A federal inspection of a North Dakota mine revealed 10 significant and substantial violations along with five unwarrantable safety failures, including machine guarding issues and failure to provide safe access to work areas.
The Hazen Mine was among the 14 mines the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) chose for impact inspections in November 2023. All of the mines were chosen based on their prior enforcement histories.
Significant and substantial, or S&S, violations are considered “reasonably likely to cause a reasonably serious injury or illness.” Violations designated as unwarrantable failures are “aggravated conduct that constitutes more than ordinary negligence.”
Among the problems found at the Hazen Mine, MSHA inspectors discovered:
- a failure to provide guarding around moving machine parts, which was the most cited violation during this inspection
- a failure to provide safe access to working areas, which exposed miners to potential fall hazards, and
- other violations involving housekeeping issues, lack of berms around water and equipment defects that weren’t corrected in a timely manner.
184 violations found during November 2023 impact inspections
MSHA’s 2023 impact inspections identified 2,491 violations by November 2023, including 706 S&S and 52 unwarrantable failure findings.
Impact inspections are conducted “at mines that merit increased agency attention and enforcement due to poor compliance history; previous accidents, injuries, and illnesses; and other compliance concerns.”
Out of 184 violations identified in November, 52 were considered S&S and six were unwarrantable failures. November’s impact inspections were conducted at mines in Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
