Mining Incidents

Sherwin Alumina LLC: 1,280 MSHA citations controller

MSHA controller ID: 0083673

Watch this controller

Email me when a new MSHA incident is filed at any mine Sherwin Alumina LLC controls.

Fatalities
0
Total incidents
369
Mines on record
1
Years on record
2009–2016
Compliance record
MSHA citations since 2009
1,280
citations
289
significant & substantial
$2,479,013
proposed penalties
$1,358,905
paid to date
55% of proposed penalties paid to date, a $1,120,109 gap.
Source: MSHA violations data, updated weekly.
Inspection activity
MSHA inspections since 2009
315
inspections on record
9,216
inspection hours
13.9
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.
1,280 citations across 9,216 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.
12
Section 107(a) orders
Most recent order: 2016-09-14.
On record since 2011.
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.
$2.5M
proposed penalties
$1.5M
current assessed
$1.4M
paid to date
$159K
outstanding
1,259 assessments are final orders; 78 contested dockets.
Of $2.0M in penalties contested before the Commission, $1.1M was upheld in final decisions.
As of the most recent assessment on 2016-09-14.
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.
23.0%
significant & substantial
43.1%
high negligence or reckless
22.6%
reasonably likely or greater
34.2%
permanently disabling or fatal if injury occurs
Negligence coding: 0.0% none, 5.5% low, 51.5% moderate, 42.4% high, 0.6% reckless.
Source: MSHA violations gravity and negligence coding, updated weekly.
Injury rate, 2016
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.
0.98
total case rate
0.00
days-away rate
0.000
fatality rate
Below average. The US metal and nonmetal mining average was 2.17 and the all-US-mining average was 2.59 cases per 100 workers.
Year total case rate days-away fatal
2016 0.98 0.00 0.000
2015 3.81 0.64 0.000
2014 9.94 0.93 0.000
2013 6.25 1.70 0.000
2012 9.46 1.92 0.000
2011 4.94 1.89 0.000
2010 5.43 1.92 0.000
2009 8.14 2.25 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: 2016-05-05, 10 years ago
10%
of limit-tested samples over the exposure limit
51
samples
31
limit-tested
Most sampled contaminants
  • Nuisance dust, total, <1% Qtz93 over
  • Fibers, >5um16
  • Arsenic dust10
  • Beryllium dust10

Area samples (mill and shop air)

Last sampled: 2015-12-29, 10 years ago
13
samples
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.
762 citations taken to the federal commission · 60% of citations on record
  • Settled 761 · 100%
  • Stood as issued 1 · 0%
71%
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 329 decided S&S contests · industry: 79%
47%
Penalty reduction in decided contests
$2.0M proposed, $1.1M 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 2016-12-12. 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
CENT 2010-920M Settlement McCarthy 2012 $267K → $91K
CENT 2013-631M Settlement Simonton 2014 $150K → $72K
CENT 2010-533M Settlement Gill 2011 $138K → $56K
CENT 2009-761M Settlement Gill 2012 $120K → $65K
CENT 2013-401M Settlement Simonton 2014 $110K → $62K
CENT 2014-0604 Settlement Manning 2015 $107K → $39K
Source: FMSHRC civil penalty dockets and decisions (public record), updated weekly.

Top causes

Incident timeline

2016
8
2015
36
2014
78
2013
51
2012
83
2011
43
2010
37
2009
33

Operators under this controller

Mines on record

For insurers, brokers, and safety consultants

Where Sherwin Alumina LLC 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.

The federal record itself stays free on this site. What costs money, and why.

See a sample report
Need a different cut of the data? Ask us