There was some bad news last week out of the coalfields of Virginia:

State mining inspectors are investigating the death of a coal miner who was pinned by a coal-extracting machine he was operating in a southwest Virginia mine.

A spokeswoman for the state Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy says 24-year-old Arthur David Gelenster sustained fatal injuries Friday afternoon at a mine in Buchanan (buhk-AN’-un) County.

Tarah Kesterson says the death of the Buchanan County man occurred at Dominion Coal Corp. Mine No. 30 near the unincorporated town of Whitewood. She said the mine is owned by SunCoke Energy.

Kesterson said Gelenster was operating a machine called a continuous miner to extract coal from the underground mine.

She says the mining death was the first in Virginia since January 2012.