National Miners day - USA

The 6th of December in the United States the National Miners Day is celebrated, dedicated to miners’ essential work recognition and to thinking about the importance of mining in everyone daily life.

The origin of this important day for USA comes from a tragic event happened many years ago.

On December 6th, 1907, in the coal mine of Monongah in West Virginia, occurred an explosion that caused more than 360 victims.

It was not until 2009 that the Congress officially established the National Miners Day.

Many of mining tragedies of the 20th century were associated with processes used during mining, due to the lack of adequate safety standard.

The prevalent theme is safety in mines.

At the time of the disaster in United States the legislations concerning the workplace safety in the mines were deficient and remained so for many years. The initial breakthrough came in 1910, when the United States Bureau of Mines was introduced for the purpose of conducting investigations to reduce catastrophic mining accidents.

But a turning point came in 1952, when the Federal Coal Mine Safety Act was passed, submitting some underground coal mines to inspections. On 1969 the law Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act, signed by Richard Nixon, extended provisions even to other mines, requiring two annual inspections for opencast coal mines and four inspections for those underground.

Some later laws have also contributed to further improving health and safety conditions in the mines.

In conclusion, we celebrate the day, to remember the victims and honoring men and women that everyday work hard to provide necessary minerals for society.

The mining industry, often undervalued and little known, contributes every day to the extraction of thousands of materials used in the various daily activities of each of us.