Health & Safety

Sentinels of Safety Awards

The most prestigious award in the mining industry is the Sentinels of Safety Trophy, cosponsored by the National Mining Association (NMA) and the U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), awarded to those mines with the best safety records in the country.

The 1925 Sentinels of Safety Award, announced by Herbert Hoover when he was Secretary of Commerce, was the first of the annual safety competitions that have continued uninterrupted to the present day. The trophy and our country's dedication to safety have grown in stature and importance with each succeeding year.

The idea for the National Safety Competition (Sentinels of Safety) was conceived during that time that President Hoover, a former mining engineer, served as Secretary of Commerce with the Bureau of Mines under his jurisdiction. Realizing the dire need for improving mine safety, Hoover arranged for a conference of interested persons to discuss mine safety, a proposal was made to establish a nationwide mine safety competition, a proposal readily approved by Hoover.

The symbol of the competition has been the bronze Sentinels of Safety trophy originally donated by Explosives Engineer Magazine, which cosponsored the competition with the Bureau of Mines for the first 36 years.

A statue of a woman and a child is the prominent feature of the trophy, with engraved plates depicting different types of mining and a winners nameplate on the base. In the words of the designer of the trophy, Begni Del Piatta, a renowned Italian sculptor,

"Let the worker carry around with him a mental picture of his wife and child, whose happiness depends upon his safe return after a day's work, and those loved ones become his surest Sentinels of Safety."

Twenty trophies are awarded each year to winners in eight types of mines: Underground Metal, Underground Nonmetal, Open Pit Metal/Nonmetal, Surface Coal, Underground Coal, Quarry, Dredge and Bank or Pit divisions respectively.

Purpose and Scope

The purpose of the annual Sentinels of Safety award program is to :

Partnership Agreement between MSHA, the Bituminous Coal Operators' Association and NMA

This program is cosponsored by the National Mining Association(NMA) and the Mine Safety and Health Administration(MSHA). All active and intermittently active mineral mining operations required to report injury and employment data under the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 are eligible to participate. Winners represent operations in ten industry categories that worked the most employee-hours in a year without suffering a lost-time injury. To qualify for the award, a mine must complete at least 30,000 employee work-hours during a year without a lost-time injury or fatality.

Sentinels of Safety Awards 2008 winners presented in 2009:

Large Company Award Winners (by category):

Bank or Pit

ISP Granule Products LLC
Ione, CA

Coal Processing Facility

Chess Processing Brooks Run, Elk Run Coal Company, Inc./ Massey Energy Co.*
Sylvester W. Va.

Dredge

Briggs Plant, Fordyce Holdings, Inc.
Victoria, Texas

Metal-nonmetal Mill

Edgar Plant,BASF Catalysts, LLC.
Florham Park, N.J.

Open Pit

Dry Valley Mine, URS Washington Division*
Denver, Colo.

Quarry

Three Rivers Quarry, Martin Marietta Materials, Inc.
Duluth, Ga.

Surface Coal

Surface Mine #2 Fola Coal Co. LLC/CONSOL Energy, LLC*
Bickmore W. Va.

Underground Coal

Dominion No. 36 Dominion Coal Corporation
Knoxville Tenn.

Underground Metal

Barrick Cortez Underground, Cortez Joint Venture/ Barrick Gold Corp.*
Salt Lake City, Utah

Underground Non-metal

The Detroit Salt Mine, Detroit Salt Company, LLC
Detroit, Mich.

Small Company Award Winners (by category):

Bank or Pit

Big Red Dirt Farm, Big Red Dirt Farm, LLC
Fayetteville, Ark.

Coal Processing Facility

Chesterfield Prep Plant, Omar Mining Company/ Massey Energy Co.*
Madison, W. Va.

Dredge

Garland Aggregate, IA Construction - Garland
Franklin, Penn.

Metal-nonmetal Mill

Dixie Lee Quarry, Vulcan Constr. Materials, L.P.
Knoxville, Tenn.

Open Pit

Kaurman-George Pit New NGC Inc./National Gypsum Co.*
Charlotte, N.Car.

Quarry

South Ridge Granite Quarries, South Ridge Granite Quarries, Inc.
Elberton, Ga.

Surface Coal

North Surface Mine, Alex Energy Inc./ Massey Energy Co.*
Summersville W. Va.

Underground Coal

CLAS #4, CLAS Coal Company, Inc.
Clintwood Va.

Underground Metal

Resolution Mine, Resolution Copper Mining, LLC/ Rio Tinto Minerals*
Superior, Ariz.

Underground Non-metal

New York Mine, Imerys Marble, Inc.
Roswell, Ga.

(*NMA Member Company)