This part 50 implements sections 103(e) and 111 of the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969, 30 U.S.C. 801 et seq., and sections 4 and 13 of the Federal Metal and Nonmetallic Mine Safety Act, 30 U.S.C. 721 et seq., and applies to operators of coal, metal, and nonmetallic mines. It requires operators to immediately notify the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) of accidents, requires operators to investigate accidents, and restricts disturbance of accident related areas. This part also requires operators to file reports pertaining to accidents, occupational injuries and occupational illnesses, as well as employment and coal production data, with MSHA, and requires operators to maintain copies of reports at relevant mine offices. The purpose of this part is to implement MSHA's authority to investigate, and to obtain and utilize information pertaining to, accidents, injuries, and illnesses occurring or originating in mines. In utilizing information received under part 50, MSHA will develop rates of injury occurrence (incident rates or IR), on the basis of 200,000 hours of employee exposure (equivalent to 100 employees working 2,000 hours per year). The incidence rate for a particular injury category will be based on the formula:

IR = (number of cases × 200,000) divided by hours of employee exposure. MSHA will develop data respecting injury severity using days away from work or days of restricted work activity and the 200,000 hour base as criteria. The severity measure (SM) for a particular injury category will be based on the formula: SM = (sum of days × 200,000) divided by hours of employee exposure. [42 FR 65535, Dec. 30, 1977; 43 FR 1617, Jan. 11, 1978, as amended at 43 FR 12318, Mar. 24, 1978; 71 FR 16666, Apr. 3, 2006]

As used in this part:

(a) Mine means: (1) An area of land from which minerals are extracted in nonliquid form or, if in liquid form, are extracted with workers underground (2) private ways and roads appurtenant to such area, and (3) lands, excavations, underground passageways, shafts, slopes, tunnels and workings, structures, facilities, equipment, machines, tools, or other property including impoundments, retention dams, and tailings ponds, on the surface or underground, used in, or to be used in, or resulting from, the work of extracting such minerals from their natural deposits in nonliquid form, or if in liquid form, with workers underground, or used in, or to be used in, the milling of such minerals, or the work of preparing coal or other minerals, and includes custom coal preparation facilities.

(b) Work of preparing the coal means the breaking, crushing, sizing, cleaning, washing, drying, mixing, storing, and loading of bituminous coal, lignite, or anthracite, and such other work of preparing such coal as is usually done by the operator of the coal mine.

(c) Operator means

(1) Any owner, lessee, or other person who operates, controls, or supervises a coal mine; or,

(2) The person, partnership, association, or corporation, or subsidiary of a corporation operating a metal or nonmetal mine, and owning the right to do so, and includes any agent thereof charged with responsibility for the operation of such mine.

(d) Miner means any individual working in a mine.

(e) Occupational injury means 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, temporary assignment to other duties, or transfer to another job.

(f) Occupational illness means an illness or disease of a miner which may have resulted from work at a mine or for which an award of compensation is made.

(g) First aid means one-time treatment, and any follow-up visit for observational purposes, of a minor injury.

(h) Accident means:

(1) A death of an individual at a mine;

(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;

(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; 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.

[42 FR 65535, Dec. 30, 1977; 43 FR 1617, Jan. 11, 1978, as amended at 43 FR 12318, Mar. 24, 1978; 69 FR 26499, May 13, 2004; 71 FR 71452, Dec. 8, 2006]