Data / Mines / Virginia / Empire
Empire, Buchanan County, Virginia: 10 MSHA citations
Updated November 6, 2026. Source: US Department of Labor, Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), Open Government Data Sets.
Empire is a nonproducing coal (bituminous) surface mine in Buchanan County, Virginia, operated by Denali Energy Group LLC with 0 employees on MSHA's record (mine ID 4003274). Since January 1, 2022 MSHA inspectors issued 10 citations and orders there with $4,153 in proposed penalties, and 0 accident reports were filed there, with no injury or illness cases.
The request: Watch Empire (MSHA mine ID 4003274) in Buchanan County, Virginia: each new citation and each accident report. $10 of work on sign-up, no card.
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- MSHA mine ID
- 4003274
- Status
- NonProducing since March 7, 2025
- Main commodity
- Coal (bituminous)
- Mine type
- Surface
- County
- Buchanan County, Virginia
- Nearest town
- Hurley, Va
- Operator
- Denali Energy Group LLC
- Employees
- 0
- MSHA field office
- Vansant VA Field Office
- Citations and orders since January 1, 2022
- 10
- Significant and substantial
- 6 (60.0%)
- Closure orders
- 0
- High negligence or reckless
- 1
- Proposed penalties
- $4,153
- Amount paid so far
- $0
- Inspections
- 14
- Inspector hours on site
- 132
- Citations per inspection
- 0.71 (all mines 2.30)
- Accident reports
- 0
- Injury and illness cases
- 0
- Fatalities
- 0
- Latest MSHA record
- April 9, 2026
Citations and injury cases by year
Calendar years since 2022; 2026 runs to the date of the MSHA files.
| Year | Citations and orders | Significant and substantial | Proposed penalties | Injury and illness cases |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 3 | 2 | $2,914 | 0 |
| 2023 | 4 | 3 | $737 | 0 |
| 2024 | 2 | 1 | $351 | 0 |
| 2025 | 1 | 0 | $151 | 0 |
Standards cited most at Empire
Sections of Title 30 of the Code of Federal Regulations named on the citations, with the part each belongs to.
| Standard | What the part covers | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 30 CFR 77.400 | Surface coal mines, safety | 2 |
| 30 CFR 77.1110 | Surface coal mines, safety | 1 |
| 30 CFR 77.208 | Surface coal mines, safety | 1 |
| 30 CFR 77.404 | Surface coal mines, safety | 1 |
| 30 CFR 50.30 | Reporting of accidents, injuries and illnesses | 1 |
| 30 CFR 77.1104 | Surface coal mines, safety | 1 |
| 30 CFR 77.1000 | Surface coal mines, safety | 1 |
| 30 CFR 77.1606 | Surface coal mines, safety | 1 |
| 30 CFR 71.500 | Surface coal mines, health | 1 |
Other open mines in Buchanan County, Virginia
| Mine | Operator | County | Main commodity | Employees | Citations since 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buchanan Mine #1 | Buchanan Minerals, LLC | Buchanan County, VA | Coal (bituminous) | 770 | 2,093 |
| Paw Paw 2 South | Banner Blue Coal Company | Buchanan County, VA | Coal (bituminous) | 7 | 291 |
| Ce#3 | CW Reclaim, LLC | Buchanan County, VA | Coal (bituminous) | 2 | 192 |
| Laurel Branch Surface | CW Reclaim, LLC | Buchanan County, VA | Coal (bituminous) | 3 | 155 |
| Wellmore #8 Prep Plant | Black Diamond Company | Buchanan County, VA | Coal (bituminous) | 2 | 87 |
| Elk Creek Surface | Surface Minerals Company | Buchanan County, VA | Coal (bituminous) | 1 | 63 |
| #7 Prep Plant | Wellmore Coal Company, LLC | Buchanan County, VA | Coal (bituminous) | 1 | 36 |
| Coronet Jewell Prep Plant #2 | Jewell Smokeless Coal Corp | Buchanan County, VA | Coal (bituminous) | 18 | 27 |
| Airport Surface | Surface Minerals Company | Buchanan County, VA | Coal (bituminous) | 0 | 23 |
| Surface Mine No. 1 | Surface Minerals Company | Buchanan County, VA | Coal (bituminous) | 1 | 21 |
| S-5 Ailly Branch | Civil, LLC | Buchanan County, VA | Coal (bituminous) | 4 | 14 |
| #9 Miner | CW Reclaim, LLC | Buchanan County, VA | Coal (bituminous) | 0 | 13 |
| S-8 Jones Fork | Civil, LLC | Buchanan County, VA | Coal (bituminous) | 0 | 11 |
| Auger 10 | P B Dirt Movers Inc | Buchanan County, VA | Coal (anthracite) | 0 | 8 |
| English Branch Prep Plant | Southwest Virginia Mining Company, LLC | Buchanan County, VA | Coal (bituminous) | 0 | 5 |
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.