By Dan McGowan

September 13, 2017 - Tomorrow, Vincennes University in Indiana will host a grand opening ceremony for the school's Underground Mining Simulation Center in Gibson County. The $2 million facility in Fort Branch, which began training exercises early last month, is the only one of its kind in the state.

The mock mine is patterned after a facility at West Virginia University and is part of the VU Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Logistics in Fort Branch, which opened earlier this year. Since launching its mining program 12 years ago, Vincennes says it has trained some 4,600 miners.

Lieutenant Governor Suzanne Crouch is slated to be the featured speaker at the Thursday afternoon event. 

The underground mining center is located at VU's Gibson County Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Logistics.