Mine Safety Training & Consulting Services

If you work in mining operations at a metal or non-metal mine, you are required to have health and safety training under 30 CFR Part 46.

If you work in an underground mine in extraction and production, or work in shaft or slope construction, you are required to receive hazard training under 30 CFR Part 48.

New Miner training consists of 24 hours of health and safety training. Annual refresher training consists of 8 hours of training. 

All miners’ training must be recorded on MSHA Form 5000-23 (or an approved alternate) and a copy must be provided to the miner upon completion or request. You will need to request a copy from your employer, if you did not receive one at the time you took the training. Employers are required to keep the training certificates for 60 days after a miner leaves.

Miners are defined as “Any person, including any operator or supervisor, who works at a mine and who is engaged in mining operations. This definition includes independent contractors and employees of independent contractors who are engaged in mining operations.” 

Only workers who meet this definition of “miner” must complete the Part 46 and Part 38 training requirements. Therefore, scientific workers, delivery workers, customers (including commercial over-the-road truck drivers), vendors, or visitors are not required to partake in MSHA training unless their work activities are directly related to “mining operations.”

At a minimum however, the mine operator is required to provide contractors and vendors with site-specific "hazard awareness training" before you begin any work.

All independent contractors may apply for MSHA contactor identification numbers by completing and submitting MSHA Form 7000-52. Contact your designated MSHA district office. MSHA Program Policy Manual discusses the nine types of services that would require a contractor ID, 30 CFR 45.3. 

When an accident, injury, or illness occurs at or in conjunction with activity at a mine, mine operators are required to report the circumstances of the incident to MSHA using Form 7000-1. You can file online using your EGov account.

When an MSHA inspector issues a citation, a mine operator has 30 days in which to file a notice of contest. A notice of contest must contain: 

• A short and plain statement of the operator's position regarding each issue of law and fact and the relief requested; and 

• a copy of the contested citation or order. 

An operator's failure to file a notice of contest of a citation will not preclude the operator from challenging, in a civil penalty proceeding, the fact of violation or any special findings contained in a citation or order.  

Operators and contractors shall report each accident, occupational injury, or occupational illness at the mine. The reporting requirement applies to operators and contractors of coal, metal, and nonmetallic mines. 

Any injury to a miner which occurs at a mine for which medical treatment is administered, or which results in death or loss of consciousness, inability to perform all job duties on any day after an injury (Days Away From Work), temporary assignment to other duties (Days of Restricted Work Activity), or transfer to another job.

A Form 7000-1 shall be completed and mailed within ten working days after an accident or occupational injury occurs, or an occupational illness is diagnosed.

In addition, the operator shall immediately contact MSHA at once without delay and within 15 minutes at the toll-free number, 1-800-746-1553, once the operator knows or should know that an accident has occurred involving:

1. A death of an individual at a mine; (Reporting Deaths on Mine Property)
2. An injury to an individual at a mine which has a reasonable potential to cause death;
3. An entrapment of an individual for more than 30 minutes or which has a reasonable potential to cause death;
4. An unplanned inundation of a mine by a liquid or gas.
5. An unplanned ignition or explosion of gas or dust;
6. In underground mines, an unplanned fire not extinguished within 10 minutes of discovery; in surface mines and surface areas of underground mines, an unplanned fire not extinguished within 30 minutes of discovery;
7. An unplanned ignition or explosion of a blasting agent or an explosive;
8. An unplanned roof fall at or above the anchorage zone in active workings where roof bolts are in use; or, an unplanned roof or rib fall in active workings that impairs ventilation or impedes passage;  Reporting Roof Falls
9. A coal or rock outburst that causes withdrawal of miners or which disrupts regular mining activity for more than one hour;
10. An unstable condition at an impoundment, refuse pile, or culm bank which requires emergency action in order to prevent failure, or which causes individuals to evacuate an area; or, failure of an impoundment, refuse pile, or culm bank;
11. Damage to hoisting equipment in a shaft or slope which endangers an individual or which interferes with use of the equipment for more than thirty minutes; (Part 50 PPM – Hoisting) and
12. An event at a mine which causes death or bodily injury to an individual not at the mine at the time the event occurs.