Calling a New Mexico aggregate producer’s arguments “absurd” and “meritless,” an appeals court has soundly rejected the producer’s appeal of two MSHA citations issued after a serious accident in April 2009.

A miner lost consciousness after being pulled through a seven-inch space between a return roller and a moving conveyor belt when he tried to dislodge material with a shovel that had built up on the conveyor frame.  The accident occurred at Mainline Rock and Ballast, Inc.’s Torrance Quarry in Torrance County.