The agency has issued a reminder to all affected operations that, under its published Final Rule 30 CFR Section 75.1732, continuous mining machines (CMs) are required to be equipped with the systems no later than March 16.

The chosen system by any mine must comply to the standard. Full-face CMs are exempt from the rule's requirements.

As of September 2017, systems available included Strata HazardAvert, Matrix Intellizone and Joy SmartZone Generation 2.

MSHA has asked mines to contact their respective district managers with any questions on compliance.

The published rule can be viewed here.