Mining Incidents

Jones Quarry: 46 MSHA citations Metal/Non-Metal

Controlled by Bruce Barth; Marie Barth
Harlowton, Wheatland County, MT  ·  Active
MSHA Mine ID: 2402742

Jones Quarry has $11K in proposed MSHA penalties and $5K outstanding across 2 contested dockets, plus health sampling and the full incident record.

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Fatalities
0
Total incidents
3
Years on record
2019–2022
Latest incident
Feb 2022
Compliance record
MSHA citations since 2019
46
citations
13
significant & substantial
$11,110
proposed penalties
$5,953
paid to date
54% of proposed penalties paid to date, a $5,157 gap.
Source: MSHA violations data, updated weekly.
Inspection activity
MSHA inspections since 2019
25
inspections on record
334
inspection hours
n/a
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: 334 inspection hours is too few for a stable rate. A minimum of 1,000 inspection hours is required.
Source: MSHA inspections data, updated weekly.

Jones Quarry has $11K in proposed MSHA penalties and $5K outstanding across 2 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.
$11K
proposed penalties
$11K
current assessed
$6K
paid to date
$5K
outstanding
46 assessments are final orders; 2 contested dockets.
Of $359 in penalties contested before the Commission, $359 was upheld in final decisions.
As of the most recent assessment on 2026-04-08.
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.
28.3%
significant & substantial
13.0%
high negligence or reckless
28.3%
reasonably likely or greater
23.9%
permanently disabling or fatal if injury occurs
Negligence coding: 0.0% none, 17.4% low, 69.6% moderate, 13.0% high, 0.0% reckless.
Source: MSHA violations gravity and negligence coding, 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.
2 citations taken to the federal commission · 4% of citations on record
  • Settled 1 · 50%
  • Stood as issued 1 · 50%
100%
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 1 decided S&S contests · industry: 79%
0%
Penalty reduction in decided contests
$359 proposed, $359 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 2025-03-19.
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 mine contested before the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission, with the outcome on record.
Docket Decision Judge Year Proposed / upheld
WEST 2025-0192 Settlement Paez 2025 $226 → $226
WEST 2022-0251 Dismissal Simonton 2022 $133 → $133
Source: FMSHRC civil penalty dockets and decisions (public record), 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: 2019-09-18, 6 years ago
0%
of limit-tested samples over the exposure limit
2
samples
1
limit-tested
Most sampled contaminants
  • Quartz, respirable, >1% Qtz1
  • Respirable dust, <.1mg1
Show the individual readings (2)
Date Contaminant Concentration Limit Conc / limit Occupation
2019-09-18 Respirable dust, <.1mg 0 Forklift Operator
2019-09-18 Quartz, respirable, >1% Qtz 0.3 0.46 0.65 Drill Helper
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.

Jones Quarry recorded 0.00 reportable injury cases per 100 full-time workers in 2020.

Injury rate, 2020
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 1.77 and the all-US-mining average was 2.08 cases per 100 workers.
In Montana, metal and nonmetal mining averaged 3.06 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.
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.
Ownership history
  1. Montana Frontier Sandstone 2019 to present
Source: MSHA controller and operator history, updated weekly.
Workforce and production
Year Employees
2026 6
2025 7
2024 8
2023 9
2022 7
2021 7
2020 13
2019 10
Source: MSHA quarterly employment and production, updated weekly.

Jones Quarry sits in Wheatland County, Montana, where the Census mining category is 3.4% 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.
Wheatland County, Montana · Population 2,049
3.4%
Mining share of county employment
$47,054
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
Quarter Hours worked Citations S&S Per 1M hrs
2026 Q2 4,480 4 2 892.9
2026 Q1 1,667 2 0 1199.8
2025 Q4 1,735 0 0 0.0
2025 Q3 3,656 0 0 0.0
2025 Q2 3,031 6 3 1979.5
2025 Q1 2,242 3 2 1338.1
2024 Q4 2,968 0 0 0.0
2024 Q3 5,024 0 0 0.0
Show 21 earlier quarters
Quarter Hours worked Citations S&S Per 1M hrs
2024 Q2 2,622 1 0 381.4
2024 Q1 1,064 1 0 939.8
2023 Q4 2,656 0 0 0.0
2023 Q3 2,550 0 0 0.0
2023 Q2 4,746 1 0 210.7
2023 Q1 5,578 0 0 0.0
2022 Q4 4,181 0 0 0.0
2022 Q3 4,535 0 0 0.0
2022 Q2 2,138 0 0 0.0
2022 Q1 3,808 5 0 1313.0
2021 Q4 3,125 0 0 0.0
2021 Q3 3,592 7 0 1948.8
2021 Q2 4,093 0 0 0.0
2021 Q1 4,216 0 0 0.0
2020 Q4 6,528 0 0 0.0
2020 Q3 4,127 2 1 484.6
2020 Q2 4,212 0 0 0.0
2020 Q1 5,682 0 0 0.0
2019 Q4 3,977 2 0 502.9
2019 Q3 4,765 11 4 2308.5
2019 Q2 1,639 0 0 0.0
No fatalities recorded at this mine.

Reportable incidents

3 on file

2022 · 1 incident

February 18, 2022 MT · Metal/Non-Metal laborer, blacksmith, bull gang, parts runner, roustabout, pick-up man, pitman HANDLING OF MATERIALS
Montana Frontier Sandstone · Over-exertion in lifting objects

Employee strained back while stacking standup. "We were flat stacking and walking walk into pallets for standup and my lower back started to hurt I woke up Saturday morning and could not move from pain "

2021 · 1 incident

July 22, 2021 MT · Metal/Non-Metal laborer, blacksmith, bull gang, parts runner, roustabout, pick-up man, pitman HANDTOOLS (NONPOWERED)
Montana Frontier Sandstone · Struck by... (Not Elsewhere Classified)

Employee was splitting rock with a hammer and chisel and missed the chisel and hit hand.

2019 · 1 incident

June 6, 2019 MT · Metal/Non-Metal miner, prospector, nec HANDLING OF MATERIALS
Montana Frontier Sandstone · Over-exertion in lifting objects

While building stand up pallets the employee lifted a piece of stone and heard EE's elbow pop, and sharp pain go up and down EE's arm. Initially EE thought it was strained, and knowing EE's elbow often pops EE continued work.