Title 25 — Title 25

(a) Gears, sprockets, friction devices, and couplings with protruding bolts or nuts, shafting and projecting shaft ends that are within seven feet of floor or platform level, belt or rope drives that are within seven feet of floor or platform level, fly wheels, and circular and b…

Repairmen shall not operate machinery unless they are thoroughly familiar with requirements for safe operation. No person will order or require repairmen to operate machinery for moving or testing without ascertaining that the repairmen are thoroughly familiar with requirements f…

Unsafe conditions, known to any persons underground, that cannot be corrected by them in the course of their normal duties, shall be promptly reported to the mine foreman or direct supervisor. The supervisor to whom unsafe conditions are reported or who detects them in the course…

(a) In dangerously dusty locations, electric motors, switches, and controls shall be of dust-tight construction or enclosed with reasonably dust-tight housing or enclosures. Open-type motors, switches, or controls now in use in tipples and cleaning plants in dusty locations may b…

Naphtha or other flammable liquids in lamp houses shall be kept in approved containers or other safe dispensers. History: (Acts 1949, No. 207, p. 242, §61.)

(a) Stairways, elevated platforms, and runways shall be equipped with handrails. (b) Elevated platforms and stairways shall be provided with toeboards where necessary, and they shall be kept clear of refuse and maintained in good repair. History: (Acts 1949, No. 207, p. 242, §62;…

Good housekeeping shall be practiced in and around mine buildings and yards. Such practices include cleanliness, orderly storage of materials, and the removal of possible sources of injury, such as stumbling hazards, protruding nails, and broken glass. History: (Acts 1949, No. 20…

(a) Oil, grease, and similar flammable materials shall be stored in closed containers, separate from other materials so as not to create a fire hazard to nearby buildings or mines. If oil or grease is stored in a building, the building or the room in which it is stored shall be o…

Persons not employees of a coal mine or duly authorized employees of the Department of Labor shall not enter such mine unless the consent of the operator or his authorized representative has been secured and shall not stand on the tracks or go near the machinery or other place of…

Whoever shall, while under the influence of intoxicating liquor, enter any coal mine or any of the buildings connected with the operation of same within the state, where miners or other workmen are employed, or whoever shall carry intoxicating liquors into the same shall be guilt…

All other provisions of this chapter, except those obviously peculiar to underground operations and also those specifically provided for in this article, are applicable to surface mining operations. All provisions contained in this article applicable to surface operations of unde…

(a) Guards. Excavations shall be provided with substantial barriers at points where passageways, tracks, roadways, or buildings adjoin such excavation. (b) Loose material. All pit walls shall be kept free of unsafe loose materials. Hazardous areas shall be flagged, and no work sh…

(a) Access. Safe means of access shall be provided to all working places in any pit. (b) Fastening ladders. All fixed ladders shall be properly installed, securely fastened and provided with back guards where necessary. At least three inches of toe clearance shall be provided. (c…

(a) Inspection. Shovels and draglines shall be inspected at the beginning of each shift, and such inspection shall include all mechanical equipment. Electrical equipment shall be regularly inspected by a qualified person. (b) Maintenance. Where mechanical shovels and draglines ar…

(a) Installations and inspections. All electrical equipment installations shall be approved and all electrical inspections made by a qualified person. (b) Grounding. (1) Where grounding wires are used to ground metallic sheaths, armors, conduits, frames, casings, and other metall…

(a) All exposed engines, wheels, screens, shafting, gears, belting, or other moving equipment shall be covered or adequately guarded in such a way as to make employees safe from injury through contact with such equipment. (b) The operator shall be responsible for the safe conditi…

Generally. (a)(1) “Blasting agent,” as used in this article, means any material consisting of a mixture of fuel and oxidizer which: a. Is used or intended for use in blasting; b. Is not classed as an explosive by the State Department of Transportation; c. Contains no ingredients …

(a) Only designated persons shall cut, cap, and issue capped fuses and explosives. (b) When cutting fuse, it shall be cut square across with a sharp clean instrument and the cap crimper used shall be of a type recommended by explosive manufacturers. A bench type crimper is recomm…

(a) All blasting shall be done in a safe manner after all persons have been removed to a safe place. (b) All blasting should be done electrically or with detonating fuse. (c) Primers shall be made up near the working place by competent persons experienced in handling explosives. …

(a) When loading or charging blast holes with electric detonators, all electric power within an unsafe distance of the place to be blasted shall be deenergized. (b) Electric blasting with blasting machines or special circuit is permissible. With blasting machines, connections sha…

Any coal mine superintendent, mine foreman or assistant mine foreman, or any other person or persons operating or controlling a coal mine, who shall receive or solicit any sum of money or other valuable consideration from any of his or their employees for the purpose of continuin…

(a) Explosives, excluding blasting agents, must be unloaded in a safe manner and at a safe distance from the blasting place. (b) If several boxes of explosives, except blasting agents, are deposited near the blasting circuit, the boxes shall be stacked in an orderly manner and pr…

(a) All compressed air receivers, cylinders, or other vessels used in or around surface mining operations shall be protected by safety or relief valves to insure safe operation. All oxygen, acetylene, or similar compressed gas cylinders shall comply with manufacturer’s recommenda…

(a) At or near every pit there shall be adequate approved first aid materials as follows: One stretcher and one broken-back board, or, if a splint stretcher combination is used, it will satisfy both the stretcher and broken-back board requirement; 24 triangular bandages (15, if a…

(a) Approved sanitary toilets shall be provided and kept in a clean and sanitary condition. Such toilets should be in a central location for use by employees. (b) Potable drinking water shall be provided for all employees. (c) Individual drinking cups or bubbling fountains shall …

In case of any occurrence or change of conditions tending materially to increase the hazards of pit operations, whether or not personal injury results, a report thereof shall be promptly sent to the department by the operator. History: (Acts 1949, No. 207, p. 242, §86.)

Any person acting as coal mine superintendent, mining engineer, other official or supervisor who gives orders that will require violation of this chapter, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. History: (Acts 1949, No. 207, p. 242, §105.)

There shall be appointed by the Secretary of Labor a sufficient number of mine inspectors and other employees, including at least one qualified mining engineer. History: (Acts 1949, No. 207, p. 242, §3; Acts 1975, 4th Ex. Sess., No. 147, p. 2866, §1.)

No person under the age of 18 shall be employed to work or labor in or about any coal mine in this state. History: (Code 1896, §2933; Code 1907, §1035; Acts 1911, No. 493, p. 500; Code 1923, §1724; Acts 1935, No. 193, p. 241; Code 1940, T. 26, §158; Acts 1949, No. 207, p. 242, §1…

The owner, operator, or lessee of any underground coal mine in this state shall make or cause to be made by a competent engineer an accurate and exact detail map of said mine, showing the exact position of said mine in reference to the section line, which shall be connected with …

Whenever the operator of any coal mine shall neglect or refuse or for any cause not satisfactory to the department fails to furnish to it the map or plan of such mine or a copy thereof or of the extension thereto, as provided for in this article, such operator shall be deemed gui…

If the department shall find that any map or plan of any coal mine made or furnished in pursuance of the provisions of this article is materially incomplete, inaccurate, or imperfect, then it may cause a correct survey and map or plan of said mine to be made at the expense of the…

The department shall order a survey to be made between the regular survey periods of the workings of any coal mines and the results to be extended on the maps of the same and the copies thereof whenever, in its judgment, the safety of the employees, the support of the surface, an…

When any coal mine is worked out or is about to be abandoned or indefinitely closed, the operator of the same shall make or cause to be made a final survey where not already made of all parts of such mine, and the results of the same shall be duly extended on all maps of the mine…

In no case shall the workings of any coal mine be driven nearer than 15 feet to the boundary line of the coal rights of the owner of said mine, except for the purpose of establishing an underground communication between contiguous mines as provided for elsewhere in this chapter. …

Whenever the owner, operator, or lessee of any land adjacent to other land on which any coal mine is being worked shall have reason to believe that such mine is being so worked as to encroach upon his land and has been refused by the owner, operator, or manager of the mine permis…

Any owner, operator, or manager of any mine who refuses to permit an adjacent owner or lessee of land or a competent engineer selected by him to enter and inspect such mine for the purpose of ascertaining whether the same is being so worked as to encroach upon the land of such ad…

The owner or operator of each coal mine at which the miners are paid by weight shall provide such mines with suitable scales of standard make for the weighing of all coal when contracted to be weighed. History: (Acts 1949, No. 207, p. 242, §97.)

All coal mined in this state contracted for payment by the ton or other measure shall be weighed or measured and the full weight or measure thereof shall be credited to the miner of such coal and 2,000 pounds shall constitute a ton of coal. History: (Acts 1949, No. 207, p. 242, §…

In all coal mines the miners employed and working therein may furnish a check weighman or check measurer who shall at all times have full access to and the right to examine the scales, and to see all measures and weights and accounts kept of same, and shall keep an accurate accou…

The weighman and check weighman shall properly test the scales with U.S. standard test weights before coal is weighed thereon. History: (Acts 1949, No. 207, p. 242, §99.)

The mine inspector, miners employed in the coal mines, and the owner of the land or persons interested in the rental and royalty of such mines shall at all times have full right of access to scales used at said mines, including tally sheets or tally books in which the weight of t…

Any person or corporation operating any coal mine in which miners or other laborers are employed to mine or cut coal for a compensation to be determined by the weight of the coal mined or cut, who fails to weigh or causes to be weighed accurately and correctly any coal so mined o…

(a) Whenever any equipment or supplies required by this chapter, including rock-dusting machines, flame safety lamps, and permissible electric equipment are unobtainable, compliance with the requirements of this chapter with respect thereto is suspended to the extent that such it…

It shall be the duty of the superintendent, mine foreman, subordinate supervisors, fire bosses, or mine examiners, and other officials to comply with and to see that others comply with the provisions of this chapter. History: (Acts 1949, No. 207, p. 242, §65.)

It shall be the duty of all employees and check weighmen to comply with this chapter and to cooperate with management and the division in carrying out the provisions of this chapter. Reasonable rules and regulations of the operators for the protection of employees and preservatio…

The operator of every coal mine shall make to the department a correct report each three months of the calendar year specifying the name of the owner and operator of the mine and the location of the offices of said coal mine or mines and the quantity and kind of coal produced in …

For the purpose of making known the rules and provisions of this chapter to all persons employed in or about coal mines to which this law applies, an abstract of the law and rules shall be furnished by the department and posted up in legible character in some conspicuous place or…

Any mine inspector shall have the authority to order suspension of operations of a coal mine or pit or any part thereof when violations of this chapter are of such gravity as to be or become imminently hazardous to workmen therein. Upon correction of such hazardous conditions, th…

The decisions and orders of an inspector shall take effect as he shall specify in a written notice to the superintendent of said mine and shall not be subject to review unless within 10 days after giving such notice the owner or operator shall have appealed to the chief for such …