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The state’s Office of Miner Health Safety and Training director Jim Dean heads the task force. Manchin noted a “special sense of urgency for miners’ health and safety” existed in the progress the state, as a whole, was making for safer mines and safer miners.
“We have some of the greatest mines, we have some of the greatest mine operators, and we know we have the greatest miners in the country. With that, we need to start looking at what are we doing [sic], why are we down there today and tomorrow, what do we hope to accomplish?
“We can put a price on a piece of equipment ... we know what a tonne of coal will sell for. But what we cannot put a price on is the life of a miner, because he or she is priceless. The most valued part of any operation is the human being, the human life.”
Manchin also detailed recent discussions with Dean on the preliminary plans and highlights of the task force’s work, a triple-pronged outline centring around safety, a mine rescue focus and the restructuring and staffing of the state’s Office of Miners’ Health Safety and Training.
“We going to make sure that we equip, train and have the best personnel ... to get the job done,” he said of the office’s plans. Special training and annual instruction to improve safety through an increase in minimum inspector training hours and new requirements for those individuals is another part of the group’s recommendations thus far.
Plans to improve mine rescue plans and emergency communications are also high priority for the task force. The WVOMHST office may also see additions of professionals with specific industry experience, Manchin said, and his search has commenced to find a permanent replacement for acting office director Dean.
He noted he is “pleased with the progress” Dean and the team has made to this point. He is also confident in the progress the state as a whole as made.
“We will change mining,” he said.
The International Mine Safety Symposium, which drew individuals from various sides of the industry and from several countries around the world, ended Friday.
