Utah’s Sufco mine honored after injury-free year in 2010
With 2010 being an injury-free year, the Sufco coal mine outside Salina has been honored by the Rocky Mountain Coal Mining Institute as the safest underground mine in an eight-state region.
Sufco miners excavated 6.4 million tons of coal in almost 800,000 combined hours of working without a reportable accident last year, according to the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration’s online database.
“The employees of Sufco are very deserving of this recognition for their hard work and dedication to workplace safety,” said John Eaves, president and chief operating officer of St. Louis-based Arch Coal Inc. Its wholly owned subsidiary, Canyon Fuel Co., operates the mine, which has 385 employees.
Arch also owns the Dugout Canyon and Skyline mines, bringing its payroll in Utah to about 800.
The Denver-based institute, founded in 1912, is a nonprofit “dedicated to the promotion of Western coal through education.” Its member states are Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, Montana, Arizona and Texas.
In the past year, Sufco also earned Arch Coal’s Perfect Zero award for its safety record and the company’s President’s Award for its high performance levels and environmental record. It also received a safety award at last week’s Utah Mining Association convention.
