The workplace examination is the most frequent compliance obligation in mining — it happens every shift, at every working place, forever. That cadence is exactly why it's also one of the most-cited: a control that runs thousands of times a year has thousands of chances to slip. Here's what the rule requires and where operators get tripped up.

What the rule requires

The obligation lives in MSHA's standards for a competent person to examine each working place:

  • 30 CFR 56.18002 — surface metal and nonmetal mines
  • 30 CFR 57.18002 — underground metal and nonmetal mines
  • 30 CFR 77.1713 — surface coal mines

The shared core: a competent person examines each working place at least once each shift for conditions that may adversely affect safety or health. "Competent person" means someone with the training, experience, and ability to both recognize hazards and evaluate them — not just anyone on the crew.

The three things an exam has to do

For metal and nonmetal operations, the modernized workplace-exam rule sharpened three points:

  1. Examine before or as work begins. The examination of a working place happens before miners begin work there, or as they begin, so hazards are found before someone is exposed to them.
  2. Notify promptly. When an adverse condition is found, miners in the affected area are promptly notified, and conditions that present an imminent danger get people out immediately.
  3. Make a record — the same day. A record of each examination is made before the end of the shift.

What the record must contain

This is where most citations are written. The exam record has to include:

  • The date of the examination
  • The name of the person who did it (the competent person)
  • The location — each working place examined
  • A description of each adverse condition found, and
  • The date of the corrective action taken

A record that says "examined — OK" with a signature is not enough on a shift where a condition existed. And a record that logs the condition but never shows the correction leaves the loop open. The regulation wants the whole arc: found, notified, fixed, dated.

Keep the records for at least one year, and make them available to MSHA and to miners' representatives.

Where operators get tripped up

Four recurring failure modes account for most exam citations:

  • The record lives in a truck. The exam got done, but the paper is in a cab, a clipboard, or someone's memory — not in a system where it can be produced on demand. When the inspector asks, "show me last Tuesday's night-shift exam of the crusher area," the answer has to be immediate.
  • Conditions logged, corrections never closed. The adverse condition is noted but the corrective-action date never gets filled in, so the record reads as an open hazard indefinitely.
  • A working place with no exam. A newly opened or infrequently worked area never gets added to the exam rotation and quietly goes unexamined.
  • The wrong person. The exam is delegated to someone who doesn't meet the competent-person bar.

Why this is a data problem

Every one of those failure modes is about records and follow-through, not about walking the ground. The competent person still has to physically examine the working place — no software changes that. What software changes is whether the record is complete, produced on demand, and closed out.

SE Worldwide records the workplace exam on a phone, offline, deep in a pit with no signal — examiner, working place, shift, date — and syncs it when a connection returns. Adverse conditions are logged against the exam and stay flagged until a correction date is entered or a corrective action is raised and closed, so nothing sits open silently. Recurring schedules make sure every working place — including new ones — is on the rotation, and a due-or-overdue exam notifies the examiner rather than waiting to be noticed. When the inspector asks for last Tuesday's night shift, it's one search.

That's the difference between a rule you comply with every shift and a rule you hope you complied with every shift.

This article is general information about health, safety, and environmental regulations, not legal or compliance advice. Rules change and apply differently by site — verify against the current regulation and your own obligations. See our Terms of Use.