Bob Murray shuts Tower Mine, Utah - another death trap with shocking safety record

Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. said last week about mine owner Bob Murray "If it takes every dollar this guy has in his bank account, he needs to bring closure to this darn thing. We've got families of six good people who are currently sitting in that mine,"

Murray owns two other mines in Utah in addition to the Tower Mine: Crandall Canyon and West Ridge. Operations at the Crandall Canyon Mine have been halted since Aug. 6, when a cavity in the mine collapsed, trapping six miners .

The Governor's remarks riled Bob, so he wrote to Huntsman blaming him for putting hundreds of mining jobs in Carbon and Emery counties at risk.

Bob made good on his threat to cut jobs in Utah's coal country.

He met with workers at the Tower Mine in Carbon County at 7 a.m. on Saturday . During the meeting, Murray told workers he is shutting down the mine (which employed 300 workers) and offered workers there jobs at his other mines in Illinois and Ohio. West Ridge is still in operation.

Since 2004 Tower mine had had 785 safety violations, about half of them “significant and substantial.” Since 2004, it received four “imminent danger withdrawal orders,” leading to parts of the mine being closed down.

Federal inspectors cited Aberdeen mine for serious negligence with 42 violations since 2004, the most of any Utah mine.

Sounds like Bob is quitting whilst he is ahead and has some more dead miners families to deal with.

It's been 19 days since the roof collapsed at the Crandall Canyon coal mine in Emery County.

Six men are missing and most likely dead at the bottom of a deathtrap of a coal mine using questionable retreat mining methods. Three more men perished in a rescue attempt that, from all appearances, was poorly planned and slow to develop.

What chance is there that Stickler and the MSHA can control this Neanderthal mine owner ?