Mine Safety Disclosures Required In SEC Reports

Note: This article was published in the January 2012 issue of the MSHA/OSHA Report.

Final Rule

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has promulgated its final rule on mine safety disclosures that must be included in quarterly and annual reports filed by publicly-traded companies involved in mining operations. It also specifies the types of MSHA enforcement actions that will trigger a four-day filing requirement for 8-K reports by mining companies. The rule implements the requirements added by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and will appear in 17 C.F.R. Parts 229, 239, 249.

Mine operators had already been filing such reports in compliance with the Dodd-Frank Act, and were somewhat guided in doing this by the language of the Act itself and by the SEC's proposed rule. The final rule now solidifies what is required for these reports. The requirements are mostly identical to what appeared in the proposed rule, but there are some