Meanwhile, another miner was killed in Kentucky last week, the 13th in that state and 36th nationwide to die on the job so far this year across the United States.

International Coal Group (ICG), which operates the Sago Mine, responded with a statement saying the seals met federal and industry standards.

Federal mine safety officials have since sent a notice to mine operators requiring that mine seals be capable of withstanding an explosion with forces up to 50 pounds per square inch (psi). The previous requirement was 20 psi.

“The fact is the seals did not do what they were supposed to do,” said Davitt McAteer at a July 19 press conference to announce the preliminary findings of his investigation, according to Reuters. “These were not explosion-proof [seals]. They were pulverized.”

McAteer, former head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), was appointed earlier this year by West Virginia governor Joseph Manchin to conduct an “independent investigation” into the explosion that killed 12 miners at the Sago Mine.

“It is important to make a clear distinction between what caused the explosion and what caused the disaster,” the report noted. “There would have been no disaster if the explosion had been contained by the supposedly explosion-proof seals.”

On the day the report was issued, ICG released a statement objecting to McAteer's remarks. “ICG believes that the seals were built in compliance with the MSHA-approved plan using construction techniques that are consistent with industry practice,” the company said. “Furthermore, ICG believes the physical evidence demonstrates that the explosion forces at the seals significantly exceeded the 20 psi design strength requirement.”

The previous day James Scott, a former construction supervisor for a contractor that built the seals that failed in the Sago Mine, said they were constructed in the cheapest way. Scott later got a job in the mine. He said that after he became a Sago employee a supervisor got him to sign a false declaration saying that he had received safety training, according to a UPI dispatch.

Until 1992 seals were made of concrete blocks. That year MSHA approved the use of a lighter and cheaper foam-type material called Omega Blocks. Although they are rated to withstand 20 psi, the blocks failed both in the Sago explosion and in a May 20 blast near Harlan, Kentucky, that killed five miners.

The report also cites the failure of the mine's “outmoded” phone system making it impossible to communicate with the trapped miners; the absence of a gas chromatograph that would have more accurately determined whether there was a fire in the mine; the absence of seismic equipment that could have pinpointed the location of the miners; and the failure of at least four of the emergency air packs the miners were carrying.

Randal McCloy, the sole survivor of the explosion, said in a letter to the deceased miners' families that four of their emergency air packs failed. According to press reports, one of the miners was carrying an expired air pack. ICG said it was the result of a typographical error. On July 7 Kentucky mine safety officials announced that 119 air packs being used in the state's mines had failed a random inspection.

The report did not give a cause for the explosion and concluded that it could not be attributed “to any specific actions” on the part ICG, MSHA, or the state mine safety agency. It recommended improvement of communications and tracking equipment, improving emergency air packs, and construction of reinforced emergency shelters with extended air, water, and food supplies.

Also on July 19, MSHA issued a bulletin sent to underground bituminous coal mine operators, contractors, mine health and safety enforcement personnel, and manufacturers of mine seals. The notice requires that future seals constructed with alternative materials must be capable of withstanding an explosion force of 50 psi.

The bulletin notes that requirements for seal strength in most other coal-producing countries exceeds 20 psi.
 

Another miner was killed on the job in Pike County in eastern Kentucky July 20, bringing this year’s national death total to 36 coal miners. John May, 39, was operating a road-grader machine at the Slate Branch Mine in Freeburn, Kentucky. He was alongside the grader “when it rolled backwards, down a steeply inclined road, and struck him,” reported the Appalachian News-Express. The surface mine is owned by Central Appalachian Mining LLC of Pikeville.

May had 20 years’ mining experience and had returned to work at the company just three months earlier. MSHA has cited the mine 16 times this year for safety violations. Most recently, in April the federal agency cited the mine for unsafe equipment, an accumulation of combustible materials, and unclear travelways.  
 
 
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