The Mine Safety and Health Administration (“MSHA”) released its long-anticipated silica rule on Tuesday, April 16, 2024. (See the rule here) The rule is aimed at reducing miners’ exposure to respirable crystalline silica,...more
The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) appropriately held its last stakeholder meeting of 2023 on National Miners Day, which recognizes the Monongah Mine disaster that occurred on December 6, 1907, near Fairmont,...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: This week we are attending the ABA Workplace and Occupational Safety and Health Law Committee Midwinter Meeting in San Diego, California. The meeting includes representatives from the U.S. Department of...more
Within the first days of taking office, President Biden signed many Executive Orders – one of which directs the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) to...more
While the world grapples with COVID-19 and its implications for daily life, those in the mining industry may wonder whether the onset of the pandemic presents any MSHA compliance issues. Indeed, unlike its sister agency OSHA...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Seyfarth Shaw’s OSHA/MSHA group is at the ABA’s Occupational Safety and Health Law Committee Midwinter Meeting this week. Today, we heard from panels that discussed California Workplace Violence and Indoor...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Seyfarth Shaw’s OSHA/MSHA group is at the ABA’s Occupational Safety and Health Law Committee Midwinter Meeting this week. Today, we heard some introductory remarks from the Solicitor of Labor, a panel who...more
As the current administration continues with its purported deregulatory agenda, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) is struggling for an identity. After years of some of the most stringent compliance activity...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The DOL has published its 2020 increases to MSHA civil penalties. The DOL has finalized the 2020 inflation adjustments, which will nudge the penalties up 1.764%. 85 Fed. Reg. 2292 (Jan. 15, 2020)....more
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) announced today that it would hold a public meeting on its recent Request for Information (RFI) on Respirable Silica (Quartz). That RFI, published on...more
As I write in the current issue of Rock Products magazine, mining is an industry approaching zero, with record low fatality rates. But, enforcement doesn’t always follow risk. Mines account for only 0.5% of U.S. workplace...more
The Mine Act of 1977 governs all mine operators, and grants MSHA authority over the industry. While the agency clearly has the power to regulate and inspect active mining operations around the country, its reach has limits,...more