Saturday, June 19, 2010
Retreat Mining...Dangerous Practice
KENTUCKY...
A coal miner killed in Kentucky this week was engaged in retreat mining, a dangerous practice that involves deliberately cutting away pillars of coal intended to support overhead rock layers. A compilation of statistics from the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Adminstration and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health shows some 60 miners have been killed in retreat mining operations over the past 25 years. Of those, 20 have died since 2000. That includes 42-year-old Jimmy Carmack of Barbourville, who died Wednesday when a 15-foot-high section of coal toppled into a 100-ton jack used for roof support. The jack struck Carmack, a section foreman at the Lone Mountain Processing's Clover Fork No. 1 mine at Holmes Mill in Harlan County.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 7:57 AM 
