Alpha Natural Resources, Inc., agr eed to pay $209 million on December 6, 2011, to avert criminal and civil charges related to the 2010 blast at the Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia. The mine was owned at the time by Massey Energy Company, but Alpha acquired Massey in June 2011.
As part of a nonprosecution agreement, Alpha will pay $1.5 million in criminal restitution to the families of each of the 29 miners who died, as well as to two miners injured in the explosion. Alpha will also pay up to $34.8 million in penalties to the Mine Safety and Health Administration; make at least $80 million in safety improvements at all of its underground mines (including those formerly owned by Massey); and pledge $48 million toward mine safety research. The nonprosecution agreement was negotiated by Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton partners Lev Dassin, a former acting U.S. attorney in Manhattan, and Victor Hou.
