Edward E. Lopez has announced his retirement as manager of MSHA’s South Central Metal/Non-Metal District, effective April 19.  Lopez has taken a position with copper giant Freeport-McMoRan at its surface copper mine in Morenci, AZ.  There is no word on a replacement.

Charlie Carpenter has retired as manager in Coal District 4 (D4), Mt. Hope, WV.  His replacement reportedly is D. Scott Mandeville, currently the Assistant District Manager for Technical Support in D12, Beckley.  Lincoln Selfe, Jr. is acting manager until Mandeville moves into the position.

MSHA will end all state grants funding and cut funds for coal plan approvals and from the Small Mines Consultation Program (SMCP) while seeking an increase of $6.4 million for its enforcement programs and regulatory initiatives in a $380.7 million fiscal year 2014 (FY 14) budget proposal released today. 

An administrative law judge (ALJ) has upheld a special assessment against an Alabama coal operator and a fine imposed upon one of its foremen following an incident in which three underground rail cars broke free and nearly struck a miner while travelling out of control for three-quarters of a mile.

ALJ William Moran brushed aside arguments raised by Oak Grove Resources, LLC challenging the validity of an order an MSHA inspector issued for violation of a 19-year-old safeguard at its Oak Grove mine. 

A 30-year-old contract supervisor was killed Thursday afternoon at Freeport-McMoRan Bagdad, Inc.’s surface copper mine of the same name, which is located in the western Arizona community of Bagdad.

A Kentucky coal operator’s effort to rid itself of a nettlesome coal miner has ended in failure.

In a 12-page decision released today, a three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an administrative law judge’s 2012 decision reinstating miner Charles Scott Howard to his position as an underground face worker at Cumberland River Coal Co.’s (CRCC) Band Mill No. 2 Mine.  In that decision, ALJ Margaret Miller also imposed a $30,000 fine, $10,000 above what MSHA had proposed.

Mark Harris has joined Safety Solutions International (SSI) as a Senior Health and Safety Associate.

In a press release, Colorado-based SSI said Harris has held numerous senior-level occupational health and safety (OH&S) positions with firms in this country and abroad that are engaged in surface and underground mining.  Read more »

MSHA has re-issued a Program Information Bulletin (PIB) addressing coal operator respirable dust sampling procedures that specifies sampling procedures and post-sampling requirements that were absent from PIB 09-31, the previous iteration.

A West Virginia coal miner died because he got alongside a continuous mining machine (CMM) as it was being moved, a violation of the mine’s roof control plan.

In an accident report released Thursday, MSHA said Johnny Mack Bryant, II, 35, was killed when he was pinned between the conveyor boom of a CMM and the coal rib.  The incident occurred last July 27 at Coal River Mining, LLC’s Fork Creek No. 10 Mine in Boone County.

A 61-year-old miner was killed at a Missouri quarry when he was buried under rock during routine blasting operations.