MSHA requires training for new miners and refresher training for experienced miners

SO, YOU WANT TO BE A MINER. (In Central Florida, that would be surface mining, mainly for phosphate.) In addition to a comprehensive orientation from the company you hire on with, some federally mandated training is involved. The requirements, for both new and experienced miners, come from MSHA, the Mine Safety and Health Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Labor. In an earlier blog article, we noted that MSHA (pronounced em-shuh) basically is for the U.S. mining industry what OSHA — another Labor department agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration — is for all other workplace environments.

Locally, in the 1.3 million-acre fossil-rich area known as the Bone Valley — falling in parts of Polk, Hillsborough, Manatee, and Hardee counties — where most of Florida’s phosphate mining takes place, Safety Solutions & Supply is the leading provider of MSHA-required miner training. Our team our MSHA-certified instructors is fully prepared to support the agency’s Part 46 and Part 48 training needs for mining-related companies and their employees.

Up to 23 of the dozens of training courses we offer can benefit miners (see the list online here, but two clearly stand out — MSHA New Miner Training and MSHA Experienced Miner Refresher Training. Our new-miner training course addresses the initial 24-hour training requirements of the MSHA provisions called Part 46 and Part 48. Part 46 training pertains to surface-mining operations for sand, gravel, stone, crushed stone, limestone, clay, shell dredging, and colloidal (soft rock) phosphate mining. Part 48 pertains to all other surface and underground mining operations.

MSHA requires that every newly employed miner complete new-miner training within a specified time period after starting work at a mine. If the miner is considered experienced, the miner must receive experienced-miner training, an eight-hour refresher course.

Because the introduction to this article addressed want-to-be miners, we’ll focus here on our MSHA New Miner Training course. In this course, our instructors provide an excellent overview and introduction to the mining process and general information on local surface-mining activities. The program also covers several more important topics, including but not limited to:

  • Recent statistics

  • Leading causes of accidents and fatalities

  • Safety, hazards, and risks

  • Job safety analysis (JSA)

  • Miner rights

  • Legal responsibilities

  • Safety equipment inspection

  • Escape, rescue plans, and considerations

  • Traffic control guidelines

  • Fall protection

Each student who successful completes new miner training will receive an official 5000-23 certificate approved by MSHA.

For more about MSHA-required training through Safety Solutions & Supply, go to solutionsinsafety.com/training/msha/. For course schedules, go to solutionsinsafety.com/upcoming-events/.

For more information about Safety Solutions & Supply — its team, services, other training programs, and safety products — visit us online at solutionsinsafety.com or call 1-866-537-2262.