Montana Code Annotated 2023

TITLE 50. HEALTH AND SAFETY

CHAPTER 73. SAFETY IN COAL MINES

Part 3. Duties of Operator and Employees in Mine Operation

Specific Prohibitions And Safety Precautions

50-73-305. Specific prohibitions and safety precautions. (1) A person may not enter a mine that is generating firedamp in great enough quantities to be detected by a safety lamp until the mine examiners make a report to the department.

(2) A person, unless accompanied by the mine examiner, may not go beyond a danger signal until all standing gas discovered has been removed or diluted and rendered harmless by a current of air. A person ordered to withdraw by the mine supervisor or mine examiner from the mine on account of the interruption of the ventilation may not reenter the mine until given permission to do so by the mine supervisor.

(3) A person other than the mine examiner may not remove any caution board or danger signal placed at the entrance to any working place or at the entrance to any old workings in a mine.

(4) A person may not erase or change a mark of reference or monument made in connection with a measurement, change marks or dates on any caution board, erase or change the dates at room or entry face when made by the mine examiner, take for the person's use a life check not issued to the person under rules adopted by the department, change the checks on cars, wrongfully check a car, or do any act with intent to defraud.

(5) A person may not take anything containing fire into an underground mine, except as provided for in rules adopted by the department.

(6) A person may not place refuse in or obstruct an airway or breakthrough used as an airway. A worker or other person may not damage or alter a water gauge, barometer, aircourse, brattice equipment, machinery, or livestock, obstruct or throw open any airway, handle or disturb any part of the machinery of the hoisting engine of a mine, open a door of a mine and neglect to close it, endanger the miners or those working in the mine, disobey an order given in pursuance of law, or do a willful act endangering the lives or health of persons working there or the security of a mine or machinery.

History: En. 50-476 by Sec. 19, Ch. 267, L. 1974; amd. Sec. 8, Ch. 39, L. 1977; R.C.M. 1947, 50-476; amd. Sec. 64, Ch. 613, L. 1989; amd. Sec. 1879, Ch. 56, L. 2009.