MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Alpha Natural Resources has significantly cut its accident and injury rates in the six months since a landmark $210 million settlement that spared the company criminal charges over the 2010 mine explosion that killed 29 workers, federal prosecutors say.

Alpha cut its accident rate by a third and its injury rate by 25 percent at West Virginia’s Upper Big Branch mine and other former Massey Energy Co. operations. It’s also broken ground on an $18 million training center that U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin told The Associated Press will dramatically benefit the industry. When it opens in Julian next June, miners will be able to train for dangerous conditions in a 96,000-square-foot simulation laboratory.