New Problems at Massey Mines

No lessons learned here, apparently: Federal regulators have identified more than 60 serious safety violations after visiting more than 30 underground coal mines operated by Massey Energy operations since the April 5 explosion that killed 29 miners at the company’s Upper Big Branch mine. Violations include conveyor-belt problems at a mine in West Virginia where a belt fire killed two workers in 2006; also, the company had allowed coal dust to pile up three times at a Kentucky mine since the explosion. Such accumulations may have contributed to the explosion at Upper Big Branch. Massey did not reply to the Associated Press’ findings; the company operates, in total, about 70 underground coal mines in the U.S.