US Department of Labor announces up to $250K in Brookwood-Sago grants available to promote mine safety, health education; training

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the availability of up to $250,000 in Brookwood-Sago grant funding to support the delivery of education and training to the nation’s mining community to help them identify, avoid, and prevent unsafe and unhealthy working conditions. 

Established by the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act of 2006, the program honors 25 miners who perished in disasters in 2001 at the Jim Walter Resources #5 Mine in Brookwood, Alabama, and at the Sago Mine in Buckhannon, West Virginia, in 2006.   

Administered by the department’s Mine Safety and Health Administration, the grants will fund education and training programs focused on workplace safety and health hazards faced where critical and other minerals are mined. These hazards include the following:

• Powered haulage and mobile equipment.
• Mine emergency and mine rescue preparedness.
• Electrical issues.
• Insufficient training of new and inexperienced miners.
• Lack of training for managers and supervisors performing mining tasks.
• Pillars in underground mines.
• Lack of personal protective equipment that prevents falls from heights and other injuries.
• Respirable dust, crystalline silica and other environmental hazards.

Learn more or submit a grant application. The closing date for applications is Sept. 19, 2025. MSHA will award grants on or before Sept. 30, 2025.