Employee was switching seats to go back to the feeder, twisted right knee and said they heard a loud popping sound.
BELCHER BRANCH Coal
BELCHER BRANCH has $4.7M in proposed MSHA penalties and $4.0M outstanding across 33 contested dockets, plus health sampling and the full incident record.
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- Fatalities
- 0
- Total incidents
- 23
- Years on record
- 2022–2026
- Latest incident
- Feb 2026
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This rate is recorded citations divided by MSHA inspection hours, per 100 hours. It reflects inspection effort, not mine size or production.BELCHER BRANCH has $4.7M in proposed MSHA penalties and $4.0M outstanding across 33 contested dockets.
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Differences between proposed and paid penalties reflect both settlements and conference reductions and amounts still owed. Outstanding is the balance currently owed.MSHA sampling at BELCHER BRANCH shows respirable coal dust averaging 0.30 mg/m3 (99% compliant) across 413 samples.
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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 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.ⓘ
Citations per million reported employee-hours. Rates begin in 2000, when MSHA's quarterly employment data starts; earlier incidents are counted but cannot be rate-adjusted. Quarters under 100,000 reported hours are greyed: too few hours for a stable rate.| Quarter | Hours worked | Citations | S&S | Per 1M hrs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 Q4 | 21,313 | 77 | 11 | 3612.8 |
| 2025 Q3 | 30,435 | 71 | 29 | 2332.8 |
| 2025 Q2 | 20,058 | 64 | 18 | 3190.7 |
| 2025 Q1 | 28,400 | 113 | 28 | 3978.9 |
| 2024 Q4 | 27,893 | 149 | 40 | 5341.8 |
| 2024 Q3 | 15,826 | 117 | 46 | 7392.9 |
| 2024 Q2 | 17,528 | 51 | 10 | 2909.6 |
| 2024 Q1 | 25,320 | 102 | 25 | 4028.4 |
Show 19 earlier quarters Hide earlier quarters
| Quarter | Hours worked | Citations | S&S | Per 1M hrs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 Q4 | 27,495 | 119 | 36 | 4328.1 |
| 2023 Q3 | 29,023 | 56 | 8 | 1929.5 |
| 2023 Q2 | 24,195 | 122 | 22 | 5042.4 |
| 2023 Q1 | 23,980 | 110 | 24 | 4587.2 |
| 2022 Q4 | 32,650 | 104 | 25 | 3185.3 |
| 2022 Q3 | 27,475 | 42 | 15 | 1528.7 |
| 2022 Q2 | 12,454 | 14 | 1 | 1124.1 |
| 2022 Q1 | 2,800 | 10 | 2 | 3571.4 |
| 2018 Q1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2017 Q4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2017 Q3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2017 Q2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2017 Q1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2016 Q4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2016 Q3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2016 Q2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2016 Q1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2015 Q4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2015 Q3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Reportable incidents
23 on file2026 · 3 incidents
Employee was shoveling dust out onto the #5 conveyor belt. At that time the employee stated that they felt their left bicep pull.
Employee was using a 4LB hammer to brad a splice when a piece of the hammer broke off and went into the employee's right forearm
2025 · 8 incidents
employee went to step down off the platform to tram the bolter and misplaced EE's footing and all EE's weight went on EE's left ankle
Injured Employee was putting in belt structure and smashed right index finger.
Injured employee was placing expanded metal guarding on the head drive when the metal slid around and caught EE's left pinky finger against the rib.
Employee was dropping the high voltage cable and tie wire went under the employee's safety glasses striking the employee's right eye.
Employee was plastering stopping when the employees foot slipped of the ladder causing the employee to fall and roll right ankle.
While using a drill with a wire wheel, EE was cleaning off a flanged surface. Unknowingly EE left a thin metal shim on one of the surfaces. When the wire wheel made contact with the shim. It spun it around at high speed resulting in cuts to EE's right hand.
Ran into rib with scoop causing the rib to slough and hit the operator.
The employee had watered the scoop batteries. While letting the lid back down to cover them. One of the lids slipped from EE's grip striking the other hand and smashing two fingers on EE's right hand.
2024 · 5 incidents
Employee was cutting open a miner cable splice. The knife slipped and cut the top of EE's left hand. The employee was taken to Welch hospital were EE received five stitches. The employee returned to work later that evening.
A bundle of bolt plates fell into the operator's deck of the bolter while tramming to another place. The plates struck EE on the hand. This caused a cut on EE's hand.
EE was hanging high line in the intake. The cable was above EE's head so lifting the cable over 6.5ft was required. While lifting and hanging the cable EE felt a pop in EE's back and began hurting. Ambulance was refused and EE finished the shift.
EE WAS HELPING THE ELECTRICIAN WORK ON THE MANTRIP. WHILE TROUBLE SHOOTING THE RIDE A LED MUST HAVE ARCED OVER CAUSING ONE OF THE BATTERIES TO BLOW UP. DO TO EE'S LOCATION EE RECEIVED THE MAJORITY OF THE IMPACT. EE HAD MATERIAL HIT EE IN THE EYES AND IN THE NOSE. EE IMMEDIATLY SEATED KEEP CALM AND BEGAN FLUSHING EE'S EYES WITH WATER
HAD A ROOF FALL ON THE OLD S.W. MAINS IN THE #4 ENTRY BETWEEN BRK 28-29. THE FALL IS APPROX. 60'L X 20'W. NOBODY WAS IN THIS AREA AND NO AIR COURSE WAS BLOCKED.
2023 · 5 incidents
Employee was cutting cable away from themselves with a razor knife. When they took another swipe with the knife they cut their right pinky finger.
The miner operator got tripped up in miner cable slack. The miner then fell into a shuttle car that was parked beside the slack. Injuring right side and ribs.
We had a roof fall between the intake and the belt line. the fall is located a brk 7 on the number 4 belt. It is approx. 60' in length and 20' wide. It is a non-injury fall and the primary escapeway was not affected due to having a second intake entry.
We had a roof fall outby the section in the return in the no.9 entry. Inby spad #312 extending approx. 60ft. the fall was approx. 60' long 20' wide 6' high. This is a non injury fall and the travel way is not blocked.
Shuttle car cable was not reeling up. The operator got off EE's shuttle car to pull the cable slack out of the road. The cable was in mud so this made it hard to pull out of the road. When EE pulled the slack put off the road EE felt a sharp pain in EE's lower back.
2022 · 2 incidents
#3 Entry Roof Fall. Inby spad #311 and outby spad #316. The roof fall was approximately 140' in length by approximately 20' in width by approximately 10' in height.
Draw rock and changing roof conditions. EE was helping drop bolter cable. When they dropped the last hanger, EE stepped back toward the corner. It was then a piece of draw rock fell out striking EE on the head.
The full compliance file on BELCHER BRANCH
A dated report covering the 26-year penalty trail, line-item violation pattern, contest and docket posture, rate-normalized peer benchmark, and full fatality history. Delivered as a PDF with the underlying data as CSV.