The West Virginia Coal Association is joining together with the West Virginia Coal Mining Institute to sponsor a special program for mining professionals on April 19-20, at the Marriott at Waterfront Place in Morgantown.
The program will engage and inform mining professionals on developing technologies, mine safety and environmental programs, and emerging threats and challenges facing the industry. The agenda will feature special guest speakers as well as a variety of technical presentations during the two-day program.
West Virginia Coal Association President Chris Hamilton applauded the WVU Department of Mining Engineering for hosting the program and “for stepping forward to showcase their fossil energy assets and everything they are doing to preserve and protect coal mining in West Virginia.”
“West Virginia remains the energy state,” Hamilton said. “The University experts from the Energy Institute to the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources to the Mining Extension Service, are working around the clock and exhausting the intellectual expertise of the University and its resources to develop workable solutions and beneficial uses for carbon and to stimulate growth in West Virginia’s fossil energy and in particular, in-state coal operations.”
“Our relationship with the West Virginia Coal Association is mutually beneficial and our level of involvement has been predominately directed at mine safety, environmental stewardship, and labor relations,” said Vlad Kecojevic, Robert E. Murray Chair and Professor of Mining Engineering. “Today’s challenges necessitate a different purpose and need for the WVU Department of Mining Engineering to fulfill in order for our state’s major industry to continue to contribute to West Virginia’s economy and to revitalize our major state industries and southern coal communities.”
Hamilton said, “Meeting challenges head on by pulling out all the stops to assist the industry in overcoming today’s crisis and challenges is clearly what Benjamin Statler envisioned when he helped create a new vision for the WVU College of Engineering & Mineral Resources. The WVU Department of Mining Engineering does fantastic work, and we are lucky to have such a fine institution here at home.”