WVCA’s Senior Vice President Chris Hamilton presented testimony at the MSHA’s public hearing on Proposed Rule on Proximity Detection Systems for Continuous Mining Machines in Underground Coal Mines last week.  The hearing was conducted by Greg Wagner, MSHA’s Deputy Assistant Secretary

Hamilton discussed issues and concerns with the proposed timeline for refitting continuous miners with proximity detectors and advised of the work done by the WV Mine Safety Technology Task Force and encouraged MSHA to coordinate the development of this rule with the State.  He also used the hearing as an opportunity to express concern over the agencies position and reluctance to approve extended-cut remote controlled mining plans in order to minimize unnecessary repeated exposure to moving equipment underground.

Full WVCA testimony as well as testimony presented by Brian Thompson of Joy Global is available from WVCA by contacting Chris Hamilton at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.