Consol Energy is taking advantage of a fire last month that shut down its Blacksville No. 2 Mine in Pennsylvania to make improvements to enhance miner safety.

According to spokeswoman Lynn Seay, work crews have installed 13 new seals at the KuhnTown and Orndoff locations.  They replace four older sets of seals, cutting the area mine examiners must travel by about 4,000 feet and reducing exposure and hazards to employees. 

In an unprecedented ruling, an appeals court has approved an exercise of MSHA's authority never before used by the agency; namely, the right to request and copy payroll records and employees’ medical information, as long as the requests represent a reasonable effort to discharge MSHA's duties under the Mine Act.

MSHA inspectors issued just two orders during impact inspections at 12 mining sites in March, the lowest ever for the enforcement initiative that began three years ago.

A total of 155 citations were also issued at eight Coal operations and four Metal/Non-Metal (M/NM) sites.  The two orders, along with 19 citations, went to Consolidation Coal Co.’s Loveridge #22 Mine in West Virginia.  However, an M/NM operation, Robinson Nevada Mining Co.’s Robinson surface copper mine in Nevada received 32 citations, the most of any of those visited.

In releasing fatality data showing that 11 miners died on the job in the first quarter of 2013, the head of the U.S. mine safety agency urged operators to work harder to assure safe operating conditions in the nation's mines.

MSHA will have to remove a personnel conveyance at an Arizona copper mine from its bucket list after an administrative law judge (ALJ) ruled the equipment was not a “bucket” under the agency’s regulations.

Unless appealed, Judge Richard Manning’s decision April 19 means that Resolution Copper Mining, LLC will be allowed to move miners inside vertical shafts at its Resolution Mine in Superior at speeds up to 1,200 feet per minute (fpm).

A petition for modification submitted by a Wyoming cement producer to MSHA seeks use of a dislodging implement to remove oversize material stuck between the jaw plates of a crusher, while another petition from a Pennsylvania coal operator asks permission to use shuttle cars without canopies in heights less than 48 inches.

The government has launched an investigation into a breathing device used by mine workers after a malfunction was reported in four units at one mine.

In a notice posted to its website April 19, MSHA said it had joined with NIOSH to investigate Ocenco M-20 self-contained self-rescuers (SCSRs) after a malfunction was reported to it.  The malfunction involves Ocenco SCSRs manufactured in 2008.

About 165 million tons of rock and dirt slid into the Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah last week, damaging roads and buildings and burying equipment.

A salt miner died early Wednesday after being injured at North American Salt Co.’s underground Cote Blanche Mine in southern Louisiana.

At 11:55 p.m., Tuesday, Michael Charles, 59, was on top of a skip performing maintenance with two other miners when a piece of salt fell and struck him, according to MSHA's preliminary report.  Charles, a shaftman, had nearly 33 years' service at the mine.