Page 3 - Mine Operator News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Branch mine were neither excessive in number, nor particularly significant. people may be wondering why this mine was even operating. >> i think the reason it was operating is that all the people who are very knowledgeable of mining whether they be with the federal government, the state golf or massey had concluded that the mine was safe to operate and these violations and the efforts on the ventilation are efforts to improve it. >> reporter: but the man in charge of keeping america's coal mines and coal miners safe, kevin stricklin, doesn't see much room for argument. is this a mine that need...

Up their acts, but the number of citations and the significance, it gave the indication that the mine operator would have been better suited to comply rather than us fining them. >> reporter: it's an emotional issue, saved is a huge concern, but massey mines provide thousands of fences. roan wootan is the west virginia state mining director. >> reporter: are they a good operator or bad operator, in your estimation? >> i don't have an opinion. i've seen them do good things, some things not so good. >> reporter: one person that told me that you were one of the worst operators in terms of the vio...

Within 500 feet of place they believe these missing miners might have bunkered down if they were able to survive this blast, that's considered unlikely, and time is running out today, because if they were in that shelter area, oxygen would be running out. meanwhile, nbc news has learned this upper big branch mine has been cited a startling number of times in the last decade. this information hasn't been made public yet but has been provided to lawmakers who are learning this mine was cited 61 times in the past 15 months alone. and more than 100 times in the last decade. five of those times the...

Tells us we have to do it via the citation. the 1977 act says the first line of defense for miner safety is the mine operator. it's very clear about that. this is obviously being ignored by these non-union operations. we have to change -- >> it appears to me this is going to be a defining -- this is going to be a defining moment in mining history in this country. i mean, we've got a president that wants to do something about it. a congress that can do something about it. and a motivated public that wants to see something done about it. bob, good to have you with us tonight on "the ed show." th...

So high. and the man hours were not that much difference that the employees worked so there is a question there as to the interest and the attention that that operator is paying to safety. >> and so when you look at them, some of them are minor infractions, but other citations are for more serious offenses, vept la ventilation issues, anything that jumped out at you that when you look at that, you see a ticking bomb? >> well, what grabs my attention very quickly is that over the past couple of years he's had 15 citations on his ventilation and six of them were in the last three months. now, so...