Last night the National Mining Association honored outstanding achievements in mine safety with the Sentinels of Safety Awards. The Sentinels Award recognizes coal and mineral mining operations in 10 categories for recording the most hours in a calendar year without a single lost-time injury. A minimum of 4,000 hours is required for award consideration. Twenty American mining operations – six coal mines and 14 mineral/metal mines – were honored for their extraordinary safety performance in 2024. You can find more information on those winners on our website.
Yesterday, the Trump administration said it reissued the necessary permits to approve the Ambler Road project, which would provide mining access to an area with deposits of minerals including copper, cobalt, gallium and germanium. The White House has described the project as being "in the public interest" because of the need for "domestic critical minerals." The Biden administration previously blocked the project.
This week is coal week on the Hill and, in honor of that designation, Senate Republicans on Thursday introduced legislation to make permanent several of President Trump's coal orders. Sens. Cynthia Lummis and John Barrasso introduced the "Combating Obstruction Against Leasing Act of 2025," which would make permanent an executive order Trump signed in April and require the Interior Department to issue final lease approvals without delay. Under the proposal, Interior would be required to complete all steps needed to approve leases, finalize fair market valuations of coal tracts, publish environmental assessments and implement regulations for all pending applications.
