MINE DETAILS
BELCHER BRANCH
MSHA MINE ID4609474
LOCATION
Mine location
1 of 1 mine with usable MSHA coordinates. Select a marker to open a mine.
Mine coordinates
- BELCHER BRANCH37.54639, -81.50444Open map ↗
Quarterly trends
2025 Q1 – 2026 Q4
Database snapshot · 2026-10-13. MSHA quarterly production and employment reports.
Coal production
199,251reported short tons
Hours worked
151,898reported employee hours
Tons per hour
1.31production ÷ hours worked
Missing values appear as —. Totals use available reports. Tons per hour requires production and hours for the same quarters and a nonzero hours total. * Striped bars mark partial mine coverage or an incomplete quarter. See the table for coverage.
Quarterly data and reporting coverage
| Quarter | Coal (short tons) | Hours worked | Tons / hour | Avg. employees | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 Q1 | 21,937 | 28,400 | 0.77 | 51 | 1/1 mines reporting |
| 2025 Q2 | 8,630 | 20,058 | 0.43 | 42 | 1/1 mines reporting |
| 2025 Q3 | 52,984 | 30,435 | 1.74 | 61 | 1/1 mines reporting |
| 2025 Q4 | 56,426 | 21,313 | 2.65 | 61 | 1/1 mines reporting |
| 2026 Q1 | 22,558 | 20,920 | 1.08 | 69 | 1/1 mines reporting |
| 2026 Q2 | 36,716 | 30,772 | 1.19 | 67 | 1/1 mines reporting |
| 2026 Q3 | — | — | — | — | No report |
| 2026 Q4 | — | — | — | — | No report |
Safety and enforcement
2025-01-01 – 2026-10-13
Violations
486137 significant & substantial (S&S)
Accident records
160 records classified as fatality
Proposed penalties · USD
2,621,933.00454 of 486 violations with amounts
On-site inspection hours
1,597.7589 inspections · 89 with hours
Counts are published records, including contractor records. * The quarter was incomplete at the snapshot date; recent counts may rise as reports arrive. — means no reported amount or hours. Portfolio totals use current membership.
Quarterly safety data
| Quarter | Violations | S&S | Proposed USD | Accident records | Fatality records | Inspections | On-site hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-Q1 | 113 | 28 | 629,673.00 | 2 | 0 | 16 | 325.5 |
| 2025-Q2 | 64 | 18 | 219,724.00 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 174.0 |
| 2025-Q3 | 71 | 29 | 791,048.00 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 225.8 |
| 2025-Q4 | 77 | 11 | 228,424.00 | 5 | 0 | 9 | 221.3 |
| 2026-Q1 | 52 | 15 | 331,382.00 | 4 | 0 | 8 | 192.8 |
| 2026-Q2 | 53 | 23 | 379,872.00 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 224.5 |
| 2026-Q3 | 56 | 13 | 41,810.00 | 4 | 0 | 20 | 229.0 |
| 2026-Q4 * | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5.0 |
Most cited CFR sections
All violations issued in the selected period. Counts combine subsections.
Safety activity
Spot Inspection · 5.0 on-site hours
Spot Inspection · 0.0 on-site hours
103(i) Spot Inspections · 6.5 on-site hours
75.1732(a) · S&S
75.342(a)(4)
Spot Inspection · 17.3 on-site hours
75.1100-3
75.1106-3(a)(2)
75.1600-2(e)
75.1100-2(b)
75.400
75.1722(a) · S&S
75.503
75.1505(b)
103(i) Spot Inspections · 4.5 on-site hours
Spot Inspection · 6.0 on-site hours
75.400
75.370(a)(1)
75.370(a)(1)
75.202(a) · S&S
75.370(a)(1)
Verbal Hazard Complaint Inspections · 12.5 on-site hours
75.900-4
75.503
75.900-3
Safety sources and definitions
MSHA Violations (issue date), Accidents (accident date), and Inspections (begin date). Snapshot 2026-10-13.
Counts describe published rows, including contractor records; accident records are not distinct incidents or numbers of people injured.
Zero means no matching records in the imported sources, not proof of no events. Historical coverage differs by source; absence before a source begins reporting is not a zero incident rate. Invalid or absent dates and records after the snapshot are excluded.
S&S means SIG_SUB=Y. Fatality records use DEGREE_INJURY_CD=01. Proposed penalties are not final assessed or paid amounts; missing dollar values are omitted.
Inspection hours are SUM_TOTAL_ON_SITE_HOURS attributed to the inspection start date, without supervisor/trainee hours. Missing hours are omitted; a started inspection may still be open.
Portfolio totals use current mine membership, including events before the current owner or operator's tenure.
CFR headings link to the current Title 30 index; they are not historical legal determinations.
EIA-923 · COAL RECEIPTS
Coal shipments and quality
Receipts reported by power plants and terminals, matched by MSHA mine ID.
No receipts matched this mine in the selected period. EIA-923 does not cover all mine sales, exports or metallurgical coal shipments.
Delivered cost includes transport and is not mine revenue. Missing prices remain blank. * Fewer than three months are published in the selected quarter. Receipts reflect the months EIA has published; an unfinished quarter is not comparable with a full quarter. Portfolio matches use current ownership.
Coverage, sources and calculations
- Reported coal receipts at EIA-923 power plants/terminals; this is not a census of mine shipments, exports or metallurgical sales.
- Matches use only the published MSHA ID, normalized to seven digits. Unidentified mine origins remain in the source table but are not assigned to a mine.
- Portfolio attribution uses current MSHA ownership, not ownership at the shipment date. Receipts and production can differ because of timing, stocks and coverage.
- Quality means are weighted by positive reported tons with that measurement. Delivered cost uses only rows with published cost, positive heat and positive tons; missing/withheld costs are never zero-filled.
- USD/ton = (cents/MMBtu ÷ 100) × MMBtu/ton. This is plant delivered cost, not mine sales price or revenue.
- Receipt month is as published, including records supplied by annual respondents. Recent months are preliminary and subject to revision. Missing rows do not prove zero shipments.
Imported releases start 2008-01. This window includes 12 published months. EIA releases · Survey instructions
- 2026 · preliminary · EIA923_Schedules_2_3_4_5_M_07_2026_21SEP2026.xlsx · Page 5 Fuel Receipts and Costs
- 2025 · final · EIA923_Schedules_2_3_4_5_M_12_2025_Final.xlsx · Page 5 Fuel Receipts and Costs
EIA ANNUAL COAL REPORT · 2024
Coal prices and estimated revenue
Annual county prices and a production-based allocation of county coal sales.
The estimate assumes each eligible mine receives its county-average price and shares county sales in proportion to production. Actual sales and prices can differ substantially. All producing annual records in this selection have estimates. Annual price data uses a separate window from the MSHA charts.
| Mine / county | Annual production · tons | County FOB · USD/ton | Est. sales · tons | Est. coal revenue · USD | Basis / availability |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belcher Branch4609474 · Wyoming, West Virginia | 87,127 | 151.85 | 88,772 | 13,480,037 | County allocation estimate1.32% of eligible county production18 eligible mines / 18 sales respondents |
Method, assumptions and source records
- This is an annual county-sales allocation, not reported mine or company revenue. Currency is nominal USD in the source year; quantities are short tons.
- Mine share = same-year annual mine production / eligible same-county production. Estimated sales = published county sales × share. Estimated coal revenue = estimated sales × published county average FOB price.
- The model assumes eligible mines share county sales in proportion to production and receive the county-average price. Matching mine counts is a check, not proof of identical respondents. Mine quality, contracts and sales timing can differ substantially. No statistical confidence interval is implied.
- FOB excludes transport and insurance. EIA-923 delivered costs do not enter this model. No grade premium, state/national fallback, quarterly apportionment or carry-forward to a later year is applied.
- Eligibility follows the source's production threshold and excludes preparation-only and refuse operations. Withheld values, inconsistent county counts and missing/ambiguous locations produce no estimate.
- County sales are published in thousands of tons and prices to cents. Calculations retain precision, but the inputs are rounded and the allocation is approximate.
- Portfolio attribution uses current MSHA ownership, not ownership during the sales year. Covered-mine sums exclude unavailable estimates and must not be read as whole-company revenue. Coverage denominators use the annual EIA mine-production release.
Sales-reporting threshold: 50,000 short tons per mine in 2024. Withheld sales or prices stay unavailable.
EIA Table 30 · county sales and FOB prices · EIA annual mine production · Release index
Annual report released November 19, 2025. Method: county-sales-allocation-v1. JSON and CSV preserve source row numbers and file checksums.
OWNERSHIP
Operator and controller history
Current ownership comes from MSHA Mines. Historical start and end dates come from MSHA Controller and Operator History.
—
James C Justice IIIcontrolsFrontier Coal CompanyoperatesBELCHER BRANCH
msha-controller-operator-history · controller/operator co-tenure derived on mine 4609474—
Mechel OaocontrolsFrontier Coal CompanyoperatesBELCHER BRANCH
msha-controller-operator-history · controller/operator co-tenure derived on mine 4609474—
James C Justice lll et alcontrolsFrontier Coal CompanyoperatesBELCHER BRANCH
msha-controller-operator-history · controller/operator co-tenure derived on mine 4609474—
Jillean L Justice et alcontrolsFrontier Coal CompanyoperatesBELCHER BRANCH
msha-controller-operator-history · controller/operator co-tenure derived on mine 4609474—
James C Justice II et alcontrolsFrontier Coal CompanyoperatesBELCHER BRANCH
msha-controller-operator-history · controller/operator co-tenure derived on mine 4609474—
James C Justice II et alcontrolsFrontier Coal CompanyoperatesBELCHER BRANCH
msha-controller-operator-history · controller/operator co-tenure derived on mine 4609474—
James C Justice II et alcontrolsEnergy Plus IncoperatesBELCHER BRANCH
msha-controller-operator-history · controller/operator co-tenure derived on mine 4609474—
Mechel OaocontrolsEnergy Plus IncoperatesBELCHER BRANCH
msha-controller-operator-history · controller/operator co-tenure derived on mine 4609474Other historical summaries · source-specific periods
RECORD SUMMARY
Production, safety and enforcement
These summaries use the periods stated on each card, independently of the reporting period above.
01 / SAFETYwatch
Accidents and injuries
28 historical accident/injury rows; 0 coded fatalities and 639 lost days across the published record.
ACCIDENT + INJURY RECORD28 since 2021
accidentsmine-production-quarterly02 / COMPLIANCEwatch
Violations and penalties
1,492 violation rows across the full record; 396 carry an S&S flag and $4,844,667 appears in current assessed amounts.
ENFORCEMENT ACTIVITY1,492 since 2021
inspectionsviolationsassessed-violationsorders-107a03 / HEALTHwatch
Occupational health samples
581 coal dust; 40 coal quartz; 33 noise. 0 personal-sample rows have a published C/E ratio above 1; 2 noise rows have an action-level or PEL dose above 100%. These are separate measures, not a silica exceedance count. Silica results and sample status are shown separately.
OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE654 samples
coal-dust-samplesquartz-samplesnoise-samples04 / PRODUCTIONcontext
Quarterly production and employment
31K employee hours and 67 summed average employees across reported subunits in the latest published quarter.
2026-Q237K tons
mine-production-quarterlymine-production-yearly05 / LEGALwatch
Contests, conferences and decisions
558 contested-violation rows, 558 civil-penalty docket/decision rows, and 80 conference records linked by issuance number.
POST-ISSUANCE LIFECYCLE1,196 linked rows
conferencescontested-violationscivil-penalty-dockets-decisions06 / CONTRACTORScontext
Contractors
Contractors are linked through this mine’s violation or accident records. Their production and hours cover all their operations, so they are not included in this mine’s totals.
ENTITY-LEVEL CONTEXT4 linked entities
contractor-production-quarterlycontractor-production-yearlyaccidentsviolations07 / INSPECTIONScontext
Inspections
170 inspection events and 5K published inspection hours across the historical record.
OVERSIGHT COVERAGE170 since 2021
inspectionsviolationsHEALTH SAMPLING
Silica and quartz
Coal quartz, metal/nonmetal personal samples and area samples. Snapshot Oct 13, 2026. 40 silica records across the mine’s published history.
Coal quartz concentration
Quarterly mean · µg/m³ · not-voided samples
— No eligible measurements. * Quarter in progress. Means describe the available samples, not average exposure across the mine.
Quartz % is the sample’s quartz content; µg/m³ is its reported concentration. Personal C/E is the ratio to the limit published with that sample. Personal and area concentration units and void status are not specified in those source files.
| Date / sample | Dataset / analyte | Occupation / area | Measurement | Sample status | Published action |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 58593425 / lab 2026026103 | Coal quartzQuartz | ROOF BOLTER (TWIN HEAD) (RETURN SIDE)NON DESIGNATED OCCUPATION | 10 µg/m³5.4% quartz | Not voided | Not reported |
| 58593379 / lab 2026026107 | Coal quartzQuartz | SHUTTLE CAR OPERATOR (STANDARD SIDE)NON DESIGNATED OCCUPATION | 5 µg/m³2.9% quartz | Not voided | Not reported |
| 58574356 / lab 2026004864 | Coal quartzQuartz | CONTINUOUS MINER OPERATORDESIGNATED OCCUPATION | 8 µg/m³2.2% quartz | Not voided | Not reported |
| 58574349 / lab 2026004862 | Coal quartzQuartz | ROOF BOLTER (TWIN HEAD) (RETURN SIDE)NON DESIGNATED OCCUPATION | 18 µg/m³3.5% quartz | Not voided | Not reported |
| 58574350 / lab 2026004863 | Coal quartzQuartz | SHUTTLE CAR OPERATOR (STANDARD SIDE)NON DESIGNATED OCCUPATION | 4 µg/m³2% quartz | Not voided | Not reported |
Sources and interpretation
- Coal means use numeric concentrations from samples marked not voided, excluding control/invalid sample types and dates after the snapshot. Missing values remain null; reported zeroes remain zero.
- Quarterly means describe available samples, not mine-wide or worker-average exposure. Quarters with no eligible measurements remain empty; the current quarter is partial.
- Personal C/E is MSHA's published concentration-to-limit ratio. A value above 1 is not by itself a citation or a determination under the 2024 silica rule. Personal and area files do not publish a void-status field.
- Area records include bulk-dust analyses and are kept separate from personal exposure results. Their concentration units are not specified in the source dictionary.
- Missing samples do not establish safe conditions. Coal quartz percentage and concentration are separate measures. No compliance threshold is inferred for coal samples.
Coal quartz field definitions ↗Metal/nonmetal personal field definitions ↗Metal/nonmetal area field definitions ↗
EIA + TITLE 30
EIA production and cited regulations
EIA annual figures are reported separately from MSHA. Regulation links use the current eCFR snapshot.
ANNUAL COAL PRODUCTION87,127short tons
- LABOR HOURS
- 87,071
- AVG EMPLOYEES
- 43
- SUPPLY REGION
- Appalachia Central
- UNION
- No union code published
- OPERATION
- Mine only
- COMPANY TYPE
- Operating Subsidiary
1 published EIA row aggregated under this MSHA ID. Components remain available in JSON.
30 CFR 75.1732Proximity detection systems.1 recent row ↗30 CFR 75.342Methane monitors.1 recent row ↗30 CFR 75.1100-3Condition and examination of firefighting equipment.1 recent row ↗30 CFR 75.1106-3Storage of liquefied and nonliquefied compressed gas cylinders; requirements.1 recent row ↗30 CFR 75.1600-2Communication facilities; working sections; installation and maintenance requirements; audible or visual alarms.1 recent row ↗30 CFR 75.1100-2Quantity and location of firefighting equipment.1 recent row ↗30 CFR 75.400Accumulation of combustible materials.2 recent rows ↗30 CFR 75.1722Mechanical equipment guards.1 recent row ↗
RECENT PUBLIC RECORDS
Recent violations and samples
Latest records retained for inspection; aggregates above use the full source history.
509275875.1732(a)S&S
509275775.342(a)(4)Citation
502862175.1100-3Citation
502862075.1106-3(a)(2)Citation
502861975.1600-2(e)Citation
502861875.1100-2(b)Citation
502861775.400Citation
502861675.1722(a)S&S
Coal dust, noise and other contaminants. Silica records above ↑
Coal dustDISPATCHER
.056 mg/m³Not voided
Coal dustFIRE BOSS PRE-SHIFT EXAMINER
.13 mg/m³Not voided
Coal dustCONTINUOUS MINER OPERATOR
.088 mg/m³Not voided
Coal dustHIGHLIFT OPERATOR/FRONT END LOADER
.043 mg/m³Not voided
Coal dustOCCUPATION CODE NOT FOUND
.019 mg/m³Not voided
Coal dustROOF BOLTER (TWIN HEAD) (INTAKE SIDE)
.189 mg/m³Not voided
Coal dustSCOOP CAR OPERATOR
.214 mg/m³Not voided
Coal dustSHUTTLE CAR OPERATOR (STANDARD SIDE)
.178 mg/m³Not voided
SOURCE COVERAGE
Reporting dates and coverage
17 datasets contain linked records. Missing datasets are listed below.
DATASETROWSWINDOWSTATUS
Accident, Injuries, and Illnessessafety · contractors28Oct 4, 2022—Aug 29, 2026mine-keyed
Addresses of Recordidentity · logistics1Oct 6, 2026—Oct 6, 2026mine-keyed
Assessed Violationscompliance · legal1,423Feb 24, 2022—Sep 1, 2026mine-keyed
Civil Penalty Dockets and Decisionscompliance · legal558Jun 13, 2023—Nov 19, 2025mine-keyed
Coal Dust Sampleshealth · safety581May 4, 2022—Jun 23, 2026mine-keyed
Conferencescompliance · legal80Jun 17, 2021—Aug 4, 2026mine-keyed
Contested Violationscompliance · legal558Feb 24, 2022—Jun 30, 2025mine-keyed
Contractor Employment and Production — Quarterlycontractors · production · safety378Not published—Not publishedentity-linked
Contractor Employment and Production — Yearlycontractors · production · safety88Not published—Not publishedentity-linked
Controller and Operator Historyidentity · compliance8Mar 13, 2013—Mar 11, 2021mine-keyed
Mine Employment and Production — Quarterlyproduction · safety · compliance58Not published—Not publishedmine-keyed
Mine Employment and Production — Yearlyproduction · safety · compliance10Not published—Not publishedmine-keyed
Inspectionssafety · compliance170Mar 5, 2021—Oct 7, 2026mine-keyed
Minesidentity · production · logistics1Not published—Not publishedmine-keyed
Metal and Nonmetal Area Sampleshealth · safety—No published rowsabsent / not applicable
Metal and Nonmetal Personal Health Sampleshealth · safety—No published rowsabsent / not applicable
Noise Sampleshealth · safety · equipment33Dec 6, 2022—Jun 23, 2026mine-keyed
Quartz Samples — Coalhealth · safety40Jul 21, 2022—Jun 23, 2026mine-keyed
Violationscompliance · safety · legal1,492Mar 5, 2021—Sep 30, 2026mine-keyed
107(a) Orders Issuedsafety · compliance—No published rowsabsent / not applicable
NOTES
Limitations
- Contractor production is entity-level and is never represented as mine-attributable.
- Missing rows can mean no event, publication delay, identity mismatch, or inapplicability.