On March 5, 2025, at 10:55 a.m., a welder, 57, with over seven (7) years of mining experience, died when he became entangled in a belt conveyor tail roller. The accident occurred because the mine operator did not de-energize and block the No. 12 belt conveyor against hazardous motion.
GENERAL INFORMATION
The mine is a surface crushed and broken granite quarry located in North Carolina. The mine employs 27 miners and operates one ten-hour production shift, five days per week. The mine drills and blasts granite in the pit. Front-end loaders and excavators load the blasted granite into haul trucks that transport and dump the granite into the hopper. The hopper feeds the material into the crusher, and belt conveyors transfer the crushed granite to other sizing and crushing locations at the mine. The mine sells the final product for use in the construction industry.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) completed the last regular safety and health inspection at this mine on January 29, 2025.
The 2024 non-fatal days lost incident rate for the mine was 3.02, compared to the national average of 1.22 for mines of this type.