Kentucky to evaluate retreat mining in wake of fatal accidents

Kentucky to evaluate retreat mining in wake of fatal accidents

Washington (Platts)--10Aug2005

Following four fatal accidents involving retreat mining in the last two years,
the Kentucky Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet plans to hire an
outside engineering firm to study the mining process.

EPPC Secretary LaJuana Wilcher made the announcement Sunday following a roof
collapse at Stillhouse Mining LLC's No. 1 mine on Aug 3. Wilcher said that the
cabinet would be taking a "thorough and rigorous evaluation of the current
regulations and statutory requirements governing retreat mining."

"We intend to look at issues such as Kentucky's unique geological features,
regulatory programs in other states and the use of newer mining techniques,"
Wilcher said. "New regulations or statutes may, or may not, be a part of the
answer. But it is time to re-examine retreat mining to ensure these operations
are being conducted as safely as possible and determine if the human costs are
too great a price to pay to extract a few more tons of coal."

When similar accidents occurred involving retreat mining in 2004, EPPC said it
inspected all mines in Kentucky to see how they were doing retreat mining and
it also re-evaluated their roof control plans. 

An EPPC spokesman told Platts Coal Trader on Tuesday that they won't know
until the end of the investigation what actually went wrong at the Stillhouse
mine. When that will be is still unknown. 

The Mine Safety and Health Administration describes retreat mining or pillar
mining as the practice of removing coal pillars that hold up the roof of an
underground mine after all the coal has been taken from an area of the mine,
allowing the roof to collapse.

MSHA statistics show four fatal accidents involving retreat mining in the last
two years in Kentucky. In 2004, a miner was killed at Reedy Coal Co. Mine No.
25 in August and another miner was killed at Bell County Coal Corp.'s Coal
Creek mine. 

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