95% of proposed penalties paid to date, a $66,282 gap.
Source: MSHA violations data, updated weekly.
Inspection activity
MSHA inspections since 2000
402
inspections on record
20,377
inspection hours
10.2
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.
2,074 citations across 20,377 inspection hours.
Source: MSHA inspections data, updated weekly.
Imminent-danger orders
ⓘA Section 107(a) order removes miners from an area when an inspector finds an imminent danger. Each order is lifted once the condition is corrected, so this counts orders issued, not orders now in effect.
1
Section 107(a) orders
Most recent order: 2014-05-17.
On record since 2014.
Source: MSHA imminent-danger order records, 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.
$1.4M
proposed penalties
$1.4M
current assessed
$1.4M
paid to date
$0
outstanding
2,053 assessments are final orders; 36 contested dockets.
Of $234K in penalties contested before the Commission, $168K was upheld in final decisions.
As of the most recent assessment on 2022-09-06.
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.
Source: MSHA violations gravity and negligence coding, updated weekly.
Injury rate, 2022
ⓘ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.
1.52
total case rate
0.22
days-away rate
0.000
fatality rate
Below average. The US metal and nonmetal mining average was 1.78 and the all-US-mining average was 2.12 cases per 100 workers.
Year
total case rate
days-away
fatal
2022
1.52
0.22
0.000
2021
2.46
0.49
0.000
2020
4.69
1.17
0.000
2019
1.73
1.25
0.000
2018
2.68
0.63
0.000
2017
1.98
0.99
0.000
2016
5.26
1.70
0.000
2015
1.41
0.35
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: 2021-03-23, 5 years ago
3%
of limit-tested samples over the exposure limit
269
samples
251
limit-tested
Most sampled contaminants
Nuisance dust, total, <1% Qtz455 over
TCarbon @ 35082 over
Diesel particulate (total carbon)331 over
TC as EC @ 35081 over
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.
191citations taken to the federal commission · 9% of citations on record
Settled
176 · 92%
Stood as issued
15 · 8%
79%
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 67 decided S&S contests · industry: 79%
28%
Penalty reduction in decided contests
$210K proposed, $151K 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 2022-09-01. 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.
April 11, 2014MO · Metal/Non-Metallaborer, bull gang, faceman, parts runner, roustabout, roof trimmer/scalerFatality · FALL OF FACE/RIB/PILLAR/SIDE/HIGHWALL
Employee was scaling from a man basket on a boom truck when large slabs of rock struck the boom causing it to separate from the boom.
April 11, 2014MO · Metal/Non-Metallaborer, bull gang, faceman, parts runner, roustabout, roof trimmer/scalerFatality · FALL OF FACE/RIB/PILLAR/SIDE/HIGHWALL
EE and other co-workers were trying to connect a 42-in. inlet duct to a top reversal box through an opening in the building. The EE was inside the building between the inlet duct and reversal box. When the inlet duct unexpectedly came through the opening, it struck the injured employee in the head causing severe head injury resulting in death on 6/19/2007.
April 4, 2002MO · Metal/Non-Metalmaintenance man, mechanic, repair/serviceman, boilermaker, fueler, tire tech, field service techFatality · HANDLING OF MATERIALS
WHILE ON THE GROUND SPOTTING FOR THE MAINTENANCECREW HE WAS STRUCK ON THE HEAD BY A DUST COLLECTOR BAG FULL OF LIME. EMPLOYEE WAS PRONOUNCED DEAD AT THE SCENE BY THE CORONER.
THE DECEASED WAS ASKED TO EXAMINE A CORNER OF A PILLAR BY THE SCALERS. HE GOT IN HI-RANGER BASKET W/O FALL LPROTECTION OVER THE OBJECTION OF SCALER (1 1/2 YRS EXP). WHILE INSPECTING THE PILL AR, THE BASKET BECAME HUNG UP ON THE SIDE OF THE PILLAR, WHEN IT BROKE FREE. THE BOOM SPRUNG AND THREW BOTH MEN OUT. THE SCALER WAS SAVED BY HIS FALL PROTECTION. THE POWDERMAN FELL APPROX 5
July 25, 1994VA · Metal/Non-Metalmine manager, mine foreman, mine ownerFatality · FALL OF ROOF OR BACK
Where Margaret J Heckman 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.