In late May, the Mine Safety and Health Administration completed its three-week effort to visit 5,000 small metal and nonmetal mines. MSHA fell only 100 short of its goal. In 1998, small mines accounted for one-third of all metal and nonmetal fatalities.

MSHA inspectors and training specialists scoured the nation's mine operations with five or fewer employees. The visits were a combination of inspection and safety training; in some cases no inspections were conducted.

MSHA personnel spent time discussing safety and distributing health and safety literature at the mines. The inspectors and training specialists discussed the proposed Part 46 training regulation and left addressed envelopes for employees to mail comments to MSHA on Part 46.

The effort was a success, said MSHA spokeswoman Katharine Snyder. The 100 mines not visited were those that were not open or were otherwise unavailable for inspection, she said. "That's considered very good."

The agency has not tallied the nature and the amount of citations issued during the small mine inspections. Conveying the health and safety information was the focus of the effort, not the inspections, Snyder said.

Jim Papenhausen, corporate safety director for Moline Consumer Co., Moline, Ill., said one of that company's operations was inspected. Papenhausen said the inspection and safety talk was no big deal.

"I didn't have any complaints about the visit," Papenhausen said. Although the visits might be useful for companies with no safety training in place, his employees learned nothing new from the visit. "I think these initiatives are more political than anything."