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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 172 / Thursday, September 9, 2021 / Proposed Rules TABLE 8SAFETY PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT COSTSContinued Major Safety Program Elements

Mine task hours annual
Total hours task hours
5,027 mines
Reevaluating workplace activities due to changes in technology, conditions, processes, materials, or equipment; conducting on-site examinations;
identifying hazards, trends, root causes, and taking corrective actions
Annual review and update of the safety program
Total including overhead of 1%

20
5

100,540
25,135

Safety-Enhancement Cost Under the proposed rule, MSHA
would require mine operators to evaluate technologies that enhance safety in the operation of surface mobile equipment. As a result, mine operators would incur costs in implementing safety-enhancing processes and controls.
Because it is difficult to determine the type of controls mine operators would use to eliminate or mitigate a hazard, MSHAs analysis approximates the safety-enhancement costs by estimating the number of pieces of surface mobile equipment covered by this proposal and multiplying by the associated cost for each one.
Based on MSHA experience and data, the agency has estimated the number of pieces of equipment by several mine sizes and by mining process using the MSIS data for subunits and cost per piece of equipment for startup as well as outyear maintenance and updates.
MSHA estimates that there are approximately 60,000 pieces of mobile equipment used at surface mines and surface areas of underground mines; of
this total, 41,994 are used at mines with six or more miners.
The safety-enhancing expenditures would vary widely across mine operations. Some operators would incur lower costs, as they would use less advanced controls such as signs and signals, while other operators would invest in higher-priced controls such as interlocked seatbelts or collision warning systems. Given this variation, MSHA assumes an average cost of $500
per piece of surface mobile equipment in the first year, reflecting the cost of both new technology purchases and existing technology repairs and modifications. From the second year on, the analysis assumes an average cost of $100 per piece of surface mobile equipment, reflecting mostly costs of modification of existing technologies.
The analysis assumes little incremental cost for repairs in the second year and beyond, because the repairs are already required by other MSHA standards.
Using these estimates of the average safety-enhancement costs and the number of pieces of equipment used by the covered mines that would be subject to this proposal, MSHA estimates that
One-time $ millions
Out-year annual $ millions
0.0
0.0
35.7

6.5
1.6
8.1

mine operators would incur safetyenhancement costs of approximately $21.0 million in the first year and $4.2
million annually after that. MSHA
invites commenters to submit estimates of the types and costs of safety enhancements that would be needed at mining operations under this proposal.
MSHA estimates that there would be no incremental training costs, because this proposed rule requires no new or additional training. Training costs are already accounted for in training required by existing standards in 30
CFR parts 46, 48, and 77, which address mine hazard awareness and safety measures. MSHA invites commenters views and estimates on training costs.
Table 9 shows the total compliance costs, which are the sum of the written program development costs and safetyenhancement and training costs. Based on the estimates above, the total compliance costs in the first year would be $56.6 million and $12.3 million annually in the out-years starting from the second year of implementation.
MSHA invites commenters to submit estimates of the types and costs of enhancements at their operations.

TABLE 9COMPLIANCE COST SUMMARY
Millions of dollars undiscounted Cost item Startup costs Safety program development inclusive of overhead costs
Safety enhancement

$35.7
21.0

$8.1
4.2

Total Costs

56.7

12.3

D. Net Benefits
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Annual out-year costs
MSHAs 10-year cost and benefit estimates are shown in Table 10. Under MSHAs proposed rule, mine operators would be required to meet the requirements of the proposed rule 6
months after the effective date of the
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final rule. MSHA believes that this 6month period would provide mine operators time to develop and communicate the safety program to employees, evaluate mine operations for hazards, and eliminate or control identified hazards e.g., engineering controls, work practices, and equipment
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maintenance. MSHA assumes that by reducing the surface mobile machine fatalities and injuries by 80 percent, full benefits of the proposed rule would be achieved by the second year, with benefits equal to 10 percent of that amount in the first year.

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