See the Full Report (PDF) | See the Data
A one day "snapshot" of civil penalty cases pending before MSHA shows that some of the leading coal and metal/nonmetal mining companies in the U.S. have a tough time paying penalties ontime, according to MSHA data records obtained by Mine Safety and Health News.
While the large companies have significant delinquent penalties, what is equally troublesome are the smaller operators and contractors who have proportionally worse records in terms of paying fines. The one day "snapshot" shows $55 million in
unpaid, delinquent penalties on Feb. 25, 2011. These
are penalties that were not "on hold." On hold means
the government is not collecting the delinquent
penalty for various reasons including: pending
bankruptcy, an unopposed motion to reopen a case
with the FMSHRC, a payment might be in dispute,
or the payments are part of a payment plan.
On Feb. 25, leading coal mine controllers had
penalty cases at their subsidiary companies totaling
$38.6 million. Of this amount, $7.5 million was
owed by subsidiaries of the top 16 controlling
corporate entities. The leading 14 metal and
nonmetal controlling-entity subsidiaries owed $1.8
million of the $11.9 million of delinquent
metal/nonmetal penalties.
The amount of penalties owed by operators
changes daily as payments are updated by MSHA.
This one day "snapshot" would not reflect the most
recent payments or delinquencies. However, the
"snapshot" does show a pattern of delinquent
payments for some of the biggest companies
operating in the U.S. See the Full Report (PDF) | See the Data | 
