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Compliance Guideline for
MSHA's Part 46 Training Regulations


Training and Retraining of Miners Engaged in Shell Dredging or Employed at Sand,Gravel, Surface Stone, Surface Clay, Colloidal Phosphate, or Surface Limestone Mines

Version 3 - Published May 28, 2001.

§ 46.12 Responsibility for Independent Contractor Training

124. Q. Can a production-operator require an independent contractor to conduct site-specific hazard awareness training?

A. Under § 46.12, production-operators have the primary responsibility to ensure that site-specific hazard awareness training has been given. Consistent with § 46.4, production-operators may provide independent contractors with site-specific hazard awareness information or training materials and arrange for the contractors to provide the training to the contractors' employees. However, production-operators retain the primary responsibility of ensuring that everyone who comes onto mine sites has received the necessary site-specific hazard awareness training.

125. Q. Are production operators responsible for looking at contractor plans to see if they are ok?

A. No. As it applies to independent contractors, production operators are not responsible for looking at an independent contractor's training plan.

126. Q. As a contractor, do I have to carry records and certificates of all employees when, for instance, we are called out on an emergency belt replacement?

A. Yes. Independent contractors who are miners as defined by Part 46, must make available at the mine site where they are working, a copy of each miner's training certificate for inspection.