This photo is the type of mining I am now doing. I re-mine old refuse piles that were deposited as waste back when the coal cleaning technology wasn't available to recover fine coal particles and therefore they were dicarded along with the rock. Many of these sites are scattered across the coal mining States. Many of these old site also burned for many years. When I was growing up in West Virginia I can remember going past a couple of different gob piles at night and you could see blue flames flickering up from them. They also had a terrible smell. In this picture you can see the orange area at the bottom. This is coal that has burned and the ash left from that burning. This burnt coal and ash is commonly called red dog.

Independent Contractors at Mines – Avoiding Legal Liability Pitfalls

When can MSHA cite independent contractors for violations on mine property? And what is the likelihood MSHA will cite mine operators for contractor violations? These are questions that we are often asked as mine safety lawyers. The answer to the first question is fairly straightforward – the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act grants MSHA the authority to issue citations directly to independent contractors at mines for violations that are within their area of responsibility. MSHA almost always will cite a contractor where the inspector concludes the contractor caused the violation or bore some responsibility for continued exposure of miners to the hazard.

As for when MSHA will hold mine operators responsible for contractor violations, things are now less clear. The Mine Act is a strict liability statute. Operators can be cited regardless of whether they themselves were negligent.

I owned and operated underground coal mines in Virginia from 1980 to 1998. I was a Mine Superintendent for most of the next 5 years. Then I opened another underground mine in 2004. I can personally tell you that my experience has been that MSHA most always wrote me the mine operator a violation even when an independent contractor created the violation. I can quote one incident that occurred when I was operating the mine I had in 2004. An excavator operator working for the large coal operator I leased from, was working ditch lines along the haul road to my mine. He actually got completely off the haul road to clean a pond and in doing so dug into and ruptured a main gas line. This could have been a very serious accident with a fatality. Fortunatly no one was hurt. My mine was cited for failure to report an inundation. The large coal company that the excavator operator worked for was also cited. I had no idea that it was my obligation to notify MSHA of the incident. It wasn't on mine property and wasn't caused by any of my employees. I contested the citation but MSHA wouldn't nullify the citation. There reasoning was that the operator was doing work that benifited my mine and at my request.

Owning An Independent Coal Mine Company

Hi,
My name is Carl A Hamilton, I am 57 years old and live in Lebanon, VA. I was born in West Virginia at a place called Herndon Heights. I grew up with almost everyone I new working in some way in the Coal Industry or a business which depended on coal. I graduated from Pineville High School which was consolidated with several other Wyoming County, WV, schools into what is now I think Wyoming East. I graduated from West Virgina Tech with an AS degree in Electrical Engineering Technology in December of 1971.

I married my wife Judy in June of 1971 when I was 19 years old and still had a semester left of college. I actually started out persuing a BS degree in Elect. Engineering but wanted to get married so bad I opted to switch to an AS Degree in Elect. Tech. I was only 17 when I entered college, 19 when I got married, and just turned 20 when I finished my college.

From there I got a job with a mine in McDowell County, WV. The name of the mines was Capels and it was owned by Allied Chemical Corporation, Semet Solvay Division. I actually worked in this mine the summer of 1971. This was the beginning of my mining career, which by the way was as a general labor person in the UMWA. My mining has took me down many paths that I'll discuss in later posts.