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Knife River Corporation: 527 MSHA citations controller

MSHA controller ID: 0176802

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Email me when a new MSHA incident is filed at any mine Knife River Corporation controls.

Fatalities
0
Total incidents
73
Mines on record
37
Years on record
2023–2026
Public-issuer link

MDU RESOURCES GROUP INC (MDU) 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 2023
527
citations
72
significant & substantial
$249,244
proposed penalties
$167,984
paid to date
67% of proposed penalties paid to date, a $81,260 gap.
Source: MSHA violations data, updated weekly.
Labor enforcement (WHD)
US Labor Department wage findings since 2006
1
labor cases
$2,533
back wages owed
2
employees affected
Violation types
Prevailing wage (Davis-Bacon) (1)
Source: US DOL Wage and Hour Division enforcement records, matched by employer name and state.
Inspection activity
MSHA inspections since 2023
604
inspections on record
7,274
inspection hours
7.2
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.
527 citations across 7,274 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.
$249K
proposed penalties
$205K
current assessed
$168K
paid to date
$37K
outstanding
452 assessments are final orders; 9 contested dockets.
Of $103K in penalties contested before the Commission, $58K was upheld in final decisions.
As of the most recent assessment on 2026-07-01.
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.
13.7%
significant & substantial
5.2%
high negligence or reckless
13.7%
reasonably likely or greater
46.6%
permanently disabling or fatal if injury occurs
Negligence coding: 0.2% none, 22.5% low, 72.1% moderate, 5.2% 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, when quarterly employment reporting starts, and are withheld below 20,000 hours in a year.
2.12
total case rate
0.40
days-away rate
0.000
fatality rate
Above average. The US metal and nonmetal mining average was 1.65 and the all-US-mining average was 1.97 cases per 100 workers.
Year total case rate days-away fatal
2026 4.60 2.71 0.000
2025 2.12 0.40 0.000
2024 1.75 0.50 0.000
2023 4.77 1.43 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.

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: 2026-08-05
12%
of limit-tested samples over the exposure limit
275
samples
52
limit-tested
Most sampled contaminants
  • Quartz, respirable, >1% Qtz556 over
  • Respirable dust, <.1mg195
  • Nuisance dust, respirable, <1% Qtz10
  • Unlisted Particulate, total, <1% Qtz7
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.
15 citations taken to the federal commission · 3% of citations on record
  • Settled 6 · 40%
  • Still open 9 · 60%
60%
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 5 decided S&S contests · industry: 79%
44%
Penalty reduction in decided contests
$103K proposed, $58K 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 2026-08-05. 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
WEST 2024-0144 Settlement Simonton 2024 $88K → $45K
WEST 2024-0242 Settlement Simonton 2025 $7K → $7K
WEST 2024-0205 Settlement Simonton 2024 $5K → $5K
WEST 2025-0302 Settlement Simonton 2025 $818 → $165
WEST 2024-0310 Settlement Simonton 2025 $797 → $165
CENT 2024-0133 Settlement Paez 2024 $232 → $232
Source: FMSHRC civil penalty dockets and decisions (public record), updated weekly.

Top causes

Incident timeline

2026
21
2025
16
2024
15
2023
21

Operators under this controller

Mines on record

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Where Knife River Corporation 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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