Federal Criminal Proceedings Against Mining Companies, 1979-2005


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(PDF format | 148 pages | 4 meg)
The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), a division of the Department of Labor, is in charge of enforcing federal safety and health laws and regulations in the nation’s mines.

Mine operators can be charged criminally for violations, but only if a mine operator commits a violation in a willful or knowing manner, or flagrantly disregards the safety rules. Federal criminal authority over mine operators is described here.

The file above is a detailed list of MSHA’s prosecutions against mining companies from 1979 through part of 2005. This list was obtained earlier this year from MSHA by Michael Ravnitzky. It has not been published on MSHA’s website. (The official description of these files is available here.)

Among the criminal charges that have been brought against mining companies are:

* Accumulations of coal dust
* Failure to provide guards
* Failure to install warning devices
* Using inadequate bolts for roof support
* Failure to have training programs
* Using unqualified personnel
* Improper and inadequate ventilation
* Failure to erect permanent stoppings
* Allowing miners to smoke in mines
* Improper use of explosives
* Falsification of reports
* Falsification of dust samples
* Destruction of dust samples
* Forging signatures
* Making false statements

To find out more about a particular prosecution, you can request information from MSHA as well as from the US Attorney's Office handling the prosecution.

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posted 30 Nov 2005
site and original text copyright 2002-5 Russ Kick