Mining Incidents

Tilley Coal

Banner Blue Coal Company · Underground
Controlled by Metinvest B V
Breaks, VA Post Office, Buchanan County, VA  ·  NonProducing
MSHA Mine ID: 4407366

Tilley has $69K in proposed MSHA penalties and $601 outstanding across 3 contested dockets, plus health sampling and the full incident record.

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Fatalities
0
Total incidents
19
Years on record
2017–2020
Latest incident
Dec 2020
Compliance record
MSHA citations since 2017
266
citations
48
significant & substantial
$69,356
proposed penalties
$67,816
paid to date
98% of proposed penalties paid to date, a $1,540 gap.
Source: MSHA violations data, updated weekly.
Inspection activity
MSHA inspections since 2017
66
inspections on record
4,930
inspection hours
5.4
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.
266 citations across 4,930 inspection hours.
Source: MSHA inspections data, updated weekly.

Tilley has $69K in proposed MSHA penalties and $601 outstanding across 3 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.
$69K
proposed penalties
$68K
current assessed
$68K
paid to date
$601
outstanding
260 assessments are final orders; 3 contested dockets.
As of the most recent assessment on 2025-01-23.
Source: MSHA assessed-violations and conference/litigation data, updated weekly.

MSHA sampling at Tilley shows respirable coal dust averaging 0.35 mg/m3 (100% compliant) across 1,665 samples.

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.
Respirable coal dust
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.
0.35
dust avg (mg/m3)
6.58
dust max (mg/m3)
100%
within 1.5 mg/m3
1,665
samples
Most recent sample: 2020-12-17.
Silica (quartz)
4.4
silica avg (%)
11.7
silica max (%)
92
samples
Most recent sample: 2020-11-16.
Noise
0%
over PEL
48
samples
Most recent sample: 2020-03-24.
Source: MSHA respirable dust, quartz, and noise sampling records, updated weekly.
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
2025 Q4 0 0 0
2025 Q3 0 0 0
2025 Q2 0 0 0
2025 Q1 0 1 0
2024 Q4 0 0 0
2024 Q3 0 0 0
2024 Q2 0 0 0
2024 Q1 0 0 0
Show 28 earlier quarters
Quarter Hours worked Citations S&S Per 1M hrs
2023 Q4 0 0 0
2023 Q3 0 0 0
2023 Q2 0 0 0
2023 Q1 0 4 0
2022 Q4 0 0 0
2022 Q3 0 0 0
2022 Q2 0 0 0
2022 Q1 0 0 0
2021 Q4 0 1 0
2021 Q3 0 0 0
2021 Q2 0 0 0
2021 Q1 3,816 2 1 524.1
2020 Q4 33,222 16 5 481.6
2020 Q3 39,577 23 3 581.1
2020 Q2 35,518 20 2 563.1
2020 Q1 39,655 14 0 353.0
2019 Q4 41,295 12 1 290.6
2019 Q3 41,433 18 0 434.4
2019 Q2 42,547 14 2 329.0
2019 Q1 46,142 9 1 195.1
2018 Q4 40,200 6 0 149.3
2018 Q3 38,184 14 4 366.6
2018 Q2 38,385 13 1 338.7
2018 Q1 17,967 17 3 946.2
2017 Q4 9,535 8 0 839.0
2017 Q3 10,992 44 14 4002.9
2017 Q2 9,926 19 7 1914.2
2017 Q1 4,889 11 4 2249.9
No fatalities recorded at this mine.

Reportable incidents

19 on file

2020 · 7 incidents

December 2, 2020 VA · Coal roof bolter, rock bolter, pinner, mobile roof support operator (mrs) MACHINERY
Banner Blue Coal Company · Caught in, under or between a moving and a stationary object

An employee's left hand was caught between the dual head operator side drill boom and boom jack cradle. The employee had hand on the drill boom when it was raised. This resulted in a surgery that required removing left 4th and 5th fingers.

November 4, 2020 VA · Coal scoop tram operator, load/haul/dump operator HANDLING OF MATERIALS
Banner Blue Coal Company · Over-exertion in lifting objects

The employee was loading belt structure in to a scoop bucket on the surface of the mine. While lifting, EE also twisted resulting in s strained back.

August 13, 2020 VA · Coal roof bolter, rock bolter, pinner, mobile roof support operator (mrs) FALL OF ROOF OR BACK
Banner Blue Coal Company · Struck by falling object

An offside roof bolter operator was injured while attempting to remotely extend EE's ATRS Pad out. While positioned to extend EE's ATRS pad out manually, a piece of draw rock fell on the operator side ATRS causing the offside of the ATRS to raise and strike the offside employee in the face area. This resulted in a concussion and damage to teeth.

August 7, 2020 VA · Coal roof bolter, rock bolter, pinner, mobile roof support operator (mrs) MACHINERY
Banner Blue Coal Company · Struck against stationary object

The employee received a laceration to EE's left arm when it slid across the sharp edge of a 54" X 5" roof mat. The employee was installing permanent roof supports on the working section when the injury occurred.

August 4, 2020 VA · Coal master mechanic, foreman, supervisor FALL OF ROOF OR BACK
Banner Blue Coal Company · Struck by falling object

While attaching a pull rope to a scoop bucket, the employee was struck on the right hand by a loose section of mine roof.

June 1, 2020 VA · Coal scoop car/scooptram operator, load/haul/dump (lhd) operator, teletram operator POWERED HAULAGE
Banner Blue Coal Company · Struck against a moving object

While tramming a scoop on the working section, the operator backed over top of a rock and jarred EE's head against the side of the operator's deck.

2019 · 5 incidents

December 14, 2019 VA · Coal shuttle car operator, mantrip operator, ramcar operator, rail runner, buggy operator SLIP OR FALL OF PERSON
Banner Blue Coal Company · Fall to the walkway or working surface

An employee was attempting to free a stuck airlock door that had been damaged. While pulling back on the door, employee fell backwards on to left ankle resulting in a broken left leg.

August 20, 2019 VA · Coal scoop tram operator, load/haul/dump operator HANDLING OF MATERIALS
Banner Blue Coal Company · Over-exertion in lifting objects

The employee was in the process of hanging the continuous miner cable and waterline on the section. Employee felt a strain in right arm pit as employee lifted the cable and waterline.

June 19, 2019 VA · Coal roof bolter, rock bolter, pinner, mobile roof support operator (mrs) HANDLING OF MATERIALS
Banner Blue Coal Company · Over-exertion in lifting objects

NOTE: This is being filed under protest. The operator maintains that the employee did not sustain an injury that would prevent the employee from performing the employee's normal work activities. The employee alleged that the employee felt a sharp pain in right shoulder while preparing roof bolts for installation.

May 20, 2019 VA · Coal laborer, blacksmith, bull gang, parts runner, roustabout, pick-up man, pitman SLIP OR FALL OF PERSON
Banner Blue Coal Company · Fall to the walkway or working surface

The contracted employee slipped while weed eating on an inclined bank. The slip resulted in a fall down the incline of approximately 4 Feet. The contracted employee stated that EE strained EE's back.

April 22, 2019 VA · Coal master mechanic, foreman, supervisor HANDTOOLS (NONPOWERED)
Banner Blue Coal Company · Struck by flying object

A group of employees was attempting to remove a broken continuous miner conveyor torque shaft with a chain ratchet. The hook of the chain ratchet came loose from the torque shaft striking an employee on the left hand middle knuckle. The strike resulted in a fractured knuckle.

2018 · 6 incidents

December 20, 2018 VA · Coal master mechanic, foreman, supervisor HANDLING OF MATERIALS
Banner Blue Coal Company · Over-exertion in lifting objects

Note: The employee did not immediately seek medical treatment. The first day of restricted work activity was 5/8/19. The employee was changing the left rear tire on a personnel carrier. As they removed the tire to be replaced, they felt a twinge in the lower back.

November 5, 2018 VA · Coal belt foreman, maintenance foreman, maintenance supervisor HANDLING OF MATERIALS
Banner Blue Coal Company · Over-exertion in pulling or pushing objects

The employee was attempting to splice two pieces of soft waterline together with a hose mender. EE felt a "pop" in right shoulder as EE was pushing one end of the waterline up onto the hose mender. EE worked with this condition until treatment was needed on 12/20/2018.

October 20, 2018 VA · Coal scoop tram operator, load/haul/dump operator POWERED HAULAGE
Banner Blue Coal Company · Struck by flying object

The employee was pulling conveyor belt with a scoop and a wire rope. The wire rope ripped through the conveyor belt striking the employee above the right eye.

July 11, 2018 VA · Coal scoop tram operator, load/haul/dump operator HANDLING OF MATERIALS
Banner Blue Coal Company · Over-exertion in pulling or pushing objects

An employee strained back while pulling the section scoop charger cable to the power center.

June 1, 2018 VA · Coal bull gang foreman, labor foreman, leadman, section foreman, shift boss FALL OF ROOF OR BACK
Banner Blue Coal Company · Struck by falling object

The employee was scooping in the #1 heading. The employee placed left hand on top of the scoop panel while operating the scoop with right hand. A piece of draw rock fell on left hand causing lacerations to third, fourth, and fifth fingers.

May 10, 2018 VA · Coal continuous miner operator, coal mole operator FALL OF ROOF OR BACK
Banner Blue Coal Company · Struck by falling object

A piece of draw rock fell on the continuous miner operator while in the #4 heading on the active section.

2017 · 1 incident

April 22, 2017 VA · Coal shuttle car operator, mantrip operator, ramcar operator, rail runner, buggy operator HANDLING OF MATERIALS
Cheyenne Enterprises, Inc. · Caught in, under or between (Not Elsewhere Classified)

Employee was removing a piece of rock from shuttle car when employee dropped it onto feeder causing lacerations to 3 fingers on both hands.

For insurers, brokers, and safety consultants

The full compliance file on Tilley

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.