According to university president David Pershing, the Center for Mining Safety and Health Excellence housed in the College of Mines and Earth Sciences’ Department of Mining Engineering will leverage collective expertise across many disciplines offered at the university.

“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, which was designed with a global mission to work with industry as well as government, non-government and labor to improve mine safety and health management standards, received approval on July 13 from the Utah State Board of Regents.

Utah associate professor and industry safety and health expert Tom Hethmon will oversee the center.

He holds the western mining presidential endowed chair in mine safety, the result of the state’s Mine Safety Commission following the fatal Crandall Canyon collapse of 2007.

More than $US1.5 million in funding for that endowed chair came from Consol Energy, Barrick Goldstrike Mines and other supporters including Peabody Energy, Kennecott Utah Copper and Arch Coal.

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

“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 pointed out that the school had been a source globally for mining engineers since 1896.

He said the additional expertise possessed by the department would 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 illness, 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, and it will be made available to the mining community this northern summer.

Nelson said the center would also work alongside the Utah Mine Safety Commission with the ongoing implementation of recommendations stemming from the Crandall Canyon accident.

It is also developing several mine safety research, and international outreach activities could begin by the northern fall.