MSHA Levies 1.85 Million Dollars in Fines for Crandall Canyon Mine Disaster

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MSHA Levies $1.85 Million in Fines for Crandall Canyon Mine Disaster

Failures by mine operator, engineering consultant contributed to mine collapse

Price, Utah - The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) announced that it has fined the operator of the Crandall Canyon Mine in Emery County, Utah, $1,340,000 for violations that directly contributed to the deaths of six miners last year. Agapito Associates Inc., a mining engineering consultant, was fined $220,000 for faulty analysis of the mine's design. MSHA cited the mine operator for 11 additional, noncontributory violations issued as the result of the investigation. The proposed penalty for these violations is $296,664, bringing the total proposed penalties against the mine operator to $1,636,664. Crandall Canyon Mine is operated by Genwal Resources Inc., whose parent company is Murray Energy Corp.

The six miners were killed on Aug. 6, 2007, when roof-supporting coal pillars collapsed in a catastrophic coal outburst that violently ejected coal over a half-mile area in the underground mine tunnels. Ten days later, two mine employees and an MSHA inspector died in another coal outburst that occurred during rescue efforts.

"MSHA's investigation found that Genwal Resources recklessly failed to immediately report three previous coal outbursts that had occurred, two in March 2007 and one just three days before the August 6th accident," said Richard E. Stickler, acting assistant secretary of labor for MSHA. "These reporting failures were critical, because they deprived MSHA of the information it needed to properly assess the operator's mining plans. MSHA also found that the operator was taking more coal than allowed from the barrier pillars and the floor. This dangerously weakened the strength of the roof support."

For the complete accident investigation report and the rest of this article please feel free to visit www.msha.gov.