(a) Frequency and purpose.--The department shall make frequent inspections of mines. Each mine shall be inspected at least semiannually for electrical purposes and at least quarterly for general purposes. Inspections shall be conducted more frequently when the department determines that more frequent inspections are necessary or desirable. Inspections shall be conducted for the purposes of:

(b) Accompaniment.--A representative of the operator and a representative of the miners shall be given the opportunity to accompany the department during the physical inspection of any coal mine or coal facility, including preparation plants, shops, coal handling facilities and all other areas associated with the coal mining operation, made pursuant to this act. The purpose of this accompaniment is to aid the inspection and to participate in all preinspection and postinspection closeouts and conferences and other activities required of the department under this act. The representative of the miners shall suffer no loss of pay during the period of participation in the inspection. Where there is no authorized representative of the miners, the department shall meet with no fewer than two miners concerning health and safety at the mine. To the extent the department determines more than one representative from each party would further aid the inspection, the department may permit each party to have an equal number of additional representatives. However, only one such representative of the miners who is an employee of the operator shall be entitled to suffer no loss of pay during the period of such participation under the provisions of this subsection. For purposes of this subsection, the designation of the representative of miners shall be made in accordance with 30 CFR Pt. 40 (relating to representative of miners), except that the representative of the miners shall be an employee of the mine being inspected.