84% of proposed penalties paid to date, a $11,245 gap.
Source: MSHA violations data, updated weekly.
Inspection activity
MSHA inspections since 2000
92
inspections on record
1,150
inspection hours
19.9
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.
229 citations across 1,150 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: 2010-07-15.
On record since 2010.
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.
$69K
proposed penalties
$69K
current assessed
$57K
paid to date
$11K
outstanding
224 assessments are final orders; 0 contested dockets.
As of the most recent assessment on 2025-08-14.
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, 2014
ⓘ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.
0.00
total case rate
0.00
days-away rate
0.000
fatality rate
No reportable injury cases in any year shown. Employee-hours were reported in each of those years, so these are true zeros rather than missing data. Citations, listed in the compliance record above, are inspector-found violations and are counted separately from worker injuries.
Below average. The US metal and nonmetal mining average was 2.39 and the all-US-mining average was 2.93 cases per 100 workers.
Under 100,000 employee-hours were reported that year, so a single case moves the rate by two or more. Read the figure as approximate.
Year
total case rate
days-away
fatal
2014 *
0.00
0.00
0.000
2013 *
0.00
0.00
0.000
2012 *
0.00
0.00
0.000
2011 *
0.00
0.00
0.000
2010 *
0.00
0.00
0.000
2009 *
0.00
0.00
0.000
2008 *
0.00
0.00
0.000
2007 *
0.00
0.00
0.000
* Fewer than 100,000 employee-hours that year; the rate is less stable.
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: 2020-02-12, 6 years ago
17%
of limit-tested samples over the exposure limit
17
samples
12
limit-tested
Most sampled contaminants
Quartz, respirable, >1% Qtz102 over
Respirable dust, <.1mg4
Aluminum oxide fumes1
Arsenic fumes1
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.
WHILE TESTING AND SERVICING A NEWLY INSTALLED TOLSMITH 24" DOUBLE SCREW SAND WASHER, THE VICTIM'S CLOTHING BECAME ENTANGLED, PULLING HIM INTO THE RING AND PINION GEARS LOCATED AT THE FRONT OF THE SAND WASHER.
For insurers, brokers, and safety consultants
Where Oscar P Plourde 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.