On Wednesday, the US Mine Safety and Health Administration said the mines, including four in West Virginia, were all violating the outlines of Section 104(e) of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977.

The mines that received PPOV letters were:

• Marfork Coal’s Parker Peerless mine in Raleigh County, West Virginia
• Pay Car Mining’s No. 58 in McDowell County, West Virginia
• Pine Ridge Coal’s Big Mountain No. 16 in Boone County, West Virginia (previously received PPOV notice in October 2009)
• Rio Group’s Coalburg No. 2 in Logan County, West Virginia
• Nine Mile Mining’s No. 3 in Wise County, Virginia
• Manalapan Mining’s RB No. 12 in Harlan County, Kentucky
• Big Ridge’s Willow Lake Portal in Saline County, Illinois (previously received PPOV notice in November 2010)

In addition to the eight mines given PPOV notices, there are other operations still under PPOV consideration, including mines for which the agency is still verifying self-reported injury information to ensure accuracy.

In October 2010, just after an initial screening for PPOV status, MSHA issued four additional notices following an audit that revealed those mines had not accurately reported injury data.

“In April, MSHA briefed stakeholders on a new and transparent online tool that allows mine operators to regularly monitor their compliance and injury records under the PPOV initial screening criteria and make adjustments to improve health and safety accordingly,” assistant secretary of labour for mine safety and health Joseph Main said.

“Unfortunately, some operators either did not use this tool or did not respond with effective improvements.”

MSHA’s newly-introduced online PPOV monitoring tool also allows anyone, including operators and miners, to determine how a mine matches up with screening data for a potential pattern of violations using the most recent data available.

It is based on enforcement data and is refreshed monthly – officials used information available as of September 30 for the most recent PPOV list.

The mine safety act provides for greater enforcement at mines exhibiting a pattern of violations of significant and substantial violations and the agency can screen for PPOV mines at least once a year.

Those receiving PPOV notices can implement corrective action programs and have the opportunity to reduce S&S rates to the agency’s targets.

Operators not meeting the targets are subject to a notice for a pattern of violations and closure orders for all of the S&S violations.

In April, Bledsoe Coal’s Abner Branch Rider mine in Kentucky and The New West Virginia Mining Company’s Apache mine in West Virginia became the first two mines in the mine safety act’s history to be subject to the full effect of PPOV enforcement action.