West Virginia University Extension and Outreach is training 175 Mettiki Coal, LLC miners in Oakland, Md., to work in West Virginia.

The training, that ends this week, is a collaborative effort involving Mettiki Coal, Maryland Bureau of Mines and West Virginia Office of MinersHealth, Safety and Training. It follows a decision by Mettiki Coal to open a mining operation in West Virginia and send a portion of its Maryland personnel to the mine.

The Maryland miners are undergoing training in a supplementary class that will allow them to work in West Virginia mines, said Jim Dean, director of Extension and Outreach. The miners need the training course to be able to comply with West Virginias rules and regulations.

Training lasts three weeks, with classes running concurrent with various shifts. The class is mostly lecture mixed with discussion and focuses on the difference between Maryland and West Virginia coal mining laws.

“The agreement saves our guys significant training time,”said Jody Theriot, Mettiki safety director.

Mettiki Coal, LLC is a part of Alliance Resource Partners, LP, which operates seven mining complexes in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Maryland. Alliances more than 400 million tons of coal reserves also includes properties in West Virginia.

WVU s Extension and Outreach does mining and industrial extension and serves as a training resource for coal mines. Last year, Extension and Outreach trained more than 1,300 miners in various places and will continue to train miners in the future.