Statler College awarded grant for mine rescue training

WVU received a grant to recruit over 1,750 individuals from the region to train at the Academy for Mine Training and Energy Technologies. 

The Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources was selected by the U.S. Department of Labor to receive a grant as part of an initiative to fund mine safety awareness, education and training in key mining industry states.  

Story by Brittany Furbee, Communications Specialist
Photos by Paige Nesbit, Director of Marketing

Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources

West Virginia University is one of 10 institutions nationwide selected for the grant program, which seeks to educate miners and industry employers about new federal standards, and high-risk activities or hazards the agency identifies.   

Joshua Brady, director of mining and industrial extension, and Eduardo Sosa, a research associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, received $100,657 to conduct a one-year project that will provide emergency prevention and preparedness training to coal miners and coal mine operators so that they will be able to respond to emergencies involving fire in underground coal mines. 

Throughout the year, Brady and Sosa plan to recruit and train over 1,750 individuals from the region. Training will be conducted at the Academy for Mine Training and Energy Technologies. 

“This funding will allow the Academy for Mine Training and Energy Technologies to support trainers and training supplies needed to offer three types of training: mine rescue, self-contained self-rescue expectation and dry chemical firefighting training," Sosa said. 

The grant is supported by the Brookwood-Sago Mine Safety grant program and was established under the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act of 2006, to honor 25 miners who died in mine disasters at the Jim Walter Resources #5 mine in Brookwood, Alabama, in 2001, and at the Sago Mine in Buckhannon, West Virginia, in 2006.  

“The Mine Act calls our nation's miners ‘Our Most Precious Resource,’” Brady said.  This grant allows WVU Mining Extension to offer the highest-level training to these miners at a great value.” 

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