Mining Incidents

Coal Branch No.1 Mine Coal

Rockwell Mining LLC · Underground
Wharton, Boone County, WV  ·  NonProducing
MSHA Mine ID: 4609588

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Fatalities
0
Total incidents
5
Years on record
2020–2025
Latest incident
Dec 2025
Compliance record
MSHA citations since 2020
683
citations
120
significant & substantial
$536,881
proposed penalties
$433,270
paid to date
Source: MSHA violations data, updated weekly.
Quarterly safety rates
Citations per million employee-hours, as reported to MSHA
Quarter Hours worked Citations S&S Per 1M hrs
2025 Q4 27,287 33 2 1209.4
2025 Q3 32,491 20 1 615.6
2025 Q2 28,468 11 4 386.4
2025 Q1 2,050 18 7 8780.5
2024 Q3 33,585 26 5 774.2
2024 Q2 52,424 44 12 839.3
2024 Q1 38,807 25 3 644.2
2023 Q4 35,711 25 2 700.1
Quarters under 100,000 reported hours are greyed: too few hours for a stable rate.
No fatalities recorded at this mine.

Reportable incidents

5 on file

2025 · 1 incident

December 3, 2025 WV · Coal roof bolter, rock bolter, pinner, mobile roof support operator (mrs) HANDTOOLS (NONPOWERED)
Rockwell Mining LLC · Struck by... (Not Elsewhere Classified)

Employee stated EE was tightening a bolt on a belt clamp with channel locks, the bolt broke as EE was pulling it towards EE causing EE to hit EE's mouth losing EE's tooth. Employee had a root canal on EE's tooth on 03/16/2026

2022 · 1 incident

December 6, 2022 WV · Coal lw propman, propman helper, move crew if lw, move-up man, jacksetter, advanceman lw helper HANDLING OF MATERIALS
Rockwell Mining LLC · Caught in, under or between a moving and a stationary object

Employee stated EE was at the section tailpiece attempting to remove the water manifold from the waterline using a crib block to strike the manifold when EE's hand slipped mid swing, and EE mashed EE's right middle finger between the crib block and the cut off valve for the bull line.

2021 · 2 incidents

December 27, 2021 WV · Coal bull gang foreman, labor foreman, leadman, section foreman, shift boss FALL OF ROOF OR BACK
Rockwell Mining LLC · Struck by falling object

Employee stated went to retrieve wedges, and started to walk away when a rock dislodged from the roof striking EE in the back, sliding to EE's legs pinning them to mine floor, employee yelled for help. Co-worker arrived first and removed the rock. Employee was brought to surface, transported to Hospital and diagnosed with a fractured vertebrae and continues to be off work.

June 30, 2021 WV · Coal roof bolter, rock bolter, pinner, mobile roof support operator (mrs) MACHINERY
Rockwell Mining LLC · Caught in, under or between a moving and a stationary object

Employee Stated they had adjusted the drill pot on a DDr13 roof bolter and was watching it while bolt partner raised the drill pot and got the tip of left pinky finger caught between the longarm and the drill pot. Employee got medical treatment on 7/12/21 and was placed on restricted duty.

2020 · 1 incident

December 9, 2020 WV · Coal electrician, lineman HANDLING OF MATERIALS
Rockwell Mining LLC · Struck by falling object

Employee stated while attempting to remove the cat idler on the operator side it got stuck. When it freed up it fell on employee's right pinky finger smashing it causing employee to receive 2 stitches.