ARLINGTON, Va. – The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration today announced the publication of comprehensive data regarding safety and health records of the nation's mines. These downloadable files are available to the general public through MSHA's website at http://www.msha.gov/OpenGovernmentData/OGIMSHA.asp and have been submitted for publication through the federal government's http://www.data.gov portal. The data release is part of the Labor Department's ongoing commitment to the administration's Open Government initiative.

The data sets contain all of the agency's public data from calendar year 2000 to the present regarding mine locations, accidents, injuries, production, violations and inspections. Additionally, these sets contain information about serious violations that publicly-traded mining companies must include in their public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Only private, personal information and trade secrets may be excluded.

"President Obama has directed all federal agencies to make data more readily available to meet the administration's commitment of more transparency and accountability,"; said Joseph A. Main, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health. "Over the coming months, MSHA intends to make even more of our public data available for downloading through the Data.gov portal."

Additional data from the Department of Labor, including a searchable online enforcement database, is available at http://www.dol.gov/open.