The 20,000-square-foot facility in Ina features classrooms, office space and operational equipment including shuttle cars and roof bolters. Half the building has been developed for use as a simulated underground coal mine.

“With several mines coming online with permits and located within driving distance from our campus, we feel RLC is a great location at the heart of Illinois coal,” school president Charley Holstein said, noting the recent grand opening was the culmination of a process that began with the July 2008 groundbreaking.

The center has received funding of $US1.7 million from a federal Community-based Jobs Training grant as well as Illinois coal development funds of $1.07 million through the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

The school hosted an open house and grand opening celebration August 10 and 11, held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Illinois Mining Institute as well as a state mine rescue contest.

According to 2008 statistics from the state’s Office of Coal Development, 2000 new miner positions, 2000 replacement positions and 4200 indirect jobs will be created in the next five to 10 years, which DCEO director of operations Warren Ribley said at the time of the groundbreaking validated the need for the project.

“Together, we will train a new generation of men and women to work safely and productively in bringing Illinois coal up out of the ground,” he said.

State representative Kurt Granberg said he felt the decades-long promise of a coal revitalization in Illinois might be finally coming to light.

“One of the things we didn’t take into consideration was that market forces drive everything,” Granberg said in July 2008.

“With the price of energy what it is today, now we’re at the point the market will work in our favor. We’re on the verge of that renaissance of coal in Illinois. I’d heard it for years and was not optimistic, but now I think it’s really going to happen.”

A financial helping hand

Last week, Rend Lake College received a state grant of $285,000 for a cutting-edge mine rescue and safety training facility to enhance the college’s new coal mine training center as well as its coal mining technology program. The award was presented in conjunction with the grand opening celebration.

“The grant provides funding for the college to design, engineer and construct the new facility. Roughly 10 per cent ... will be used for design and planning, about 30 per cent for procuring equipment, and 60 per cent for materials and construction,” the college noted.

"This new capability strengthens our position as a regional leader in mine rescue safety training," Holstein added.

RLC said it would hire an architect or civil engineer to consult regularly with local, state and federal industry agencies on the project, and the school would provide monthly progress reports as well as present a final report to the DCEO.

To financially assist the students coming into RLC’s mining technology associate degree program, the college announced recently that it would offer 10 two-year tuition waivers to prospective mining students coming in for the fall semester.

“Students selected for these waivers will pay no tuition; they will only pay for books and fees,” RLC said.

“Students will study ventilation, roof control, mine operations and maintenance. Upon completion of the program, graduates will be prepared to go directly to work in the mining industry or transfer to a four-year institution to further their studies.”

RLC's applied science and technology division chair, Terry Wilkerson, said the program would give students hands-on experience that a classroom lecture could not simulate.

"There will be live equipment to work on, task training, safety training and more. This is the closest you can come to actual coal mining," he said.

According to statistics from the Illinois Coal Association, the state produced a total of 32.4 million tons of coal last year, more than 26.8Mt of which came from underground operations. The industry in Illinois employed 3401 mine workers (2986 underground) at 17 mining operations (11 underground).