Report a Mine Accident

Dave Matthews mans the Emergency Operations Center

The New Mexico Mine Accident Emergency Operations Center is located at New Mexico Technical Institute of Mining and Technology and is run by the Bureau of Mine Safety. It is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The toll free telephone number for reporting accidents 24 hours a day is:

1- 866-761-6039

Mine Accident? Call:
                  MSHA                 1-800-746-1553         within 15 minutes of the event
                  NM State            1-866-761-6039         within 30 minutes of the event

Accident means:  
(1) A death of an individual at a mine;
(2) An injury to an individual at a mine which has a reasonable potential to cause death;
(3) An entrapment of an individual for more than thirty minutes;
(4) An unplanned inundation of a mine by a liquid or gas;
(5) An unplanned ignition or explosion of gas or dust;
(6) An unplanned mine fire not extinguished within 10 minutes for underground mines or 30 minutes for surface mines of discovery;
(7) An unplanned ignition or explosion of a blasting agent or an explosive;
(8) An unplanned roof fall at or above the anchorage zone in active workings where roof bolts are in use; or, an unplanned roof or rib fall in active workings that impairs ventilation or impedes passage;
(9) A coal or rock outburst that causes withdrawal of miners or which disrupts regular mining activity for more than one hour;
(10) An unstable condition at an impoundment, refuse pile, or culm bank which requires emergency action in order to prevent failure, or which causes individuals to evacuate an area; or, failure of an impoundment, refuse pile, or culm bank;
(11) Damage to hoisting equipment in a shaft or slope which endangers an individual or which interferes with use of the equipment for more than thirty minutes; and
(12) An event at a mine which causes death or bodily injury to an individual not at the mine at the time the event occurs.

All of the accidents as listed above require notification to the State Mine Inspector at the Bureau of Mine Safety in Socorro, New Mexico within 30 minutes of the event.

Mine means:
(1) An area of land from which minerals are extracted in nonliquid form or, if in liquid form, are extracted with workers underground
(2) private ways and roads appurtenant to such area, and
(3) lands, excavations, underground passageways, shafts, slopes, tunnels and workings, structures, facilities, equipment, machines, tools, or other property including impoundments, retention dams, and tailings ponds, on the surface or underground, used in, or to be used in, or resulting from, the work of extracting such minerals from their natural deposits in nonliquid form, or if in liquid form, with workers underground, or used in, or to be used in, the milling of such minerals, or the work of preparing coal or other minerals, and includes custom coal preparation facilities as well as sand and gravel operations.