MINE HEALTH AND SAFETY STATE GRANTS | MSHA 2025 1

Opportunity Information: Apply for MSHA 2025 1

The Mine Health and Safety State Grants opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number: MSHA 2025 1; CFDA 17.600) is a discretionary grant program run by the U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). The main purpose is to fund state, tribal, and territorial efforts that strengthen mine safety and health through closer Federal-State coordination. In practical terms, the program is designed to help governments build stronger mining oversight systems, improve legal and administrative frameworks that protect miners, and expand training and education so mining operations can prevent accidents, reduce occupational disease, and respond effectively when emergencies occur.

The work MSHA intends to support falls into three broad lanes. First, grants can help recipients develop and enforce state mining laws and regulations, which may include strengthening inspection capacity, compliance programs, or rulemaking and enforcement support aligned with state authority. Second, the program explicitly targets improvements to state workers' compensation and mining occupational disease laws and programs, reflecting MSHA's interest not only in preventing injuries but also in improving how occupational illnesses and mining-related conditions are addressed through state systems. Third, the grants support direct improvements in mine safety and health conditions through training, education, and other cooperative Federal-State initiatives that raise performance across the industry, especially where targeted intervention can reduce high-risk events.

MSHA provides clear signals about the training and education topics it wants applicants to prioritize. Strong applications are likely to address mine emergency preparedness and mine rescue capabilities, as well as electrical safety, which remains a major hazard category in mining environments. MSHA also encourages training and education that includes contract workers and customer truck drivers, groups that often operate around mine sites but may not receive the same level of safety onboarding as core mine employees. Additional emphasis areas include improving training for new and inexperienced miners, strengthening safety performance for managers and supervisors who personally perform mining tasks, pillar safety for underground mines (a key ground-control issue), and falls from heights, which can be catastrophic in surface and plant environments.

Beyond topic areas, MSHA highlights the types of mining operations and workforce situations it wants grantees to focus on. State training programs are encouraged to prioritize health and safety training for new mines and small mining operations, where limited staff, thin safety infrastructure, or rapid startup conditions can increase risk. MSHA also underscores the importance of training that covers miners' statutory rights, including the right to a safe working environment and the right to refuse an unsafe task. This is a notable program emphasis because it links hazard recognition and operational competence with worker empowerment and legal protections, aiming to reduce retaliation fears and improve reporting and stop-work decisions when conditions are dangerous.

The opportunity also reflects a broader national policy push tied to critical minerals and energy supply chain priorities. The description references several 2025 executive actions, including a declared National Energy Emergency (Executive Order 14156) and subsequent direction to federal agencies to increase mineral production (Executive Order 14241). MSHA is anticipating that these policies may lead to reopening idled mines and developing new mines as demand increases for minerals considered critical for energy and industrial needs. Because expansions and startups often involve onboarding new workers, shifting job roles, and unfamiliar ore bodies or processes, MSHA is explicitly interested in new and innovative programs that train new miners or retrain existing miners for extracting specific critical minerals. MSHA also recommends that grantees, when applicable, develop training and compliance assistance programs to support operators extracting critical minerals. The description points applicants to federal reference lists, including the Department of Energy's critical materials list and the U.S. Geological Survey's critical minerals list, and it notes that on April 8, 2025, coal was declared a critical mineral through an amendment to Executive Order 14241 (Executive Order 14261). The takeaway is that proposals aligned with safe expansion of critical mineral production, including coal where relevant, may fit well with the program's current priorities.

Eligibility is broad for government and certain public-sector entities. Eligible applicants include state governments and other local government units (county, city or township, and special district governments), public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, federally recognized tribal governments, and other tribal organizations. The geographic scope includes U.S. states and territories and explicitly includes the District of Columbia and several U.S. territories and commonwealths (Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands). The agency expects to make a relatively large number of awards, with an estimated 56 awards anticipated. The award ceiling listed is $800,000 per award, which suggests projects can be substantial in scale, especially for statewide training systems, regional rescue readiness initiatives, or multi-part compliance assistance and education programs.

Key administrative details included in the listing are that the funding instrument is a grant, the funding activity category is education, and the application closing date is September 9, 2025. Overall, this opportunity is best understood as a capacity-building program for governments and allied public institutions to improve mine safety and health outcomes through enforcement support, modernized state programs related to occupational disease and compensation, and highly targeted training that addresses persistent hazards and emerging needs tied to critical mineral development and mine restarts.

• The Mine Safety and Health Administration in the education sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "MINE HEALTH AND SAFETY STATE GRANTS" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 17.600.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2025-08-11.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2025-09-09. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $800,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 56 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments).

Apply for MSHA 2025 1

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