Cherokee Rock Quarry has $10K in proposed MSHA penalties and $3K outstanding across 0 contested dockets, plus health sampling and the full incident record.
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Fatalities
0
Total incidents
3
Years on record
2021–2024
Latest incident
Mar 2024
Compliance record
MSHA citations since 2020
50
citations
8
significant & substantial
$10,102
proposed penalties
$6,963
paid to date
69% of proposed penalties paid to date, a $3,139 gap.
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.
Rate withheld: 409 inspection hours is too few for a stable rate. A minimum of 1,000 inspection hours is required.
Source: MSHA inspections data, updated weekly.
Cherokee Rock Quarry has $10K in proposed MSHA penalties and $3K outstanding across 0 contested dockets.
Penalty disposition
ⓘDifferences between proposed and paid penalties reflect both settlements and conference reductions and amounts still owed. Outstanding is the balance currently owed.
$10K
proposed penalties
$10K
current assessed
$7K
paid to date
$3K
outstanding
42 assessments are final orders; 0 contested dockets.
As of the most recent assessment on 2026-06-23.
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.
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: 2025-12-09
0%
of limit-tested samples over the exposure limit
8
samples
4
limit-tested
Most sampled contaminants
Nuisance dust, respirable, <1% Qtz4
Respirable dust, <.1mg4
Show the individual readings (8)
Date
Contaminant
Concentration
Limit
Conc / limit
Occupation
2025-12-09
Nuisance dust, respirable, <1% Qtz
0.69
10
0.07
Front-end Loader Operator
2025-12-09
Respirable dust, <.1mg
0
Rotary Bucket Ex. Operator
2025-12-09
Nuisance dust, respirable, <1% Qtz
0.21
10
0.02
Laborer, Bullgang
2023-09-18
Respirable dust, <.1mg
0
Rotary Bucket Ex. Operator
2023-09-18
Nuisance dust, respirable, <1% Qtz
0.26
10
0.03
Rotary Bucket Ex. Operator
2023-09-18
Respirable dust, <.1mg
0
Front-end Loader Operator
2023-09-18
Nuisance dust, respirable, <1% Qtz
0.14
10
0.01
Crusher Oper/Worker
2023-09-18
Respirable dust, <.1mg
0
Truck Driver
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.
Cherokee Rock Quarry recorded 0.00 reportable injury cases per 100 full-time workers in 2025.
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.
0.00
total case rate
0.00
days-away rate
0.000
fatality rate
Below average. The US metal and nonmetal mining average was 1.65 and the all-US-mining average was 1.97 cases per 100 workers.
In Tennessee, metal and nonmetal mining averaged 1.25 cases per 100 workers that year.
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
2025 *
0.00
0.00
0.000
2024 *
8.72
8.72
0.000
2023 *
0.00
0.00
0.000
2022 *
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.
Source: MSHA controller and operator history, updated weekly.
Workforce and production
Year
Employees
2026
15
2025
11
2024
11
2023
12
2022
21
2021
9
2020
5
Source: MSHA quarterly employment and production, updated weekly.
Cherokee Rock Quarry sits in Grainger County, Tennessee, where the Census mining category is 0.4% of county employment.
Local economic context
ⓘCounty figures come from the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey, 5-year pooled estimates, so the 2023 vintage covers 2019 through 2023. The Census category is 'mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction', which is broader than MSHA jurisdiction and includes oil and gas workers no mine employs. These figures describe the surrounding county, not this mine, and are not a factor in any specific incident.
Grainger County, Tennessee · Population 23,929
0.4%
Mining share of county employment
$51,351
Median household income
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2023 5-year estimates.
Quarterly safety rates
ⓘ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.
Citations per million employee-hours, as reported to MSHA
Employee was drilling a battery powered drill to drill a bolt out of a crusher and the drill hung and twisted EE's hand catching it between the drill and the crusher resulting in a fracture to the left hand. No days were lost.
January 5, 2021TN · Metal/Non-Metalbulldozer operator, universal operator, heavy equipment operator, operating engineerMACHINERY
Employee was cutting a tree with a chain saw in the pit with help of an excavator. The excavator operator pulled the tree instead of pushing and the tree fell hitting the employee on the right hand resulting in a fracture to EE's wrist.