Sago climbing habit; the leaves are pinnate. Each palm trunk produces a single inflorescence at its tip at the end of its life. Sago palms are harvested at the age of 7–15 years, just before or shortly after the inflorescence appears and when the stems are full of starch stored for use in reproduction. One palm can yield 150–300 kg of starch. Sago is extracted from "Metroxylon" palms by splitting the stem lengthwise and removing the pith which is then crushed and kneaded to release the starch before being washed and strained to extract the starch from the fibrous residue. The
Sago Mine disaster MSHA to dramatically increase—by 84%—its on-site inspection and enforcement presence. As a result, MSHA also took significantly more enforcement actions—208 in total—against Sago Mine in 2005, requiring the operator to quickly correct health and safety violations in accordance with federal Mine Act standards." Davitt McAteer, Assistant Secretary for Mine Safety during the Clinton administration, told The Gazette, "The numbers don’t sound good...[they are] sufficiently high that it should tip off management that there is something amiss here. For a small operation, that is a significant number of violations." McAteer said the roof fall frequency "suggests that the roof is bad