State officials said a section of mine roof, 20 feet by 20 feet and 11 feet high, collapsed without warning. The mine has 73 employees, is owned by Black Mountain Resources.
The company was carrying out retreat mining, whereby as the mine advances, rooms are mined out and pillars of coal are left. Once the edge of the coal property is reached, the miners retreat, removing much of the pillars of coal. The mine roof then collapses as the miners back out.
Retired miner William Salyers, 65, who worked on the same coal seam in the past, told the Louisville Courier Journal that longtime miners have doubts about the safety of the process. “We got the grapes and left the vine,” Salyers said. “But if there’s a block of coal anywhere to be had, they’re going to try and get it.”
In a phone interview with the Militant, William Chapman, a former 20-year Kentucky coal miner and now organizer for the United Mine Workers of America, pointed out that retreat mining, “is dangerous work, even more dangerous when the price of coal goes up” and the coal companies step up their productivity drive.
J. Davitt McAteer, head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) under the Clinton administration, told the Courier Journal that the agency had considered banning or greatly restricting the use of retreat mining. “We never came to a conclusion,” he said.
Kentucky mining regulators announced August 7 that they would commission a study of retreat mining. Almost half of the 252 mines in Kentucky are licensed for this method.
While mine deaths as a whole are down, the number of miners killed in roof falls has risen. Six of the 12 miners killed this year have been killed by roof falls—compared to one in 2003 and three in 2004. Two out of the three miners killed in roof falls in Kentucky last year died during retreat mining operations. In those cases MSHA reports pointed to hazardous mine roof conditions and the bosses’ failure to report a problem and take preventive action.
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