34:6-98.3 Mine safety section, powers, duties.

3. a. There is hereby created within the Department of Labor and Workforce Development a mine safety section.

b. The mine safety section shall be under the immediate supervision of a section chief, who shall be responsible for the efficient, effective administration of the work of the section. The section chief shall be assisted by and supervise such other mine safety inspectors, technicians and other employees as may be necessary to perform the work.

c. The section chief shall personally or by assignment to employees of the section, inspect, investigate, inquire and examine into the operation, workings, methods, safety devices and appliances, machinery, sanitation, ventilation, means of ingress and egress, means taken to protect the lives and insure the safety and health of miners, together with the causes of accidents, injuries and fatalities and means taken to comply with the law; conduct scientific tests to determine amount and condition of air together with contaminants therein or for any purpose that shall provide for the maintenance of safe, sanitary and healthful conditions, furnish such reports and do other related work as required.

d. Employees of the section shall have the power and authority, upon exhibition of official credentials, at all reasonable hours to enter and examine any part of a mine, mining plant, equipment or workings. All operators and their employees shall render all assistance necessary to facilitate such examination.

e. (Deleted by amendment, P.L.2007, c.155).

f. (Deleted by amendment, P.L.2007, c.155).

g. (Deleted by amendment, P.L.2007, c.155).

h. No employee of the department shall make public, directly or indirectly to any person any knowledge or information obtained by him in the exercise of his official duties concerning ores, ore bodies or values of any mine or part thereof. Any employee who shall violate any of the provisions of this subsection shall be guilty of a crime of the fourth degree and, on conviction, shall be punished by a fine of not less than $500.00 nor more than $1,000.00 or imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed 1 year, or both, and shall be dismissed from his position.

i. It shall be the duty of the section to cause to have inspected at least once in every 3 months, every underground mine in this State, and every other working mine at least twice each year, and more often, if it is deemed necessary for the safety of the persons involved with the mine.

j. After every inspection, the mine safety inspector shall enter forthwith in a book to be kept at the mine and designated as the "record of mine safety inspection," the portion of the mine inspected, the nature of the inspection and the dangers and defects observed. This record shall be open at all reasonable hours to the examination of the operator, any employee or the designated representative of the employees of the mine inspected. Nothing contained in or omitted from any entry in such record shall limit or affect the duty and obligations of the operator, superintendent or employee.

L.1954, c.197, s.3; amended 1973, c.257, s.1; 1981, c.458, s.1; 2007, c.155, s.2.