June 21, 2021 - The West Virginia Coal Association is joining together with the West Virginia Coal Mining Institute to sponsor a special summer program for mining professionals on June 22-23, at the Marriott at Waterfront Place in Morgantown. 

The program is intended for mining professionals to learn about developing technologies, mine safety and environmental programs and emerging threats and challenges facing the industry. United States Senators Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito will join with West Virginia’s First Congressional Representative David McKinley and State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey to headline the program.  A variety of technical presentations are also slated for the two-day program.

West Virginia Coal Association President Chris Hamilton applauded the State’s flagship University for hosting the program and “for stepping forward to showcase their fossil energy assets and everything they are doing to preserve and protect coal mining in West Virginia.”  

“West Virginia remains ‘the energy state’,” Hamilton said. “The University experts from the Energy Institute to the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources to the Mining Extension Service, are working around the clock and exhausting the intellectual expertise of the University and its resources to develop workable solutions and beneficial uses for carbon and to stimulate growth in West Virginia’s fossil energy industries and, in particular, in-state coal operations.”

“Our relationship with the West Virginia Coal Association is mutually beneficial and dates back when the industry was flourishing and our level of involvement was predominately directed at mine safety, environmental stewardship and labor relations,” said Vlad Kecojevic, Robert E. Murray Chair and Professor of Mining Engineering. “Today’s challenges, however, necessitate a different purpose and need for the University to fulfill in order for our state’s major industry to continue to contribute to our economy and to revitalize our major state industries and coal communities throughout West Virginia.”

Hamilton, in highlighting the myriad contributions to the industry from the Statler College, said, “meeting today’s challenges head on by pulling out all stops to assist the industry to overcome today’s crisis and challenges is clearly what Benjamin Statler envisioned when he helped to create a “new vision” for the Mine Engineering Department at WVU.  Sustaining a vibrant and strong coal mining and fossil energy industry in West Virginia was his ultimate goal.” 

Media are encouraged to attend the event.