The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration has distributed notices of a possible pattern of violations to two mines, which received similar notices in November 2010.
Solid Fuel Inc.'s No. 1 Mine in Claiborne County, Tenn., and Rhino Eastern LLC's Eagle 1 Mine in Raleigh County, W.Va., both executed corrective action programs that hit their target improvements during the prior PPOV evaluation, but they have not maintained those health and safety standards.
MSHA agency has continued to monitor the mines for long-term compliance based on its POV procedures summary, but the agency determined these mines are not making an effort to eliminate violations.
Recommended For You
After the evaluation period, both mines' significant and substantial violation rates increased by a large margin within five months, with the rate of Solid Fuel Inc.'s No. 1 Mine increasing from 4.84 to 21.94 S&S citations and orders per 100 inspection hours and the rate of Rhino Eastern LLC's Eagle 1 Mine increasing from 4.18 to 24.77 S&S citations and orders per 100 inspection hours. A rib fall fatality happened at the Rhino Easter mine in June, despite the fact that rib falls were specifically addressed in its corrective action program.
According to MSHA regulations, the agency is authorized to consider mines for a PPOV at least once a year, and mines that receive PPOV notices can implement corrective action programs. Those mines must reduce their S&S rates to targets determined by agency POV procedures.
"The need to monitor long-term compliance of potential POV mines was an issue raised by the Department of Labor's Office of Inspector General, and one with which we fully agree," says Joseph A. Main, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health. "MSHA will not allow mines to abandon corrective action programs after meeting short-term PPOV goals. We will insist these mines continue to provide miners the protections they deserve, and we will use all of the tools available to us under the Mine Act to ensure that they do."
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
