Labor Department Awards $250,000 to Two Groups for Miner Safety Education and Training
Saelua Medical Corporation in American Samoa and the University of Arizona are sharing the 2026 awards from the Brookwood-Sago Mine Safety grant program.
- By Danielle Naidu
- Oct 27, 2026
Programs for workers at smaller mines are one area of emphasis in this year's Brookwood-Sago grants, which the U.S. Department of Labor announced Oct. 26. The funding supports education and training meant to help spot and prevent unsafe work conditions in and near U.S. mines, the department said.
Saelua Medical Corporation of Pago Pago, American Samoa, was awarded $170,000 of the $250,000. The University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona, was awarded $80,000.
In choosing recipients, the Labor Department's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) concentrated on innovative mine safety plans and on pilot programs that miners in many kinds of jobs may find useful, the department said. Grant decisions also stressed programs and materials for smaller-mine workers that teach MSHA standards to miners and mine operators, and emergency response training.
MSHA runs the Brookwood-Sago Mine Safety grant program. Through it, recipients get support to produce training materials. The program also supports mine safety training and educational programs intended to protect miners' health and safety.
Created under the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act of 2006, the program honors miners who died at two mines. Those deaths came Sept. 23, 2001, at the Jim Walter Resources #5 mine in Brookwood, Alabama, and Jan. 2, 2006, at the Sago Mine in Buckhannon, West Virginia.
About the Author
Danielle Naidu is assistant editor for Occupational Health & Safety and Environmental Protection Online.