Two miners killed in West Virginia coal accident (Roundup)

Jan 13, 2007, 22:30 GMT

Washington - Two miners were killed Saturday in a West Virginia coal mine after a roof fall, media reports said.

The two men were caught about two and a half kilometres inside the Brooks Run mine owned by Alpha Natural Resources in the southern part of the state, according to Caryn Gresham, a state mining official who spoke to Fox news broadcaster.

WLTX broadcaster in the region quoted West Virginia's mine safety chief as saying the miners were apparently caught when a pillar fell. Pillars of coal are often left in place to support the roof of a shaft, and sometimes are mined as a shaft is being closed down, mine experts say.

Last year, 16 miners died in West Virginia coal mine accidents in the first month of the year, spurring new reviews of mine safety rules. In the case of the Sago mine disaster on January 2, 2006, 12 miners ran out of oxygen after access shafts were closed by an explosion. Many wrote goodbye notes to their families.

The incidents spawned a push for miners to carry larger oxygen supplies and better communications equipment.

There are about 1,400 coal mines in the US employing some 75,000 miners. West Virginia is the No. 2 coal-producing state in the US and one of the nation's poorest regions.

Coal-fired power plants provide about 51 per cent of US electricity and the trend is rising.

In its financial report posted online, the Alpha company said it was opening new shafts at the mine where the accident occurred.