Data / Mines / Kaolin and ball clay

Kaolin and ball clay mines in the US: 18 open mines

Updated November 6, 2026. Source: US Department of Labor, Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), Open Government Data Sets.

MSHA lists 18 open kaolin and ball clay mines in the US, run by 10 operators and employing 1,638 people. Since January 1, 2022 its inspectors issued 539 citations and orders there with $269,750 in proposed penalties, and operators reported 88 injury or illness cases, 3 of them fatal. The operators with the most open mines are KaMin LLC.; Thiele Kaolin Company; Covia Clay LLC. Data from MSHA, November 6, 2026.

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Open mines

18

Operators

10

Employees

1,638

Active

18

Citations and orders since January 1, 2022

539

Significant and substantial

76 (14.1%)

Closure orders

5

High negligence or reckless

17

Proposed penalties

$269,750

Amount paid so far

$263,010

Inspections

299

Inspector hours on site

4,254

Citations per inspection

1.80 (all mines 2.30)

Accident reports

93

Injury and illness cases

88

Fatalities

3

Latest MSHA record

October 29, 2026

Operators with the most open mines

Ranked by open mines, then by citations. Sole proprietors and individuals are not listed.

Operators with the most citations

Citations and orders issued since January 1, 2022 at their open mines here.

Mines with the most citations

Open mines, ranked by citations and orders since January 1, 2022.

States

Citations and injury cases by year

Calendar years since 2022; 2026 runs to the date of the MSHA files.

Standards cited most at kaolin and ball clay mines

Sections of Title 30 of the Code of Federal Regulations named on the citations, with the part each belongs to.

Injury and illness cases at kaolin and ball clay mines

Accident reports by degree of injury, as the operator reported them to MSHA.

What the accident reports at kaolin and ball clay mines describe

Accident classification, as MSHA codes the circumstances that contributed most directly.

Equipment named in accident reports at kaolin and ball clay mines

US government work, public domain. Counts come from the MSHA files published on November 6, 2026. An open mine is one MSHA lists as Active, Intermittent, New Mine, Temporarily Idled or NonProducing; 13,673 were open that day. Citations, penalties, inspections and accident reports run from January 1, 2022. A citation is an inspector's allegation and an operator can contest it; the penalty is the amount MSHA first proposed, before any contest or settlement. An operator is the legal entity MSHA assesses, and a parent company is its controller. Mines run by sole proprietors or by individuals are counted in every total and are not named. This page uses MSHA data and is not endorsed or certified by MSHA. Free to reuse with credit to SpecStream under CC BY 4.0. Spot a wrong value? Write to [email protected] with the link to this page.