Poor ventilation was only one of the hazardous conditions found by Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) inspectors during a special impact inspection last month at Mill Branch Coal Corp's Osaka Mine in Wise County, Virginia.
Wielding a large rotating steel drum equipped with sharp tungsten carbide teeth, a continuous mining machine scrapes coal from the mine’s seams and drops it onto conveyor belts or into shuttle cars for transport to the surface.
Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez got a taste of the coal miner’s life on Dec. 1, when he descended 1,000 feet below the earth’s surface for an underground tour of a Cumberland Coal Resources LP mine in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania.
