The U.S. Department of Labor released a list this week of 10 mine operators around the country that have been warned of a "potential pattern" of violating health or safety standards, and most of them are located in the coalfields of Appalachia.

DOL's Mine Safety and Health Administration recently sent letters to the 10 operators informing them of recurrent "significant and substantial" violations of the federal Mine Safety and Health Act. These are violations that could reasonably be expected to lead to a serious injury or illness.

"We hope this notification will encourage these 10 mine operators to integrate necessary improvements into their safety and health programs," said Dr. Gregory Wagner, MSHA's deputy assistant secretary for policy.

Nine of the problem operations are coal mines, and five of those are located in West Virginia, two in Kentucky and one each in Virginia and Indiana. The other mine notified of violations is a lead-zinc operation in Missouri. MSHA identified the mines using data from the past two years ending Aug. 31.

The Appalachian coal mines on the list were Laurel Coal's Winifrede 12, Pine Ridge Coal's Big Mountain No. 16, Spartan Mining's Ruby Energy, and Mountain Reclamation & Construction's Anna Branch, all in West Virginia; Pleasant View Mining's Richland No. 9  and McCoy Elkhorn's Mine #15 in Kentucky; and Knox Creek Coal's Tiller No. 1 in Virginia.

Also on the list was the Slabcamp mountaintop removal mine owned by Mammoth Coal Co., a subsidiary of Massey Energy, one  of the largest U.S. coal producers. That operation in Kanawha Couty, W.Va. is scheduled to be the final stop this coming Monday for the 15 participants in the Senior Citizen's March to End Mountaintop Removal.

In 2004, Slabcamp was bought by Massey, which ended the mine's contract with the United Mine Workers of America and reopened it as a non-union operation, sparking a picket and lawsuits.

Just last week, the National Labor Relations Board ordered Massey's Mammoth Coal subsidiary to rehire 85 miners at its Mammoth mine near Smithers, W.Va. and to bargain with the UMWA. After Massey bought the bankrupt operation from Horizon Natural Resources in 2004, it fired all of the union miners, which the NLRB ruled was illegal discrimination.