MSHA designates $500,000 for Brookwood-Sago mine safety grants

ARLINGTON, Va. – The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration today announced a competition for $500,000 in safety and health training grants to help identify, avoid and prevent unsafe working conditions in and around mines. This grant opportunity covers all underground mines, including both metal/nonmetal and coal mines. The Brookwood-Sago grants program was established through a provision in the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act of 2006, and fiscal year 2010 funding will target the development and implementation of training and training materials for mine emergency preparedness and mine emergency prevention in underground mines.

"This grant competition is an important piece of the agency's commitment to mine safety," said Joseph A. Main, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health. "The training provided by these grants will aid workers in identifying, avoiding and preventing unsafe working conditions in and around all mines, and will help ensure that miners can go home to their families at the end of every shift."

As many as 10 grants may be awarded for a 12-month project performance period, and applicants must be states or nonprofit entities. The amount of each individual grant will be at least $50,000. The competition will close at 11:59 p.m. EDT on Aug. 18, 2010. MSHA will award grants on or before Sept. 30, 2010.

The grants were named in memory of the 13 men who died in two explosions at the Jim Walter Resources #5 mine in Brookwood, Ala., in 2001 and 12 men who died in an explosion at the Sago Mine in Buchannon, W.Va., in 2006. Applications for grants under this competition must be submitted electronically using the government-wide site at http://www.grants.gov. If applying online poses a hardship to any applicant, the MSHA Directorate of Educational Policy and Development will provide assistance to help applicants submit their applications online. For more information on this initiative, visit http://www.msha.gov.