fate acquired by alpha natural resources founded 1920 richmond virginia headquarters richmond va key people don blankenship chairman & ceo baxter phillips president christopher adkins svp & coo john poma vp & cao shane harvey vp & general counsel revenue 2.69 billion 12 31 09 1 net income 104.4 million 12 31 09 1 number of employees approx . 5 850 2 website www.alphanr.com massey energy company was a coal extractor in the united states with substantial operations in west virginia kentucky and virginia . by revenue it was the fourth largest producer of coal in the united states and the largest coal producer in central appalachia . 3 by coal production weight it was the sixth largest producer of coal in the united states . 4 massey s mines yielded around 40 million tons annually . the company controlled 2.3 billion tons of proven and probable coal reserves in southern west virginia eastern kentucky southwest virginia and tennessee or about a third of all central appalachian reserves . 5 it employed approximately 5 850 people 2 and operated 35 underground mines and 12 surface mines . 6 massey energy owned and operated upper big branch mine where 29 miners were killed in april 2010 . the mine safety and health administration found that the company s culture of favoring production over safety contributed to flagrant safety violations that caused the coal dust explosion . it assessed 10.8 million in fines for 369 citations and orders the largest for any mine disaster in u.s. history . alpha natural resources additionally settled massey s potential criminal liabilities for 209 million . 7 8 9 in january 2011 it was announced that massey energy company would be bought by competitor alpha natural resources for 7.1 billion . 10 more than 99 % of massey shareholders and 98 % of alpha shareholders voted in favor of the acquisition and courts in delaware and west virginia 11 agreed with the shareholders vote . contents 1 history 1.1 sale of massey to alpha 2 board of directors 3 location 4 competitors 5 environmental record 5.1 martin county coal slurry spill 5.2 aracoma alma mine accident 5.3 mine safety violations 5.4 upper big branch mine disaster 6 protests 7 court rulings 8 community service 9 see also 10 references 10.1 other sources 11 external links history edit a.t. massey incorporated the a.t. massey coal company in 1920 as a coal brokering business in richmond virginia and served as the company s first president . a.t. massey acquired its first mining operation in 1945 and expanded its business to include coal mining and processing . five generations of the massey headed the company including evan massey in 1945 william e. massey in 1962 and e. morgan massey in 1972 . 12 st. joe minerals acquired controlling interest in a.t. massey in 1974 . six years later st. joe minerals sold a part interest in a. t. massey to royal dutch shell forming the massey coal partnership to run the company . 13 in 1981 the fluor corporation acquired st. joe minerals . 12 in 1984 the united mine workers of america went on strike against a.t. massey sparking a series of confrontations documented in the film mine war on blackberry creek . fluor bought royal dutch shell s interest in the massey coal partnership in 1987 and changed its name back to a. t. massey coal company initiating a period of significant growth through acquisitions . in 1992 don blankenship was appointed president chairman and ceo of a.t. massey coal company ; he served as the chairman and ceo of massey for 18 years . blankenship oversaw continued company growth including several more acquisitions and the establishment of several subsidiaries . 14 15 a.t. massey completed a reverse spin off from fluor corporation in 2000 and was renamed massey energy company . 16 as of 2010 massey energy produced processed and sold bituminous coal of steam and metallurgical grades primarily of low sulfur content through its 22 processing and shipping centers called resource groups many of which received coal from multiple coal mines . 14 massey currently operates 35 underground mines and 12 surface mines in west virginia kentucky and virginia . in 2007 massey announced a strategic alliance with essar mineral resources ltd. a member of essar group of india to jointly evaluate and develop select business opportunities on a project by project basis . 17 the company recently promoted several executives to new positions . in november 2008 massey promoted baxter phillips jr. formerly executive vice president and chief administrative officer to president a position previously held by massey chairman and ceo don blankenship . 18 phillips new position will focus on massey energy s strategic growth plans and will continue to manage sales finance human resources information systems and investor relations at the company s richmond headquarters . 19 in january 2009 the company promoted john m. poma to vice president and chief administrative officer jeffrey m. gillenwater to vice president of human resources 20 and steve sears to vice president of sales and marketing 21 nearly a year after promoting shane harvey to general counsel . 22 on dec. 31 2010 longtime ceo don blankenship stepped down and was replaced as ceo by massey president baxter f. phillips jr. 23 sale of massey to alpha edit on june 1 2011 shareholders of alpha natural resources agreed to buy massey energy for 7.1 billion making it the nation s largest metallurgical coal company . some shareholder groups had tried to block the sale claiming that massey managers had engineered the sale of the company to protect themselves from liabilities and had arranged new management jobs with alpha . 24 board of directors edit baxter f. phillips jr. president and ceo massey energy james b. crawford former chairman and ceo james river coal company general robert h. foglesong retired four star general u.s. air force richard m. gabrys former vice chairman deloitte & touche llp robert b. holland former director financial guaranty insurance corporation admiral bobby inman former director national security agency dan r. moore chairman moore group inc. stanley c. suboleski former commissioner federal mine safety and health review commission linda j. welty former president and chief operating officer h. b. fuller and flint ink in response to a prolonged citizen campaign on the environment on may 29 2009 ohio state university president e. gordon gee announced his resignation from the board of massey energy . 25 gee had said he believed he could do more environmental good on the board than off it . 26 location edit there are 23 coal mining sites run by massey energy . there are sixteen sites located in west virginia five in kentucky and one in virginia . locations in west virginia delbarton elk run greun valley guyandotte independence logan county mammoth marfork nicholas energy progress energy rawl republic energy and stirrat . locations in kentucky long fork martin county new ridge and sidney . locations in virginia knox creek . 27 competitors edit top massey energy competitors are 28 arch coal consol energy peabody energy environmental record edit in january 2008 the company agreed to a 20 million settlement with the u.s. environmental protection agency epa to resolve thousands of violations of the clean water act for routinely polluting waterways in kentucky and west virginia with coal slurry and wastewater . although this was the largest clean water act settlement the violations were estimated to have fines on the order of 2.4 billion . 29 martin county coal slurry spill edit main article martin county coal slurry spill wolf creek october 22 2000 in october 2000 a coal slurry impoundment owned by martin county coal company a massey energy subsidiary in martin county kentucky suddenly breached and released over 200 million gallons of coal slurry into two mountain streams coldwater creek and wolf creek . 30 the martin county coal slurry spill was called the worst ever environmental disaster in the southeastern united states by the epa . the spill smothered all aquatic life in the streams and left residents with contaminated drinking water . cleanup costs for the spill were approximately 50 million . citation needed aracoma alma mine accident edit main article aracoma alma mine accident on january 19 2006 a belt line fire killed miners don i. bragg 33 and ellery elvis hatfield 47 at massey s aracoma alma number 1 mine in logan county west virginia . efforts to fight the fire were hampered by inadequate fire extinguishers fire hose couplings which did not match the water line and a lack of water in the lines . 31 on december 22 2008 massey energy agreed to pay 4.2 million in civil and criminal penalties for the accident . 32 it is the largest financial settlement in the coal industry s history . 33 the charleston wv gazette reported on january 15 2009 that aracoma widows delorice bragg and freda hatfield urged u.s. district judge john t. copenhaver to reject massey s plea bargain and fine for the accident . 34 widow bragg stated that it was clear that massey executives expected the alma mine to emphasize production over the safety of the coal miners inside . mine safety violations edit on february 1 2006 bulldozer operator paul k. moss 58 of sissonville west virginia died when his machine ruptured a 16 inch 410 mm natural gas line at elk run coal co. s black castle surface mine . 35 the bulldozer was immediately engulfed in flames . according to the mine safety and health administration report operator moss exited the cab but his body was found behind the blade . massey energy was fined 2.5 million after a federal judge accepted the company s guilty plea to 10 criminal charges for the fire . a u.s. district approved a plea deal despite a provision sparing massey officials and the richmond va. coal company from prosecution . the agreement also required aracoma to pay a 1.7 million fine for civil violations found by the federal mine safety and health administration . 36 on october 8 2008 steven cain 32 of comfort west virginia was killed at massey energy s independence coal justice no. 1 mine when he was crushed by a railcar . a mine safety and health administration report 37 concludes cain was killed because massey managers assigned him a dangerous job although he had little mining experience and minimal training . 38 in 2009 the federal mine safety and health administration cited massey energy s upper big branch coal mine for 495 violations and proposed 911 802 in fines . 39 upper big branch mine disaster edit main article upper big branch mine disaster on april 5 2010 an explosion at massey owned performance coal co. mine in montcoal west virginia resulted in the deaths of 29 miners . the explosion which has become known as the upper big branch mine disaster is the worst mining disaster in 40 years with a greater loss of life than in any mining accident since the 1970s . the msha released its final report on december 6 2011 concluding that flagrant safety violations contributed to a coal dust explosion . it issued 369 citations at that time assessing 10.8 million in penalties . investigators also noted the historical record of safety violations at the upper big branch mine which amassed more than 1 100 violations in the past three years many of them serious including 50 of them in march 2010 for violations including improper ventilation of methane and poor escape routes . federal regulators had ordered portions of the mine closed 60 times over the year preceding the explosion . 40 it was claimed that the fbi had launched a probe investigating the possible bribery of federal officials overseeing mining industry regulation by massey energy . 41 42 protests edit susan rosenberg and dr. james hansen were arrested june 23 2009 at the