University president David Pershing said the Center for Mining Safety and Health Excellence, housed at the Salt Lake City campus, will collect expertise from many disciplines.

“The center will display the university’s abilities to innovate, collaborate and help solve real, challenging problems that have a profound effect on people working in the mining industry, their communities and economies that rely on mining,” he said.

The center received approval on July 13 from the Utah State Board of Regents.

Its design was intended to address a global mission to work with industry as well as government, non-government and labor groups to improve mine safety and health management standards.

Utah associate professor and industry safety and health expert Tom Hethmon, who is also the state’s western mining presidential endowed chair in mine safety, will oversee the center.

Funding of more than $US1.5 million for the endowed chair came from Consol Energy, Barrick Goldstrike Mines, Peabody Energy, Kennecott Utah Copper, Arch Coal and others.

The chair was created by the state’s Mine Safety Commission following the Crandall Canyon collapse of 2007 in which six miners and three rescuers were killed.

“The diversity of Utah’s economy is mirrored by its mining industry,” said College of Mines and Earth Sciences dean Francis Brown.

“It reflects a wide variety of commodities and critical materials used in medical, computer and aerospace technologies; power generation; and chemical engineering, among many other applications.

“The new center is a good fit within our college’s competencies of geology, geophysics, seismology, geological engineering and materials science.”

Department of Mining Engineering chair and center associate director Mike Nelson said the school had been a global source for mining engineers since 1896.

The additional expertise the department can share will also aid in improving safety education for its students, many of whom go on to positions of authority for major mining operators.

“That professional development process can take years, and everyone associated with the industry wants to minimize mining-related illnesses, injuries and fatalities now,” he said.

“I hope that the center can serve as a catalyst for change. We will make a difference, but this must be a partnership among many stakeholders.”

The University of Utah’s graduate and undergraduate courses already are being conducted through the center.

Nelson said the center would work with the Utah Mine Safety Commission on the implementation of recommendations that emerged from investigations into the Crandall Canyon accident.

It is also considering mine safety research projects and international outreach activities.