SHARPLES, W.Va. — On Thursday, West Virginia University President Michael T. Benson got a glimpse of the Mountain Laurel Complex in Logan County.

Benson went underground as part of his “Welcome Home Tour,” which will eventually get him to all 55 counties in the state.

Benson said he visited a coal mine in Wyoming well over a decade ago, and the new technology used in the mines was his biggest takeaway.

“They took us through the longwall machines and showed the way they’re extracting coal now, the way they get it out, the way they transport it and put it on trains to either southern Virginia or Baltimore,” Benson said on MetroNews Midday Thursday.

“I was just really impressed by the level of detail and the technology and the fact that a lot of our WVU mining engineering graduates work a

See Full Page