Alpha Natural reaches settlement over Massey mine accident

Settlement will also cover the fines of about 360 safety citations that will be issued by the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

By

Reuters

Tue, Dec 06 2011 at 12:29 AM

Related Topics:

Mining, Natural Disasters

ACCIDENT SITE: A general view of an entrance to Massey Energy Company's Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal West Virginia. (Photo: ZUMA Press)

Alpha Natural Resources has agreed to pay $200 million to resolve a range of civil and criminal penalties linked to the Upper Big Branch accident as well as other liabilities it inherited when it bought Massey Energy in June, the Wall Street Journal said, citing several people familiar with the settlement.

The global settlement will resolve civil fines expected to be issued on Tuesday by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) related to last year's accident at Massey's mine that killed 29 coal miners in West Virginia, the newspaper said.

In a separate report, the paper said Federal regulators are expected to issue the largest fine ever to a U.S. mining company in connection with the Massey Energy accident.

MSHA, which is set to release its report on Tuesday on the accident at the Upper Big Branch mine, is expected to issue about 360 safety citations, the Journal said.

"We haven't seen the final report itself, so we're not prepared to comment," a spokesman for Alpha Natural Resources, which bought Massey and will be responsible for all fines, told the Journal.

The Journal said a spokeswoman for the agency could not be immediately reached for comment.

Both Alpha Natural Resources and MSHA could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters outside regular U.S. business hours.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)