Despite Deaths, Underground Mine Loss Costs Declining

Regulators and representatives of the coal-mining industry say they can't explain changes in workers' compensation loss costs in the Southeast U.S. that have increased rates for the region's surface coal mines and lowered them for the more dangerous mines underground. Loss costs dropped for underground mines in Virginia and Kentucky this year while surface mine costs went up. The trend was similar in West Virginia, where loss costs for both types of mines dropped, but for underground mines more steeply. The declining rates for underground mines come just after two accidents killed 13 miner...