MSHA finds Boone County mine operator's safety failures caused fatal incident

Fields, of Chauncey, Logan County, died when rock fell from a highwall and struck the cab of the drill he was operating at the nonunion mine, the MSHA said in its report.

MSHA found that Lexington failed to:

• Ensure Fields didn’t work under a dangerous highwall
• Ensure hazardous areas were scaled before work was performed
• Sufficiently examine the highwall
• Provide adequate training to Fields

The Twilight mine had been the site of more than 200 safety and health violations issued by the MSHA since April 2019 prior to the incident that left Fields dead. Of those violations, over half were categorized by the MSHA as Significant and Substantial, a designation the agency uses for hazards reasonably likely to result in serious injury.

In the months leading up to the incident, Milton-based Lexington was hit with Significant and Substantial violations of statutes requiring:

• A certified person to examine each active working area at least once during each shift
• Maintaining machinery and equipment in safe operating condition
• Regularly maintaining toilets “in a clean and sanitary conditionâ€�
• Providing berms or guards on the outer bank of elevated roadways
• Keeping dumping locations and haulage roads “reasonably freeâ€� of water and debris

Report: Front-end loader operator saw rock fall

Fields, who had 20 years of mining experience but just eight weeks at the Twilight mine, had been assigned to drill a test hole in a pit to determine the depth of one coal seam and the location of another, the report said.

Front-end loader operator Ethan Rogers saw a large rock fall from the highwall onto the drill operated by Fields, who didn’t respond after Rogers then called out to him by radio, according to the report. Another front-end loader operator, Christopher Grimmett, determined Fields died due to the extent of damage to the drill’s cab. Fields was pronounced dead roughly 75 minutes after the rock fall, per the report.

Training Fields received seven weeks before the incident excluded instruction on a ground control plan, hazard recognition and accident prevention, the report noted.

The MSHA report said Lexington subsequently revised its ground control plan to:

• Prohibit miners from being positioned in dangerous locations near a highwall
• Include procedures that ensure areas with hazardous highwall conditions are scaled prior to work being performed
• Include a new procedure for highwall examinations

Lexington trained all miners on the revised ground control plan and all examiners on the highwall exam procedure, the report said.

Lexington could not be reached for comment.

Report: Mine employs 33 miners

The surface coal mine employs 33 miners and operates two 10-hour shifts, six days per week, the MSHA said in its report.

MSHA had collected $72,648 of $285,736 assessed for safety and health penalties deemed “Significant and Substantial� assigned to Lexington for the mine since the start of 2020, per agency data. Eight penalties totaling $17,878 are categorized as delinquent, according to MSHA data.

Fields’ death was the first West Virginia mine fatality of 2025. The state’s five mine fatalities in 2024 marked its most since 2021, when six miners died.

West Virginia had a second mine fatality this year in February, when Billy Shawn Stalker, 46, of Elkhorn City, Kentucky, died after injuries sustained from a rib roll accident at the Black Eagle Mine in Pettus, Raleigh County, according to Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s office.

Long history of environmental violations at Twilight mine

The DEP has issued Lexington 24 notices of violation and three cessation orders for the 2,249-acre Twilight MTR Surface Mine in the Coal River watershed since July 2021, per DEP records. Lexington has submitted incomplete surface water monitoring reporting, maintain weather-protectant plastic covering over soil piles, and reclaim sections of highwall — the unexcavated face of a surface mine — past DEP violations have reported.

Environmentalists have criticized the DEP for what they say has been lax oversight of the mine.

The DEP extended a violation notice issued to Lexington for failure to reclaim highwall at the mine 25 times from August 2021 to August 2023, repeatedly giving the company more time to abate the violation.

The DEP said in an August 2023 letter to the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement’s ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä field office that the extension had been “erroneously grantedâ€� and wasn’t in accordance with DEP Division of Mining and Reclamation policies.

That admission came only after the OSMRE told the DEP in a letter that a federal inspection would occur and “appropriate enforcement action� would be taken, if the DEP didn’t cause the violation to be corrected. The OSMRE notice was prompted by a request from Coal River Mountain Watch and other environmental groups that the OSMRE review the DEP’s oversight.

Lexington family tie to unpaid medical claims

The West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office lists Lexington’s manager as Jeremy Hoops, son of Jeff Hoops, who stepped down as CEO of mining companies Blackjewel and Revelation Energy LLC as part of a 2019 bankruptcy deal.

In January, the U.S. Department of Labor announced it reached a settlement agreement to resolve over $1.2 million in unpaid medical claims by the Milton-based health care plan for Revelation Energy LLC.

The Labor Department also announced that it had obtained a consent judgment and order in a West Virginia federal court requiring trustees of Blackjewel’s 401(k) plan to pay $637,014 in restitution. The order followed a federal investigation finding that Hoops and others who had been Blackjewel executives unlawfully diverted employee retirement contributions to pay for company expenses.