"In the aftermath of the Quecreek mine inundation, MSHA received funding of $US10 million dollars devoted to mine mapping and void detection," the agency said in a Public Information Bulletin late last week.

"A portion of these funds was distributed to 13 states to improve mine mapping, referencing, and archiving [and] the remaining funds were used to sponsor void detection demonstration projects."

The MSHA also received 58 project proposals from entities such as universities, geophysical contractors, and independent research corporations, from which it chose 14 to fund demonstrations of the technology.

Once complete, final reports each in the form of a peer-reviewed document were given to MSHA, which is making them available to the mining community to raise awareness of the available methods and their advantages and limitations.

"While each of the methods and technologies may provide significant benefits to the mining industry, they are intended to supplement other methods available to identify adjacent mine workings such as sufficient drilling of boreholes ahead of mining and exhaustive searches for all sources of information on past mining," it said in the PIB.

The reports can be obtained from the MSHA web page or by contacting the agency to request a hard copy disk (CD).