# How to read an MSHA mine record

> Mine IDs, statuses, mine types, commodity groups, and the number of workers on the information form.

## How to read these records

### The mine ID

Seven digits; the first two are the state. It ties together every MSHA file about the operation.

### Status

MSHA's own words: active, intermittent (operates part of the year), new mine, nonproducing, temporarily idled.
Abandoned mines are not on this site. The date is when the mine entered its current status.

### Type and commodity

Surface, underground, or facility (a mill or plant). The commodity is MSHA's description; the industry group is
its canvass: coal, metal, nonmetal, stone, sand and gravel.

### Workers

The number entered on the Mine Information Form by the inspector. It is not a payroll figure and can be out of
date.

### Quarterly reports

Operators report average employment, hours worked and coal production to MSHA every quarter. The record shows the
latest quarter in the file and the three before it.

### Inspections, citations, accidents

Counted over a fixed window, from October 1, 2024 to the date of the file — never “since the beginning”.
Citations and orders are those issued to the operator and not vacated; “significant and substantial” is the
inspector's finding; penalties are proposed amounts, which can be contested and changed. Accident reports are the
forms filed with MSHA; “with an injury or illness” leaves out accident-only reports. A citation is not a conviction,
and a mine with many inspections has more occasions to be cited.

### Mine contractors

Companies that work at mines without operating them — drilling, blasting, hauling, construction, maintenance —
have an MSHA contractor ID and report each quarter the employees and hours they had *at mine sites*. It is not
the size of the whole company. MSHA's file gives no address for them. Their records carry the ID prefixed with C.

### What is not here

The controller's name (it can be a person), directions to the mine, the narrative of accidents, anything about
the injured person, and citations issued to contractors or individuals.

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Página: https://msha-mine-records.pages.dev/how-to-read/
Fonte: https://arlweb.msha.gov/OpenGovernmentData/OGIMSHA.asp
Recolha: 2026-10-02