A Putnam County company will ship its first underground mine rescue chamber to a mine in Norton, Virginia on Monday.

It's taken years for Carbonoks to design, develop and manufacture two types of underground chambers, including a steel chamber.  At this point, they've sold two dozen of them.

"They're both capable of withstanding 300,000 pounds of crush force," says Carbonoks Chief Operating Officer Gary Midkiff.  "The chamber is designed for 20 men."

Work on the underground chambers started after the Sago Mine Disaster of 2006 when 12 coal miners died while waiting for rescue following an underground explosion at the Upshur County mine site.

Sago was the starting point for the Carbonoks efforts.

"All around our office, the last letter written by one of the miners is posted and this is to remind us daily why we're doing what we're doing," Midkiff said on Friday's MetroNews Talkline.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration now requires mine sites to offer chambers like those Carbonoks has developed.

State law requires those chambers in each working section of a mine.  Hundreds of those chambers were moved into West Virginia mines last year.

Emergency oxygen supplies must cover 96 hours for each miner underground.  Midkiff says they're providing more, five days of breathable air.

There are enough supplies of everything else in the chamber to last for more than 20 days, meaning miners could wait that long for help if they have good air.

Carbonoks is based in Poca.

Eight Carbonoksunits will be delivered to mine sites in West Virginia by the end of June.