WVU mining students earn top honors at regional conferences

Severalmining engineeringstudents fromWest Virginia Universityearned top honors in mine design competitions held in the region.

Recent graduates Jeffrey Stevens (Bergholz, Ohio), Michael Sustar (Independence, Ohio) and Rebecca Stas (Martinsburg) won first place in the Pennsylvania Coal Mining Institute of America/Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration Inc. Pittsburgh section Senior Design contest. The trio designed a combination surface and highwall mine at the Quaker Mine by Triple S. Energy reserve in Ohio. The award comes with a $2,000 prize.

Stevens is currently pursuing a graduate degree in civil engineeringfrom WVU. Sustar is a mine engineer at Freeport McMoRan Henderson Mine in Empire, Colorado, and Stas is working with Civil and Environmental Consultants in Bridgeport.

Three seniors - James Bradshaw (Silver Spring, Maryland), Max Colton (Silver Spring, Maryland) and Christopher Sowers (Frostburg, Maryland) - finished second in the 2015 Carlson Mine Design Competition. Their report, which proposed a longwall mine in the Springfield No. 5 Seam of Coal Creek (Illinois) Mining's Big Bear Mine, earned them $1,000. The award was presented at the joint fall meeting of the West Virginia Coal Mining Institute and the Central Appalachian Section of SME, held October 21-23, at The Greenbrier, in White Sulphur Springs.

"WVU has had a long history of success in these competitions and it's exciting to see that history continue with this most recent group of awards," said Keith Heasley, Charles T. Holland Professor of Mining Engineering.

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