Earning recognition from the group’s West Virginia Council during the association’s recent annual meeting in Roanoke were the Alex Energy No. 1 North surface mine, Aracoma Coal’s Hernshaw mine, the Black Castle surface operations and the Homer II (Inman) processing facility.

The local district office of the US Mine Safety and Health Administration also presented its yearly Pacesetter awards during the event.

Five Massey operations were honored by MSHA District 4, including Elk Run Coal’s Chess Processing and Roundbottom mine; Marfork Coal’s Allen Powellton mine; Road Fork Development’s No. 51 operation; and Spartan Mining’s Delbarton facility.

“We congratulate all the members at these Massey operations on being recognized for their commitment to working safely,” Massey chairman Don Blankenship said.

“All of these awards are well deserved recognition of how our members are committed to working safely and that Massey’s safety culture is effective throughout the organization.”

The Virginia producer said in February that 2009 was its safest year ever.

The company’s mines had a non-fatal days lost incident rate of 1.67 last year, beating the previous record of 1.93 marked in 2008. By comparison, US bituminous mines averaged an NFDL of 2.95 in 2008.

"We are extremely proud of our safety accomplishments in our operations," Massey president Baxter Phillips Jr said earlier this year.

"Safety has long been our top priority. Many of our operations worked the entire year without a single lost-time incident.”

Last year was Massey’s sixth straight year and 17th of the past 19 years in which it recorded an NFDL rate lower than the national industry average for bituminous mines.