Pictured is an image included in the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration's final report on the Feb. 28, 2025 death of Billy Shawn Stalker, 46, of Elkhorn City, Kentucky, at the Alpha Metallurgical Resources-controlled Black Eagle Mine in Raleigh County. Stalker died when a portion of rib rock fell on him, according to the agency's report.
Pictured is an image included in the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration's final report on the Feb. 28, 2025 death of Billy Shawn Stalker, 46, of Elkhorn City, Kentucky, at the Alpha Metallurgical Resources-controlled Black Eagle Mine in Raleigh County. Stalker died when a portion of rib rock fell on him, according to the agency's report.
Federal regulators have determined that the operator of a Raleigh County mine with a long history of safety failures caused a worker’s death at the mine in February.
The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration released a report Thursday finding that Marfork Coal Company LLC failed to support an area of the mine to protect to miners and failed to conduct adequate pre-shift examinations, causing the February 28 death of Billy Shawn Stalker, 46, of Elkhorn City, Kentucky, at the Black Eagle Mine.
Stalker, a seal construction worker and crew leader for Wright Concrete Underground LLC, a Pikeville, Kentucky-based concrete contractor, died when a portion of rib rock fell on him, according to the MSHA report.
The underground Black Eagle Mine in Pettus, Raleigh County, is operated by Marfork Coal Company and controlled by Bristol, Tennessee-based Alpha Metallurgical Resources, Inc. Alpha did not respond to a request for comment.
MSHA said Marfork “engaged in aggravated conduct constituting more than ordinary negligence,” with a foreman directing contractors to work in an area with hazardous roof and rib conditions and examinations not identifying “obvious and extensive” hazards.
A rib is the side of a pillar or wall in an underground coal mine.
The Black Eagle Mine was the site of 2,187 safety and health violations issued by MSHA from March 2019 to March 2025, according to agency data — an average of just over one violation per day. Of those 2,187 violations, 435 were deemed “Significant and Substantial,” a designation MSHA uses for hazards reasonably likely to result in serious injury.
Stalker’s death came amid concern among miner advocates over potential MSHA staff cuts and expectations of more relaxed safety oversight under the Trump administration.
Rock that struck worker weighed over half a ton
Stalker sat against a rib after jackhammering an area in the mine floor for a water trap around 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 28, according to the report.
Bradley Stiltner, another seal construction worker for Wright, heard something and saw a rib rock on Stalker, prompting him to yell for help to get the rock off Stalker, the report said. Stalker was pronounced dead at 3:44 p.m. after CPR failed and Wright and Marfork workers transported him to the surface, per the report.
Investigators found the rock that struck Stalker weighed 1,155 pounds and fell from a height of 45 and 68 inches. The rock was 68 inches long, 23 inches wide and 8 inches thick, according to the report.
Investigators observed a crack in the rib showing evidence of separation. Loose roof existed along a pillar rib, the report noted.
The area of the accident was developed in April 2022, and an approved roof control plan in effect at that time didn’t require rib support in the area, according to the report. But hazardous ribs in the seal area should have been identified and supported once examinations were required when it became a construction site, investigators found.
Probe uncovered roof control plan violations
Investigators observed roof control plan violations that created additional hazardous conditions in a proposed seal, according to the report, including:
The entry width measured 22 feet and 8 inches, exceeding the required 20-foot maximum.
The cross-diagonal of an intersection at the proposed seal measured 75½ feet, exceeding the required 64-foot maximum.
Marfork block foreman and emergency medical technician Chad Vigilante conducted a pre-shift examination in the seal area 90 minutes before the accident but did not identify or record any of the obvious and extensive hazardous roof and rib conditions, the report said.
Investigators reported the mine operator did not conduct a pre-shift or supplemental examination for the seal area before work began on the day of the accident. Only four of 10 required pre-shift examinations of the seal area were conducted and recorded by Vigilante since Feb. 24, when miners and contractors were scheduled to work in the area, the report said.
Stalker had 28 years of mining experience and worked in seal construction for Wright for 10 years, the report said. He had been working at the Black Eagle Mine for nine days and received all training in accordance with MSHA training regulations, per the report.
Mine roof, face and rib fall violations have persisted
Marfork corrective actions after investigators’ analysis were:
Installing supplemental supports at the seal area consisting of roof, cable and rib bolts, posts, cribs and steel jacks
Training mine examiners and mine management on requirements to perform pre-shift examinations to identify and correct hazardous conditions
But safety failures have persisted at the Black Eagle Mine in the 3½ months since Stalker’s death, according to MSHA records.
MSHA has issued 85 violations to Marfork for the Black Eagle Mine since March 1, per agency records. Of those 85 violations, 25 were designated as Significant and Substantial, including 13 violations of a statute requiring the roof, face and ribs of areas where people work or travel to be controlled to protect against roof, face and rib falls and coal or rock bursts.
MSHA has also cited Marfork since Stalker’s death for violations of statutes requiring mine operators to develop and follow an MSHA-approved roof control plan and Immediate action to lower the concentration of breathable coal mine dust to at or below the applicable standard.
Penalties proposed by MSHA for Marfork have exceeded $3.15 million since March 2019, with Marfork paying over $2.19 million, according to MSHA records.
Marfork was hit with Significant and Substantial violations of a wide array of statutes in the months leading up to the incident that left Stalker dead, including those requiring:
Adequate protection from hazards related to roof, face or rib falls and coal or rock bursts
Developing and following an approved ventilation plan for methane and breathable dust
Maintaining electric equipment and removing it from service when necessary
Insulating and sealing splices in trailing cables
On the day Stalker was killed, Alpha announced 2024 fourth-quarter earnings totaling $53.2 million before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
Alpha also controlled three mines where mine workers were fatally injured in 2021.
In January 2021, shuttle car operator Justin Lafferty, 38, was killed when another shuttle car struck a compartment of the shuttle car Lafferty was operating at the Aracoma Coal Company-operated Davy Branch Mine in Logan County, according to MSHA records. MSHA found in a final report on the incident that it occurred because Aracoma Coal lacked policies or procedures to assure safe underground haulage.
In June 2021, section foreman Nicholas Adkins, 42, died after a shuttle car struck him at the Marfork Coal-operated Horse Creek Eagle Mine in Naoma, Raleigh County, according to MSHA records. The agency found in a report that it occurred because Marfork Coal didn’t have policies or procedures sufficient to protect miners in coal transport areas from being contacted by mobile equipment.
In August 2021, steam truck operator Jeffery Hudnall, 60, was killed after falling over 9 feet to a concrete pad while steam-cleaning equipment at Marfork Processing in Raleigh County, per MSHA records. The agency found in a final report on the incident that it happened because a contractor didn’t ensure Hudnall wore fall protection where there was a danger of falling.
Stalker’s death was West Virginia’s second mining fatality of 2025 and 22nd since the start of 2020, according to MSHA records. There were five mining deaths in West Virginia in 2024.
Mine air quality fears have driven residents away
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has issued Marfork Coal nine violation notices for the Black Eagle Mine since 2018, including six in 2022, according to DEP records. Violations have included failures to protect offsite areas from slides or damages during mining, maintain an access road and construct a sediment control device.
Residents of the tiny community of Eunice, near the Black Eagle Mine, have dealt with what they’ve said have been devastating dust emissions for years from the mine, which is roughly a thousand feet from the nearest home there. Some residents moved out of the community in recent years to get away from the dust.
MSHA oversight concerns under President Donald Trump
Miner advocates applauded a strengthening of MSHA safety and health protections under former President Joe Biden — chief among them a landmark rule finalized in April 2024 that cut in half the federally allowed limit for toxic silica dust responsible for driving a sharp rise in black lung disease among increasingly younger miners throughout central Appalachia.
But MSHA announced days before the rule’s compliance deadline for coal mine operators in April that it was pausing enforcement of rule requirements until Aug. 18. The MSHA announcement followed a federal court putting the rule on hold at the request of industry groups who argued it was too far-reaching and reported the agency had been unresponsive to their request for a court-issued rule pause.
The MSHA notice announcing the rule pause cited sweeping Trump administration staff cuts within the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, saying they could impact supply of certified respirators and personal dust monitors.
A Trump administration hiring freeze and voluntary resignation offers have decreased the MSHA workforce, which was threatened further by lease termination notices it posted for 33 MSHA offices in a signal those offices could be shuttered.
Those included offices in Summersville, Nicholas County, and near Pineville, Wyoming County. The latter was still posted as terminated on the Department of Government Efficiency’s website at doge.gov/savings Monday. The Department of Government Efficiency is a new commission the Trump administration charged with cutting federal spending.
Last month, a spokesperson for the Department of Labor, MSHA’s parent agency, said leases for 34 MSHA offices have been retained and are not closing or being considered for closure. The spokesperson did not provide a list of offices by location.
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