KY 41538
Registered Agent STANLEY WAYNE OSBORNE
8410 HWY. 122
VIRGIE, KY 41572
Authorized Shares 1000
Current Officers
President Stanley Osborne
Incorporators and Initial Directors
Incorporator STANLEY OSBORNE


And you can search on other company officers to get more connections.

If you want, you can page on over to the MSHA website and look up the most recents, and find that it's listed as temporarily idled:

Mine ID: 1516183
Operator: Sister Bear Mining Inc
Mine Name: Mine #9
Controlling Company: Stanley Osborne
Ownership Date: 4/6/2001
Mine Status: Temporarily Idled
Status Date: 8/29/2002
Mined Material: Coal (Bituminous)
Type of Mine: Underground
Location: Pike County, KY
Address of Record: P.O. Box 100, JONANCY, KY 41538


..and I was going to say, you can get its safety record, but MSHA website only returns an error message. And darn, the Pace company returns the same error message.

Item cannot be found in the collection corresponding to the requested name or ordinal.

/drs/ASP/MineHeading.asp, line 76


Now why would that be? Sorry, but you get the idea.

Most states' Secretary of State offices seem to have online searchable information these days, a great convenience. Usually.

Thing Are Looking Up, Down There

Consol Energy has announced that its 400-employee Buchanan Mine in Buchanan County, W.Va., is likely to be back in production by the end of this month, AP reports.

The mine was sealed after a fire broke out on the longwall in mid-February. At the time, the company said a rock fall in the gob was the likely ignition source.

http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/virginia/dp-va--coalminefire0605jun05,0,831519.story?coll=dp-headlines-virginia

Meanwhile, the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer described how western Kentucky is sharing in the benenfits of the current coal boom.

http://www.messenger-inquirer.com/news/kentucky/8513171.htm

Saturday, June 04, 2005

Well, Not Exactly

Here's an AP story, with the headline:
"New rule restricts miners' exposure to diesel exhaust"

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/11810639.htm

It isn't a new rule, and it doesn't tighten exposure limits.

Industry and labor have been awaiting this latest iteration of a rule originally published in 2001, which MSHA is revising due to a legal challenge by mine operators.

The agency used a Friday conference call with selected reporters to announce the latest final rule in its metal/nonmetal diesel particulate rulemaking project. MSHA hasn't yet posted the rule or a press release on its website, so the details are not clear at this point.

Background:

MSHA first published a new regulation addressing metal and nonmetal miners' exposure to diesel particulate matter (DPM) on January 19, 2001. Industry challenged the rule in court.

Rather than hacking through a full knock-down drag-out litigation process, MSHA and industry decided to try for settlement. After additional studies in mines, MSHA agreed to make some revisions in the final rule. The first set of revisions was finalized in 2002. The current revisions follow from a proposal the agency published for comment in August 2003. More is to come.

AP: "MSHA in 2001 restricted the level of diesel particulates to which miners could be exposed in mines that produce a range of products, from copper to uranium. Friday's announcement doesn't adjust that level but changes the way it is measured."

But it looks like that will be next, as MSHA says in its latest rulemaking agenda, "In a separate rulemaking, the Agency will propose a rule to revise the final concentration limit of 160 micrograms per cubic meter of air."

Rulemaking agenda: http://www.msha.gov/REGS/UNIFIED/1219-AB29.asp

One Million Coal Miners

....in China alone.

Coal mine accidents in China have continued at a high rate despite repeated government efforts to strengthen enforcement in recent years. The government now is seeking to hire as many as 100,000 coal mine inspectors.

Meannwhile, the country reportedly can't keep pace with its own coal demand. It will be fascinating to see what course events take in the coal industry of this explosively-developing nation.

http://abcasiapacific.com/news/stories/asiapacific_stories_1382077.htm

Friday, June 03, 2005

Unusual Safety Complaint of the Year

Severe burns are no joke.

That being said, here is the strangest accident reported in a long time: a methane gas explosion in a portable toilet. Reportedly methane leaked into the toilet from a ruptured line that carried methane from abandoned coal mines. The gas exploded when the victim, a power plant employee, lit a cigarette.

The incident occurred last year. CNN reports that the victim is now suing the coal company that owns the property and others:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/06/03/toilet.lawsuit.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest

KDKA television covered the incident when it first happened:

http://kdka.com/water/watercooler_story_205142813.html

Thursday, June 02, 2005

KY Abruptly Fires Mine Safety Prosecuter

The Lexington Herald-Leader has the story:

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/11784737.htm

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/11760734.htm

Tony Oppegard worked at MSHA during the Clinton Administration. Among other things, he was MSHA's original chief investigator in the notorious Martin County impoundment leak. He also led the agency's investigation into a major explosion at an aluminum processing plant in Louisiana. As a political (Schedule C) employee, he had to leave MSHA at end of the Administration. By all accounts, he's been a highly productive enforcer in the Ky. mine agency.