Terms of Use and Sale

These terms cover both the free public research tool at miningincidents.org and anything you buy from us. Using the site means you accept them. Buying a report or subscription means you accept them as the terms of that sale.

1. What this data is

Mining Incidents indexes public federal records, principally the enforcement, accident, employment and health-sampling data published by the Mine Safety and Health Administration, together with enforcement data published by the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division and filings made to the Securities and Exchange Commission. We reproduce those records and we compute figures from them. We are not MSHA, not the Department of Labor, and not affiliated with or endorsed by any government agency.

2. Reproduced records and derived figures are different things

A reproduced record is a federal record shown as the agency published it: a citation, a penalty amount, a reported accident. Where the agency's own record is wrong, incomplete, or later revised, ours inherits that.

A derived figure is our own calculation on top of those records: injury and enforcement rates, respirable silica concentrations expressed in the units the 2024 rule regulates, peer benchmarks and percentile ranks, trends, and any summary or profile we produce. Derived figures depend on methodology choices we make, and reasonable analysts could make different ones. They are our analysis and are offered as such, not as findings of fact.

3. A proposed penalty is not a finding of guilt

Enforcement records carry a specific legal meaning that is easy to misread. A citation is an inspector's allegation. A proposed penalty is an assessment that the operator may contest, and contested assessments are frequently reduced or vacated. An operator appearing in these records has not thereby been found liable for anything. Where we hold the outcome, we show it; where a matter is unresolved, the record reflects an allegation and nothing more.

4. This is not professional advice

Nothing on this site or in anything we sell is legal advice, safety or compliance advice, underwriting or actuarial advice, employment advice, or investment advice. We index public records and analyse them. We do not advise, and no relationship of professional reliance is created by using the site, buying a report, or speaking with us in a consultation, whether or not that consultation is paid. Decisions about insurance, contracting, litigation, hiring, or investment are yours, and you should take appropriate professional advice on them.

5. No warranty

Everything we publish and sell is provided as is and as available. We do not warrant that the data is accurate, complete, current, or fit for any particular purpose, and we disclaim all implied warranties to the fullest extent the law allows. Government source data is revised, corrected and republished on the agencies' own schedules, and our refresh runs weekly, so any figure is a snapshot as of its stated date.

6. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, ByShovel LLC's total liability arising out of or relating to the site, the data, or anything you buy from us is limited to the amount you paid us for the item giving rise to the claim in the twelve months before the claim arose. We are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost business, or losses arising from decisions made in reliance on the data. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain of these limitations, in which case they apply to the maximum extent permitted.

7. Corrections: how to tell us we are wrong

We would genuinely rather be corrected than be wrong, and we do not require you to be a customer to correct us.

Send what you believe is incorrect, with the material evidence, to [email protected]. Useful evidence is the kind that settles it: the agency record, a docket decision, a corrected filing, or the identifier of the mine, operator or citation in question.

We will acknowledge your report, tell you what we find, and correct anything shown to be wrong. Where the error is in our own derived figure or in how we resolved an entity, we fix it directly. Where the error is in the underlying federal record, we cannot change the agency's data, but we will note the dispute against the record and point you to the agency's own correction process. Corrections propagate on our next refresh.

8. What you may do with what you buy

A report you buy is yours to use in your work, including sharing it with a client or including it in advice or a filing you prepare for them. You may not resell it as a standalone product, republish it publicly in bulk, or present our derived figures as your own original research without attribution. The underlying federal records are public and carry no such restriction; these terms apply to our compilation and analysis.

9. Refunds

If a report we deliver does not cover what we said it would, tell us within thirty days and we will fix it or refund it. Subscriptions can be cancelled at any time and stop at the end of the paid period.

10. Privacy

We do not sell personal information. Records about businesses are business records, but many small mining operators register a home address with MSHA, and we withhold residential street addresses, showing city and state only. If you believe a personal address of yours is exposed on the site, write to us and we will remove it.

11. Changes and contact

We may update these terms; the date at the top shows when they last changed. Material changes will not apply retroactively to something you have already bought. These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Indiana. This English version governs.

ByShovel LLC, [email protected], 765-278-7186.