$1million awarded to six U.S mining organisations to improve and enhance mine safety training

The Mine Safety and Health Administration has awarded $1 million to six organisations across the U.S to develop training programs and materials that support mine rescue and mine emergency preparedness for underground mines.

From the U.S Department of Labor, the Brookwood-Sago grant program was created to promote mine safety and honour the 25 men who died in Brookwood, Alabama, in 2001 at the Jim Walters #5 mine, and in Buchannon, West Virginia, in 2006 at the Sago Mine.

Here are the organisations benefiting from the 2016 Brookwood-Sago program:

• The Colorado School of Mines – the school in Golden will receive $240,024 in funding to provide quality training to mine rescue teams. With a focus on enhancing the knowledge and skills for mine rescue teams and incident command staff, training will improve technical rescue, communications and decision making during mine emergencies
• Rend Lake College – the college in Illinois will receive $134,240 in funding to improve training for mine rescue officials and mine rescue teams with a specific focus on mine fire brigade training and increased preparedness for those involved in mine emergencies
• Colorado Department of Natural Resources – the organisation will receive $217,877 to provide advanced mine rescue skills straining for all underground mines and mine emergency prevention in Colorado
• University of Arizona - $187,054 will go on improving self-escape skills during underground mine emergencies, through the use of virtual reality gaming
• Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy - $50,000 will go into developing training materials and training on mine emergency preparation and prevention
• West Virginia University - $171,805 will go towards the development and implementation of enhanced and realistic mine rescue training exercises that combine the efforts and abilities of a mine rescue team and fire brigade responding to a simulated coal mine fire emergency and locating missing personnel

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