WASHINGTON – A federal appeals court has ruled unanimously that the operator of a Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, coal mine violated the federal Mine Safety and Health Act more than a decade ago by giving underground miners advance notice that mine inspectors were conducting an inspection.

HANNIBAL, MO – A federal administrative law judge in Washington, D.C., has ordered a Hannibal cement company to pay a worker the company penalized for assisting federal safety investigators during a site visit.

WASHINGTON – A federal district court judge issued an injunction to prevent a Missouri mine operator and its owner from stopping federal inspectors from completing workplace safety inspections now and in the future at the Partridge Sand & Gravel mine in Stone.

WASHINGTON – Over the past year, dozens of miners have been injured or killed in mining incidents, many of which could have been prevented with proper training and attention to tasks. This unacceptable trend has prompted the U.S. Department of Labor to initiate a new safety campaign to reach miners and educate mine operators on their responsibility to ensure a safe workplace and prevent deadly accidents.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced a new program designed to encourage and help America’s miners to get the COVID-19 protections that vaccinations offer.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor will reopen the rulemaking record and hold a virtual public hearing on Jan. 11, 2022, on the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s proposed rule for Safety Program for Surface Mobile Equipment to improve safe usage of mobile, powered-haulage equipment.

WASHINGTON – For the seventh year in a row, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration found none of the nation’s 12,000 mining operations met the criteria for one of the agency’s toughest enforcement tools, its pattern of violations screening.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration has awarded $10,537,000 in grant funding to support safety and health training, and other programs. MSHA awarded grants to 46 states, the Navajo Nation and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration today announced the award of $1 million in Brookwood-Sago Mine Safety grant program funding to support education and training to help identify, avoid and prevent unsafe working conditions in and around the nation’s mines.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration today announced a proposed rule to require mine operators employing six or more miners to develop a written safety program for mobile and powered haulage equipment (excluding belt conveyors) at surface mines and surface areas of underground mines.

WASHINGTON, DC – On the 11th anniversary of the explosion at West Virginia’s Upper Big Branch mine, U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh today issued the following statement:

ARLINGTON, VA – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration today announced the availability of $10,537,000 in state grant funding to provide training and retraining of miners and mine operators working at surface and underground coal and metal and nonmetal mines. The training is federally mandated.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration announced today the availability of up to $1 million to fund grants to support education and training to help mine workers identify, avoid and prevent unsafe working conditions.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor issued today stronger worker safety guidance to help mine operators and mine workers implement a coronavirus protection program and better identify risks that could lead to exposure.

ARLINGTON, VA – In 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) reports there were 29 mining fatalities, making it the sixth consecutive year that mining fatalities were below 30. Among those fatalities, five occurred in coal mines, a historic low.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) today announced a proposed rule incorporating national and international voluntary consensus standards related to electric motor-driven mine equipment and accessories.

ARLINGTON, VA – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has awarded $400,000 in funding through its Brookwood-Sago grant program to support education and training to help identify, avoid and prevent unsafe working conditions in and around the nation’s mines. 

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor announced the availability of up to $400,000 in grant funding through its Brookwood-Sago grant program to support education and training to help identify, avoid and prevent unsafe working conditions in, and around, the nation’s mines.

WASHINGTON, DC – Solicitor of Labor Kate O’Scannlain and Assistant Secretary for the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) David G. Zatezalo issued the following statement regarding today’s ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in In re: United Mine Workers of America International Union and United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied-Industrial and Service Workers International Union, AFL-CIO-CLC, No. 20-1215:

ARLINGTON, VA – Of the nation’s 13,000 mining operations, none met the screening criteria for a Pattern of Violations (POV), one of the toughest enforcement tools used by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). The announcement follows MSHA’s most recent screening, covering the period from Feb. 1, 2019 to Jan. 31, 2020. This was the sixth consecutive screening that resulted in no POV notices. The last screening covered the period from Sept. 1, 2018, to Aug. 31, 2019.