Tallmansville, W.Va. ? Coal mines still call to Ronald Grall.

Despite the deaths of 12 co-workers in an explosion he narrowly escaped in the Sago Mine, Grall said he’s eager to get back inside, to the comfortable darkness in which he has worked for 40 years.

“I’m just a little nervous,” said Grall, 63, “Well, actually, my wife’s more nervous than I am.”

He and about 145 other Sago miners must face those fears as they decide whether to go back underground in other West Virginia mines operated by Sago owner International Coal Group Inc., based in Ashland, Ky.

Many did so last week at two nearby ICG mines: Sycamore No. 2 near Clarksburg and Sentinel near Philippi. Grall has so far been assigned to outside maintenance work at the Sago Mine, which is closed while the Jan. 2 explosion is investigated.

ICG chief executive officer Ben Hatfield said Wednesday he wouldn’t know until at least the weekend how many miners had decided to stay with the company but he said early reports were positive.

The returning miners include Danny Loudin, 56, of Norton. He said he accepted ICG’s offer of employment at Sycamore, about 40 miles away, because “they’re excellent people to work for.”

Sago coal miner Ronald Grall, 63, of Buckhannon, W.Va., stands Wednesday outside the Sago Baptist Church - the site near the Sago mine where many family and friends learned that 12 miners had been trapped and killed after an explosion on Jan. 2. Grall, a miner for nearly 40 years, says he is ready to go back into the mine to work. Grall and his crew were starting the morning shift the day of the explosion.

Owen Jones, whose brother, Jesse, was killed at Sago, isn’t sure when he’ll go back.

Every mine is dangerous, he said, and “you can’t really, honestly say that you like working in a place like that.” He would not comment specifically on conditions at Sago.

The mine had been cited for 208 alleged safety violations during 2005. At least 17 were for serious problems.

Jones, 40, of French Creek, has worked in the West Virginia mines for 16 years, mainly running heavy equipment.

On the day of the explosion, he led a second crew that followed his brother’s group into the Sago Mine. His crew was about 10 minutes behind the others because they needed to switch to a larger vehicle, and they made it back out.

Jones, married with two teenage sons, said money was one reason he chose to follow his father into the mines, where a great-grandfather also died in an explosion.

“My wife and kids don’t want me to ever go back, but what are you supposed to do? You either work in the woods around here or in the coal mines or you work for Hardee’s or McDonald’s or something like that, and then you don’t make enough money to live,” he said.

Coal miners in the state earn an average of $55,000 a year.