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John Mitch Potter: 2,546 MSHA citations controller

MSHA controller ID: 0144441

John Mitch Potter has had no fatalities among 108 reportable incidents since 2019. MSHA has proposed $1.5M in penalties since 2019, with $246K outstanding.

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Email me when a new MSHA incident is filed at any mine John Mitch Potter controls.

Fatalities
0
Total incidents
108
Mines on record
18
Years on record
2019–2026
Public-issuer link

Coronado Global Resources Inc. (CODQL) discloses mines under this controller in its SEC Dodd-Frank Section 1503 (EX-95) mine-safety filings.

How to read an EX-95 filing See the issuer mine-safety liability profile
Compliance record
MSHA citations since 2019
2,546
citations
441
significant & substantial
$1,544,881
proposed penalties
$1,046,745
paid to date
68% of proposed penalties paid to date, a $498,136 gap.
Source: MSHA violations data, updated weekly.
Inspection activity
MSHA inspections since 2018
538
inspections on record
24,497
inspection hours
10.4
citations per 100 inspection hours
ⓘ This rate is recorded citations divided by MSHA inspection hours, per 100 hours. It reflects inspection effort, not mine size or production.
2,546 citations across 24,497 inspection hours.
Source: MSHA inspections data, updated weekly.
Penalty disposition
ⓘ Differences between proposed and paid penalties reflect both settlements and conference reductions and amounts still owed. Outstanding is the balance currently owed.
$1.5M
proposed penalties
$1.3M
current assessed
$1.0M
paid to date
$246K
outstanding
2,380 assessments are final orders; 65 contested dockets.
Of $586K in penalties contested before the Commission, $334K was upheld in final decisions.
As of the most recent assessment on 2026-08-07.
Source: MSHA assessed-violations and conference/litigation data, updated weekly.
Violation severity profile
ⓘ Shares are computed over citations that carry the MSHA gravity and negligence coding; a small share of records are uncoded.
17.6%
significant & substantial
2.7%
high negligence or reckless
17.7%
reasonably likely or greater
25.8%
permanently disabling or fatal if injury occurs
Negligence coding: 0.1% none, 51.1% low, 46.1% moderate, 2.7% high, 0.0% reckless.
Source: MSHA violations gravity and negligence coding, updated weekly.
Injury rate, 2025
ⓘ This rate is reportable injury cases per 100 full-time-equivalent workers per year, computed as 200,000 times cases divided by MSHA operator-reported employee-hours. Cases are injuries MSHA graded degree 01 through 07; accident-only events that hurt no one are excluded, and so are contractor injuries, whose hours do not attach to a single mine. Rates begin in 2000 and are withheld below 20,000 hours in a year. Employment reports reach back to 1983, but those earlier years come from MSHA's archived file format and are not used in rates.
2.64
total case rate
1.93
days-away rate
0.000
fatality rate
Below average. The US coal mining average was 3.19 and the all-US-mining average was 1.98 cases per 100 workers.
Year total case rate days-away fatal
2026 5.06 3.37 0.000
2025 2.64 1.93 0.000
2024 2.32 2.32 0.000
2023 3.05 2.54 0.000
2022 2.26 1.44 0.000
2021 1.64 1.10 0.000
2020 0.46 0.23 0.000
2019 1.74 1.74 0.000
Source: injury cases from MSHA accident and injury records; employee-hours from MSHA quarterly employment reports. Rate is cases per 100 full-time-equivalent workers, operator employees only.
Health sampling
ⓘ A sample is a point in time compliance measurement, not an individual exposure history. These figures describe MSHA sampling records and do not establish causation or personal dose.

Respirable coal dust
ⓘ Respirable coal dust and silica figures cover coal facilities. Dust compliance is measured against the current 1.5 mg/m3 standard; samples predating the 2014 standard are included, so compliance rates are a coarse historical signal.

Last sampled: 2026-09-30
100%
within 1.5 mg/m3
2,828
samples
4.23
dust max (mg/m3)
5
over MSHA ECV
ⓘ The excessive concentration value (ECV) is MSHA's own per-sample enforcement threshold, which builds in measurement uncertainty; a sample over its ECV can trigger a citation. The count covers only samples MSHA assigned an ECV.
1,018 samples taken by MSHA inspectors, 1,810 by the operator.
Most-sampled occupations
  • BULLDOZER OPERATOR598
  • CONTINUOUS MINER OPERATOR533
  • HIGHWALL DRILL OPERATOR496

Silica (quartz)

Last sampled: 2026-09-08
9.4
silica avg (%)
198
samples
51.2
silica max (%)
Most-sampled occupations
  • HIGHWALL DRILL OPERATOR52
  • BULLDOZER OPERATOR51
  • CONTINUOUS MINER OPERATOR37
See US coal mines ranked by silica in their dust samples.

Noise
ⓘ The share counts noise samples whose measured dose exceeded the 90 dBA permissible exposure limit. It describes the sampled workplace, not what reached the miner's ear: hearing conservation programs and the hearing protection worn during the shift are recorded separately and are not reflected here.

Last sampled: 2026-09-10
2%
over PEL
389
samples
Most-sampled occupations
  • BULLDOZER OPERATOR92
  • HIGHWALL DRILL OPERATOR43
  • UTILITY MAN42
See US mines ranked by noise samples over the legal limit.

Metal and nonmetal contaminants (personal samples)
ⓘ Many samples are screening measurements of substances with no applicable exposure limit; they are counted as samples but excluded from every over-limit figure. Over-limit shares use only limit-tested samples.

Last sampled: 2026-08-27
0%
of limit-tested samples over the exposure limit
14
samples
4
limit-tested
Most sampled contaminants
  • Respirable dust, <.1mg10
  • Nuisance dust, respirable, <1% Qtz4
Source: MSHA respirable dust, quartz, and noise sampling records, updated weekly. Metal/nonmetal contaminant figures come from MSHA's Personal Health Samples and Area Samples files (public record), updated weekly.
When citations were contested
ⓘ Contesting a citation before the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission is a lawful right. These figures state the public outcomes of that process, from MSHA's Contested Violations file.
286 citations taken to the federal commission · 11% of citations on record
  • Settled 247 · 86%
  • Stood as issued 33 · 12%
  • Still open 6 · 2%
75%
S&S designation survived the contest
ⓘ Counts a Significant & Substantial citation as surviving when a settlement or judge's decision kept the designation, or the contest was dismissed or defaulted so the citation stands as issued. Vacated and withdrawn citations, and settlements that removed the designation, count against.
of 106 decided S&S contests · industry: 79%
43%
Penalty reduction in decided contests
$586K proposed, $334K after decisions · industry: 39%
Source: MSHA Contested Violations file (public record), updated weekly. A dismissed or defaulted contest leaves the citation standing as issued; a vacated or withdrawn citation is removed from the violation record. Latest contest filed 2026-09-29. Vacated and withdrawn citations are removed from the file this view attributes through, so that outcome is slightly undercounted here.
Contested penalties
ⓘ A reduction or dismissal at the Commission is a lawful outcome of contesting a proposed penalty. Figures are the proposed amount and the amount upheld in the docket's decision.
Largest penalties this controller contested before the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission, with the outcome on record.
Docket Decision Judge Year Proposed / upheld
WEVA 2024-0264 Settlement Paez 2024 $64K → $38K
WEVA 2024-0292 Settlement Paez 2024 $50K → $32K
WEVA 2024-0002 Settlement 2024 $46K → $25K
WEVA 2026-0202 Settlement 2026 $38K → $23K
WEVA 2026-0188 Settlement Young 2026 $32K → $19K
WEVA 2025-0491 Settlement Young 2025 $27K → $22K
Source: FMSHRC civil penalty dockets and decisions (public record), updated weekly.

Top causes

Incident timeline

2026
17
2025
19
2024
22
2023
23
2022
13
2021
7
2020
3
2019
4

Operators under this controller

Mines on record

For insurers, brokers, and safety consultants

Where John Mitch Potter stands on silica, penalties, and injury rate

MSHA's standard limits respirable silica to 50 micrograms per cubic metre, but MSHA publishes dust and quartz as separate files and never the silica figure itself. We derive it per sample, score it against the limit, and set the operator's injury rate against a benchmark built from the full MSHA operator record. With the 26-year penalty trail, contest posture, and fatality history. Delivered as a PDF with the underlying data as CSV.

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