The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) released a new
final rule for the Pattern of Violations (POV) status designation
which will go into effect March 25, 2013. The POV designation,
which has been around since the Mine Act of 1977, has not received
much attention from regulators until the last few
years — no mine had been placed on POV status until
2011 — but will now be an enforcement focus and mine
operators should be aware of the potential impact of the new
rule.
The new rule establishes criteria and procedures MSHA will use
to identify mines with a pattern of violations. However, MSHA will
no longer be required to provide notice of a potential POV
designation and may instead directly issue a notice of POV. Under
the new rule, MSHA will be allowed to consider pending orders
during a POV review and will no longer be limited to only final
orders. Once designated as a POV mine, the mine will have to
complete a mine-wide inspection, without a finding of a
