MSHA Citations and Penalties Dropped in 2025: What Mining Contractors Need to Know
According to Pit & Quarry, mining safety attorney Bill Doran of Ogletree Deakins outlined a measurable shift in MSHA’s enforcement activity during an interview published May 6, 2026, drawing on data from 2024 and 2025 and reflecting on the agency’s current direction under new leadership.
Fewer Citations, Lower Penalties — But Don’t Get Comfortable
Doran, a shareholder in Ogletree Deakins’ Washington, D.C., office whose practice focuses on safety and health law, spoke at the Pit & Quarry Roundtable & Conference in Naples, Florida, last month and sat for a follow-up interview on April 1. He noted that MSHA issued approximately 94,000 citations nationwide in 2024. That number dropped by roughly 7,000 to 8,000 citations in 2025. Civil penalties followed the same trend, falling from $71 million in 2024 to $64 million in 2025.
Doran attributed part of this shift to Wayne Palmer, who became MSHA’s assistant secretary in October and has signaled a preference for cooperation and collaboration with mine operators over citation-padding. Palmer reportedly told attendees at ConExpo-Con/Agg that he wants to continue “calling balls and strikes” — writing citations where warranted, but not to inflate statistics. Doran also noted that the drop reflects not just fewer citations, but lower gravity in those citations, with fewer high-negligence and unwarrantable-failure findings compared to the previous administration.
What It Means for Subcontractors
- Citation counts are down, but inspections continue. Fewer citations does not mean fewer inspections. Subcontractors working at aggregate operations, quarries, and surface mines should maintain full compliance programs — MSHA still writes citations, just with a different emphasis.
- Unwarrantable failure and high-negligence citations appear less common right now. These carry the steepest penalties and can trigger pattern-of-violations reviews. The current posture offers a window to address any lingering compliance gaps before enforcement philosophy potentially shifts again.
- The crystalline silica rule is still in play. Doran discussed the agency’s silica rule at the conference. Subcontractors running drills, crushers, or other dust-generating equipment at mine sites should track updates to that rule closely, as it will directly affect exposure monitoring and controls.
- Palmer’s “cooperation” approach rewards operators who engage proactively. Subcontractors who document safety programs, respond constructively to inspector concerns, and communicate openly with MSHA are better positioned under this posture than those who take an adversarial stance.
- Fatality trends could reverse the cooperative tone. Doran flagged that a rise in mining fatalities could prompt MSHA to tighten enforcement. Subcontractors should not treat the current environment as a sustained rollback — conditions can change quickly.
