Mining Incidents

Vanderbilt Minerals, LLC: 443 MSHA citations operator

MSHA operator ID: 0077703

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Fatalities
0
Total incidents
69
Mines on record
6
Years on record
2007–2026
Compliance record
MSHA citations since 2007
443
citations
80
significant & substantial
$102,474
proposed penalties
$95,780
paid to date
93% of proposed penalties paid to date, a $6,694 gap.
Source: MSHA violations data, updated weekly.
Inspection activity
MSHA inspections since 2007
376
inspections on record
7,615
inspection hours
5.8
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.
443 citations across 7,615 inspection hours.
Source: MSHA inspections data, updated weekly.
Penalty disposition
Differences between proposed and paid penalties reflect both settlements and conference reductions and amounts still owed. Outstanding is the balance currently owed.
$103K
proposed penalties
$98K
current assessed
$97K
paid to date
$1K
outstanding
441 assessments are final orders; 6 contested dockets.
Of $11K in penalties contested before the Commission, $5K was upheld in final decisions.
As of the most recent assessment on 2026-07-07.
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.
18.1%
significant & substantial
5.4%
high negligence or reckless
18.1%
reasonably likely or greater
52.4%
permanently disabling or fatal if injury occurs
Negligence coding: 0.2% none, 16.6% low, 77.8% moderate, 5.4% high, 0.0% reckless.
Source: MSHA violations gravity and negligence coding, updated weekly.
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.
4.70
total case rate
0.94
days-away rate
0.000
fatality rate
Above average. The US metal and nonmetal mining average was 1.65 and the all-US-mining average was 1.97 cases per 100 workers.
Year total case rate days-away fatal
2026 5.81 5.81 0.000
2025 4.70 0.94 0.000
2024 1.94 1.94 0.000
2023 2.86 1.91 0.000
2022 5.85 0.97 0.000
2021 2.05 0.00 0.000
2020 0.00 0.00 0.000
2019 0.00 0.00 0.000
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.
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: 2026-04-30
11%
of limit-tested samples over the exposure limit
367
samples
190
limit-tested
Most sampled contaminants
  • Quartz, respirable, >1% Qtz8716 over
  • Diesel particulate (total carbon)313 over
  • TC as EC @ 35061 over
  • TCarbon @ 35061 over

Area samples (mill and shop air)

Last sampled: 2026-04-14
5
samples
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.
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.
21 citations taken to the federal commission · 5% of citations on record
  • Settled 21 · 100%
62%
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 13 decided S&S contests · industry: 79%
50%
Penalty reduction in decided contests
$11K proposed, $5K 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 2024-11-13. Vacated and withdrawn citations are removed from the file this view attributes through, so that outcome is slightly undercounted here.
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 operator contested before the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission, with the outcome on record.
Docket Decision Judge Year Proposed / upheld
YORK 2025-0028 Settlement Lewis 2025 $7K → $2K
SE 2019-0019 Settlement Miller 2019 $2K → $2K
SE 2022-0003 Settlement Young 2022 $1K → $1K
YORK 2008-131M Settlement Lesnick 2008 $243 → $100
YORK 2009-108M Settlement Mesch 2009 $100 → $100
YORK 2009-109M Settlement Lesnick 2009 $100 → $100
Source: FMSHRC civil penalty dockets and decisions (public record), updated weekly.

Top causes

Incident timeline

2026
3
2025
5
2024
2
2023
3
2022
6
2021
2
2017
3
2016
1
2015
3
2014
5
2013
5
2012
4
2011
1
2010
1
2009
6
2008
8
2007
11

Mines on record

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Where Vanderbilt Minerals, LLC stands on silica, penalties, and injury rate

MSHA's standard limits respirable silica to 50 micrograms per cubic metre, but MSHA publishes dust and quartz as separate files and never the silica figure itself. We derive it per sample, score it against the limit, and set the operator's injury rate against a benchmark built from the full MSHA operator record. With the 26-year penalty trail, contest posture, and fatality history. Delivered as a PDF with the underlying data as CSV.

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