UPDATE: Miner Killed In Wall Collapse Identified

Updated at 1:05 p.m.

State mining officials identified the victim as William Wayne Parrott, 58, Big Stone Gap, Virginia.  Parrott was a mining repairman who’d worked as a miner for 33 years.

————————————————————————————

A joint state and federal investigation is underway after a mine wall collapse killed a veteran miner in Wise County, Virginia Thursday morning.

The accident happened about 6:30 a.m. at the Big Laurel Mining Corporation Mine #2, an underground mine in Wise County just outside the town of Appalachia.

“A crew working about 12,000 feet into the mine was cutting out an area to install a belt drive to transport coal,“ said Mike Abbott, Public Relations Manager for the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy.  “ Some of the coal and rock hit the miner,“ Abbott said.  Miners describe what’s called a rib roll, the collapse of coal and rock when the side rib walls give way, Abbott said.

Abbott said the miner was 58 years old, a 33 year mining veteran who’d worked for the Big Laurel Mining Corporation for 4 years.  VDMME likely will release the name of the victim later today, Abbott said. Big Laurel’s parent company is Cumberland Resources Corporation based in Wise, Virginia.

Federal Mine Safety and Health Administration and Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy have launched a joint investigation.

No other employees were injured.