The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) awarded $10,537,000 in grant funding to support safety and health courses, and other programs. MSHA awarded grants to 46 states, the Navajo Nation, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Grantees will use the funds to provide miners with federally mandated training. The grants cover training and retraining of miners working at surface and underground coal and metal and nonmetal mines, including miners engaged in shell dredging or employed at surface stone, sand, and gravel mining operations.
MSHA awarded grants based on applications from states, and they are administered by state mine inspectors’ offices, state departments of labor, and state-supported colleges and universities. Each recipient tailors the program to the needs of its mines and miners – including mining conditions and hazards miners may encounter – and provides technical assistance.
Under Section 503 of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977, any state in which mining takes place may apply for the grant. MSHA may fund 80 percent of the activities under a state grant program, and the state must provide matching funds of no less than 20 percent of the total program costs.