The contract was awarded as part of a $10 million appropriation to detect mine voids and digitize mine maps in the wake of the 2002 inundation at the Quecreek mine in Somerset, Pennsylvania.
MSHA received 58 different proposals from eight universities, two state geological survey organizations and 13 private companies. Eight teams of engineers, scientists and university professors formally evaluated each proposal.
Ultimately, MSHA selected eight organizations for contract awards to demonstrate several types of technologies for detecting underground mine voids.
Marshall Miller, along with Virginia Tech and the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy, will demonstrate an in-seam method for void detection at the Clintwood Elkhorn Mining Company's idle Sassy No. 1 Mine near Hurley, Virginia.
The experiment will not be performed underground, but rather on the surface at the outcrop because of easy access to the coal seam.
