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MSHA News Release: [10/19/2004]
Contact Name:
Kate Dugan
Phone Number:
(215) 861-5101
Mine Safety and Health Contract Awarded to West Virginia Firm
Bluefield-Based Marshall Miller Receives $283,777 to Conduct In-Seam Seismic Tests
BECKLEY, W.Va—The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine
Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has awarded a $283,777 contract to
Marshall Miller & Associates Inc., Energy & Mineral Resources Group
of Bluefield, W.Va., to demonstrate the use of in-seam seismic technology
for locating both air- and water-filled mine voids from an exposed coal seam
outcrop.
“The incident at Quecreek taught us that the danger of mining coal in the
vicinity of poorly mapped, abandoned and inaccessible coal mines is not uncommon,” said
Assistant Secretary of Labor Dave D. Lauriski during a ceremony at the National
Mine Health and Safety Academy in Beckley. “Marshall Miller & Associates
has several tools and geophysical techniques at its disposal, which have
the potential to increase the success and reliability of accurately detecting
mine voids.”
The geophysical technology contract was awarded as part of a $10 million
appropriation to detect mine voids and digitize mine maps in the wake of
the 2002 inundation at the Quecreek mine in Somerset, Pa. MSHA received 58
different proposals from eight universities, two state geological survey
organizations and 13 private companies. Eight teams of engineers, scientists
and university professors formally evaluated each proposal. Ultimately, MSHA
selected eight organizations for contract awards to demonstrate several types
of technologies for detecting underground mine voids.
Marshall Miller, along with Virginia Tech and the Virginia Department of
Mines, Minerals and Energy, will demonstrate an in-seam method for void detection
at the Clintwood Elkhorn Mining Co.'s Sassy No. 1 Mine near Hurley, Va.
The experiment will not be performed underground, but rather on the surface
at the outcrop because of easy access to the coal seam. Sassy No. 1 Mine
was idled in 2002.
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