MSHA awards more than $11.5M in safety grants

Arlington, VA — The Mine Safety and Health Administration has awarded more than $11.5 million in grants for safety and health training and other programs.

The funding includes $1 million in safety training grants to 13 organizations as part of MSHA’s Brookwood-Sago Mine Safety Grants Program. An additional $10.5 million was awarded to 46 states, the Navajo Nation and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands for federally mandated training and other programs.

According to MSHA, the grants will assist entities with establishing and initiating education and training programs intended to recognize and mitigate safety and health hazards in and around mines. They are named after fatal mine disasters in Brookwood, AL, and Sago, WV.

Addressing the Brookwood-Sago program in a press release, Jeannette Galanis, MSHA’s deputy assistant secretary for policy and acting administrator, said: “We are seeing an increase in mining fatalities, particularly powered haulage fatalities, and we must reverse this trend. Mine workers are a critical resource, and grants like these help support the mining community’s training and education needs and promote ways to protect miners better.”

In a separate release, Galanis said the state grants “help provide critical safety and health training for thousands of miners.”