"Hopefully if all goes well, we should have communication tracking in all of our mines by the end of this year,” Ron Wooten recently told MetroNews. He says it's not an unreasonable deadline and coal operators are working hard to get it done.

Wooten stresses every mine is different and that means every communication system has to be unique to that facility. "One size does not fit all,” he said. Each mine has to basically tailor a system that meets its needs." It has been a matter of trial and error

The mandate for more reliable communication and tracking devices came in the wake of the Sago and Alma disasters in January of 2006. Wooten says over the past two years there have been great strides in technology that can track miners hundreds of feet inside a mountain. But technology is changing all the time. That's why the director says they're urging operators to leave room for what's to come.

"In the hopes that technology will improve, then they'll be in a position to add additional technology as they go along instead of tearing it out and starting over,” he said.

Wooten says mine operators are taking one of two approaches. "You've got to have the ability to either harden the communication wiring or you have to make it wireless. That's what we're working very, very hard at,” he said.

Once the systems are in place, experts say West Virginia coal mines will be a lot safer places to work.