Mining Incidents

Tennessee Mine: 32 MSHA citations Metal/Non-Metal

Hondo Minerals Inc · Surface
Controlled by William Miertschin
Chloride, Mohave County, AZ  ·  Abandoned
MSHA Mine ID: 0203271

Tennessee Mine has $22K in proposed MSHA penalties and $10K outstanding across 1 contested dockets, plus health sampling and the full incident record.

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Fatalities
0
Total incidents
1
Years on record
2013
Latest incident
Apr 2013
Compliance record
MSHA citations since 2012
32
citations
6
significant & substantial
$21,749
proposed penalties
$1,926
paid to date
9% of proposed penalties paid to date, a $19,823 gap.
Source: MSHA violations data, updated weekly.
Inspection activity
MSHA inspections since 2012
5
inspections on record
85
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: 85 inspection hours is too few for a stable rate. A minimum of 1,000 inspection hours is required.
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: 2012-05-15.
On record since 2012.
Source: MSHA imminent-danger order records, updated weekly.

Tennessee Mine has $22K in proposed MSHA penalties and $10K outstanding across 1 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.
$22K
proposed penalties
$12K
current assessed
$2K
paid to date
$10K
outstanding
31 assessments are final orders; 1 contested dockets.
Of $20K in penalties contested before the Commission, $10K was upheld in final decisions.
As of the most recent assessment on 2013-01-15.
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.
19.4%
significant & substantial
38.7%
high negligence or reckless
19.4%
reasonably likely or greater
48.4%
permanently disabling or fatal if injury occurs
Negligence coding: 0.0% none, 25.8% low, 35.5% moderate, 38.7% 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.
19 citations taken to the federal commission · 59% of citations on record
  • Settled 19 · 100%
67%
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 3 decided S&S contests · industry: 79%
50%
Penalty reduction in decided contests
$20K proposed, $10K 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 2013-03-28.
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 2013-651M Settlement Manning 2014 $20K → $10K
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: 2013-01-10, 13 years ago
3
samples
0
limit-tested
Most sampled contaminants
  • Respirable dust, <.1mg2
  • Unlisted Particulate, respirable, <1% Qtz1
Show the individual readings (3)
Date Contaminant Concentration Limit Conc / limit Occupation
2013-01-10 Unlisted Particulate, respirable, <1% Qtz 0.19 Bobcat Operator
2013-01-10 Respirable dust, <.1mg 0 Cleanup Man
2013-01-10 Respirable dust, <.1mg 0 Backhoe Operator
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.

Tennessee Mine recorded 0.00 reportable injury cases per 100 full-time workers in 2013.

Injury rate, 2013
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 2.46 and the all-US-mining average was 2.99 cases per 100 workers.
In Arizona, metal and nonmetal mining averaged 2.37 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. Hondo Minerals Inc 2012 to present
Source: MSHA controller and operator history, updated weekly.
Workforce and production
Year Employees
2014 6
2013 13
2012 35
Source: MSHA quarterly employment and production, updated weekly.

Tennessee Mine sits in Mohave County, Arizona, where the Census mining category is 0.7% 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.
Mohave County, Arizona · Population 217,420
0.7%
Mining share of county employment
$55,799
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
2014 Q1 2,468 0 0 0.0
2013 Q4 3,478 0 0 0.0
2013 Q3 5,656 0 0 0.0
2013 Q2 7,583 0 0 0.0
2013 Q1 6,710 19 2 2831.6
2012 Q4 14,498 1 0 69.0
2012 Q3 15,597 0 0 0.0
2012 Q2 17,567 12 4 683.1
No fatalities recorded at this mine.

Reportable incidents

1 on file

2013 · 1 incident

April 5, 2013 AZ · Metal/Non-Metal bulldozer operator, universal operator, heavy equipment operator, operating engineer SLIP OR FALL OF PERSON
Hondo Minerals Inc · Fall from machine

Miner was working offsite. He was having his dump truck loaded by a back hoe. He went to get out of his truck and was coming down. He did not maintain his 3 points of contact until safely on the ground. On the last step, he let go to turn and jump down. His left foot got caught and he fell to the ground, breaking his right ankle