By Mike Tony
Charleston Gazette-Mail
A Wyoming County underground coal mine where a fatal incident was reported Thursday has a long history of serious safety and health violations.
And Thursday’s fatal incident is not the site’s first.
A miner died after an unspecified incident at the Lower War Eagle mine in the Cyclone area of Wyoming County Thursday morning, Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s office announced that evening.
West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety, and Training spokesperson Andy Malinoski on Friday Identified the mine worker as Robert Martin White Jr., 63, of Mingo County. Malinoski indicated White had 41 years of mining work experience.
The office “responded immediately and is conducting a full investigation,” Morrisey said in a statement Thursday evening.
The Lower War Eagle mine is controlled by Coronado Global Resources Inc. and operated by its subsidiary Greenbrier Minerals LLC, according to U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration records. Coronado Global Resources is an international producer of metallurgical coal used for steelmaking that also operates in Australia.
Greenbrier Minerals LLC has been assessed 1,635 violations for the Lower War Eagle mine by MSHA since the beginning of 2019, including 293 deemed “Significant and Substantial” by the agency, according to a Gazette-Mail review of MSHA records.
Significant and Substantial is a designation MSHA assigns to hazards it deems reasonably likely to result in serious injury.
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