Data / Mines / West Virginia / Switchback Loadout
Switchback Loadout: 17 MSHA citations
Updated November 6, 2026. Source: US Department of Labor, Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), Open Government Data Sets.
Switchback Loadout is an active coal (bituminous) processing facility in Mcdowell County, West Virginia, operated by Onyx Energy, LLC with 10 employees on MSHA's record (mine ID 4609441). Since January 1, 2022 MSHA inspectors issued 17 citations and orders there with $5,709 in proposed penalties, and 1 accident report was filed there, with 1 injury or illness case.
The request: Watch Switchback Loadout (MSHA mine ID 4609441) in Mcdowell County, West Virginia: each new citation and each accident report. $10 of work on sign-up, no card.
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- MSHA mine ID
- 4609441
- Status
- Active since August 19, 2013
- Main commodity
- Coal (bituminous)
- Mine type
- Facility
- County
- Mcdowell County, West Virginia
- Nearest town
- Elkhorn
- Operator
- Onyx Energy, LLC
- Parent company
- Mohegan Energy Trustees LLC
- Employees
- 10
- MSHA field office
- Beckley Field Office
- Citations and orders since January 1, 2022
- 17
- Significant and substantial
- 4 (23.5%)
- Closure orders
- 0
- High negligence or reckless
- 0
- Proposed penalties
- $5,709
- Amount paid so far
- $0
- Inspections
- 9
- Inspector hours on site
- 154
- Citations per inspection
- 1.89 (all mines 2.30)
- Accident reports
- 1
- Injury and illness cases
- 1
- Fatalities
- 0
- Latest MSHA record
- June 22, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 11 | 1 | $2,014 | 0 |
| 2026 | 6 | 3 | $3,695 | 1 |
Standards cited most at Switchback Loadout
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 | 4 |
| 30 CFR 77.1606 | Surface coal mines, safety | 3 |
| 30 CFR 50.30 | Reporting of accidents, injuries and illnesses | 2 |
| 30 CFR 72.100 | Part 72 | 1 |
| 30 CFR 71.403 | Surface coal mines, health | 1 |
| 30 CFR 47.51 | Hazard communication | 1 |
| 30 CFR 47.44 | Hazard communication | 1 |
| 30 CFR 77.502 | Surface coal mines, safety | 1 |
| 30 CFR 77.204 | Surface coal mines, safety | 1 |
| 30 CFR 77.809 | Surface coal mines, safety | 1 |
| 30 CFR 77.205 | Surface coal mines, safety | 1 |
Injury and illness cases at Switchback Loadout
Accident reports by degree of injury, as the operator reported them to MSHA.
| Degree | Cases |
|---|---|
| Days away from work or restricted activity | 1 |
What the accident reports at Switchback Loadout describe
Accident classification, as MSHA codes the circumstances that contributed most directly.
| Classification | Reports |
|---|---|
| Slip or fall of person | 1 |
Other open mines in Mcdowell County, West Virginia
| Mine | Operator | County | Main commodity | Employees | Citations since 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Berwind Deep Mine | Ramaco Resources, LLC | Mcdowell County, WV | Coal (bituminous) | 124 | 1,360 |
| Laurel Fork Mine | Ramaco Resources, LLC | Mcdowell County, WV | Coal (bituminous) | 55 | 1,063 |
| Mine No. 44 | Twin State Mining, Inc. | Mcdowell County, WV | Coal (bituminous) | 120 | 523 |
| Sewell Mine B | Raw Coal Mining Company, Inc. | Mcdowell County, WV | Coal (bituminous) | 33 | 496 |
| No 1 | Sally Ann Coal Company Inc | Mcdowell County, WV | Coal (bituminous) | 2 | 430 |
| Edm No. 1 Mine | Raw Coal Mining Company, Inc. | Mcdowell County, WV | Coal (bituminous) | 4 | 312 |
| Mine No. 32 | Lo Down Energy, Inc. | Mcdowell County, WV | Coal (bituminous) | 22 | 296 |
| Alpheus Coal Refuse Disposal Facility | Taishan Coal LLC | Mcdowell County, WV | Coal (bituminous) | 12 | 247 |
| Mine No 2 | Harman Branch Mining, Inc. | Mcdowell County, WV | Coal (bituminous) | 12 | 189 |
| Caretta #3 Mine | RS Mining Inc | Mcdowell County, WV | Coal (bituminous) | 6 | 185 |
| Bishop Impoundment Area | Chestnut Land Holdings, LLC | Mcdowell County, WV | Coal (bituminous) | 16 | 169 |
| Dry Branch Surface Mine | Extra Energy, Inc. | Mcdowell County, WV | Coal (bituminous) | 97 | 108 |
| No.32 | Justice Energy Company, Inc. | Mcdowell County, WV | Coal (bituminous) | 0 | 98 |
| Eckman Surface Mine | Extra Energy, Inc. | Mcdowell County, WV | Coal (bituminous) | 95 | 96 |
| Superior Cleaning Plant | Superior Processing, Inc. | Mcdowell County, WV | Coal (bituminous) | 15 | 81 |
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.