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By L. J. Altenburg

There are a lot of key factors involved in achieving a successful Safety Program. I would like to discuss some of these factors and how they have played a major part in our success at Jacobs Ranch Mine. The areas I will cover concern: 1) Facility Standards (Corporate/Minesite), 2) Communication (Employee/Management -"Teamwork"). 3) Proper Training (Employee/Management). 4) Employee Attitude. 5) Incentive Programs. 6) Health Programs. 7) Results/Benefits.

Jan 1, 1994

By Stephen G. Hardcastle, Michel G. Grenier

"Safety and health issues are and have been in the last decade a very high priority item with all parties involved in the Canadian mining industry. As a result of this high level of concern for workers' safety and health, Canadian mines are at the leading edge of environmental control technology. For the most part, the occurrence of pollutants in mines is unavoidable. Dust from mining operations, airborne radiation, gases and heat from the strata as well as gases and particulate from diesel engine emissions will undoubtedly be found to some level in most Canadian mines. A lot of work remains to be done, however, in order to bring all Canadian mines at the same level of proficiency when it comes to safety and health. Also, more work is needed in order to maintain our status as world leaders in this field.CANMET's Mining Research Laboratories (MRL) in Elliot Lake and Bells Corners, Ontario, with the cooperation of the mining industry, have contributed to improving environmental conditions in underground and surface mining and milling operations. The extent of collaboration and efforts vary widely from long-term, multi-million dollar projects between several interested parties to smaller projects involving one laboratory and a single mining operation. This paper gives examples of such collaborative efforts and potential future directions as they apply to: mine ventilation analysis using tracer gas techniques, optimization of mine ventilation network efficiency using real-time monitoring and controlled recirculation (heat saving), respirable dust and radiation sampling and control techniques, diesel emission control using regenerative ceramic filters and, finally, the control of sulphide dust explosions and resulting sulphur dioxide production."

Jan 1, 1990

By Launa G. Mallett, Charles Vaught, Dana C. Reinke, Lisa J. Steiner, Lynn L. Rethi, Kathleen M. Kowalski-Trakofler, Jr. Brnich, William J. Wiehagen

Safety and health professionals recognize that training is a critical element of any effective safety and health program. An extensive literature survey has led the authors to conclude that we are at the beginning of a revolution in training due to changes in the demographics of the workforce, the rapid growth of technology, and the universal ascendance of the information age. Of present major concern in the mining industry is how to provide appropriate training for an aging workforce and concurrently develop training for the expected influx of new and less experienced miners as older workers retire. This report explores the key issues in the changing safety and health training area as identified by the multidisciplinary team of NIOSH researchers who conducted the literature survey. Issues include generational differences between newer mine workers and the present workforce with respect to their physical, psychological, social, and cultural characteristics; their learning styles and work expectations; and the impact of technology. Some preliminary conclusions are offered for future training needs.

Jul 1, 2004

By M. Solomon

Crushers are designed and manufactured to survive the severe duty of mining environments worldwide. Under these conditions the crusher performance and availability is one of the critical factors in the mine?s production and profitability. Traditionally the development of these machines tends to be experience-based, incremental improvements in design due to challenges of different applications, duty, or manufacturing. In order to better serve the mining industry a new approach was taken to the design of primary crushers. This approach was to focus on safety and maintenance activities. The result of this effort is a new generation of gyratory crushers that can be serviced from above. Using the features of this new generation of crushers to their fullest extent crushing installations have improved safety, reduced design and construction costs, and lowered maintenance requirements. This presentation explores the benefits of two crusher installations utilizing top service crushers.

Jan 1, 2010

By G. C. Laurence

"This paper discusses the hazards and extensive precautions taken in Canadian uranium mines, concentrating plants and processing plants. It also outlines Canadian policy regarding the control of the sale and distribution of uranium and other nuclear materials.OVER THIRTY YEARS AGO, I spoke to The Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy here in Montreal about radioactivity and its dangers. I must have made quite an impression thirty odd years ago, because now you have asked me to do it again. Of course, the picture has changed. Then they were mining uranium ore, recovering the radium from it and throwing away the uranium. Now they are still mining uranium ore, but are throwing the radium out on the tailings dumps. Thirty years ago, most people did not know what ""radioactivity"" meant. Nowadays, they have beard that it is dangerous, and some of them, recently, be-came worried about the radium in the tailings dumps and what becomes of it."

Jan 1, 1969

By W. E. Tournay

In accordance with a cooperative agreement between the Bureau of Mines, United States Department of the Interior, and the Linde Air Products Co., an investigation was made at the Bureau Explosives Testing Station, Bruceton, Pa., to develop suitable test methods for evaluating the performance and sensitivity characteristics of liquid-oxygen explosives. This report presents the results of the investigation. The unique nature of liquid-oxygen explosives necessitated both modification of standard techniques and development of entirely new test methods. The latter requirement was due to the fact that differences exist in the kind of information that must be developed for studying relative safety and performance properties of these explosives compared to that of fixed explosives.

Jan 1, 1949

By A. J. Giroux

"The use of Ishikawa cause and effect diagrams in an analysis of requirements for improving safety and productivity at Falconbridge's Strathcona Mill is presented. The analysis lead to numerous small improvements being made with the cumulative effect being a significant improvement in both areas.INTRODUCTIONMill management in the 90's involves the major requirements to improve both safety and productivity in the workplace. These objectives, once seen as unrelated or even mutually exclusive, are now accepted as being complementary. Managers, trained either on the job (coming up through the ranks) or in an engineering discipline followed by first and second line supervisory experience are now turning to methods developed in consumer product manufacturing to ensure that all the components are in place to ensure the ore processing facilities are safe and efficient.This paper shows how management at Falconbridge' s Strathcona Mill used the Ishikawa ""fishbone"" diagram ( 1) , a method further developed by Deming(2), to put into place a comprehensive safety and productivity process. The Ishikawa/Deming concept is that no one element or program will itself continually improve a process or service. It is only by examining and then improving all the elements that are involved in the process or service that continuous improvement is obtained. The process was built on the Deming principle of worker ownership where management is the facilitator for putting into place the mechanisms whereby workers can themselves improve the operation. The process is illustrated mainly by examples of the changes made in the hope that these may be of direct help to other operations."

Jan 1, 1993

When it comes to safety in the mining and extractive industries, success is literally a matter of life and death. Anything short of perfection is not acceptable. In recent years, the mining industry in the United States has made tremendous strides in terms of health and safety for its workers. Part of that success has come with an increased focus on the issues of safety, an intense examination of procedures, liberal sharing of best practices and a focus on the synergy between safety, reliability and environment. During his closing keynote address of the Safety Management & System Reliability Conference in Minneapolis, MN on Nov. 15, Joe Driscoll, vice president of Great Basin Gold, showed a calendar from the coal fields in Pennsylvania from the early 1900s. The calendar marked the number of mine-related deaths each month. Some months, the number was as high as 50. It was an illustration of how far things have come, but there is still much more work to be done.

Jan 1, 2013

The mining and minerals extraction industries have often been demonized by the public as industries that put profits and production before people. It is true that the inherent danger of the work has led to more fatal accidents than anyone associated with the industry would care to remember. But, in stark contrast to what has often been said, the truth of the matter is safety is now the top priority of every miner, from the face of the longwall to the executive boardroom. Without safety, nothing else matters. This message was told and retold by representatives from some of the world?s top mining and petroleum companies from Oct. 11-13 during the inaugural Safety and Reliability in the Mining and Resources Industries Conference in Calgary, Canada. The meeting was hosted jointly by the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) and the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration (SME). It was the first of a series of conferences to focus on these important topics. Next year, the conference will be held in Minneapolis, MN from Nov. 13-15.

Jan 1, 2011

By W. B. Paton

Introduction For several reasons the accident history of Flin Flon has been quite unlike that of any other mine in northern Canada, and very much unlike that of the average American metal mine. Towards the end of 1928, the mining project that is now Flin Flon, and that is now in the very: forefront of Canada's big producers was launched; but, metaphorically, it was launched in a tempest of mining troubles. Each branch of the mammoth enterprise was beset with extraordinary difficulties, and the Safety Department had its relative share. Difficulties in Accident Prevention The unusually rugged contour of the plant site made roads, and even moderately safe pathways, out of the immediate question. The project established an industrial outlet for depression-stricken areas which hitherto had been essentially agricultural; but through that outlet poured labour whose working atmosphere had been the bald prairie, labour that knew nothing of safety consciousness, labour that had to be moulded to industrialism, labour in the raw. A considerable length of the ore-body lay under the eastern section of Flin Flon lake. Open-pit methods were adopted to work the upper limits of the ore-body, and consequently the eastern section of the lake had to be dammed and pumped dry. The subsequent difficulties and hazards created by silt deposit cannot be fully visualized. And, finally, there was a geographical hindrance: the ore-body was partly in the Province of Manitoba and partly in the Province of Saskatchewan. The workmen's compensation problem became intricate. Insofar as accident prevention is concerned, Flin Flon's young industrial life may be conveniently divided into three distinct periods, namely: (a) Construction (Nov. 1928-June 1930) (b) Tuning up, and production till the strike (June 1930-June 1934) (c) Production from the strike till the present time At the peak of construction, due to the usual labour fluctuations of big jobs, there was a weekly turnover of about a hundred men. A very large percentage were Central Europeans, most of whom could neither read nor write English. Consequently, an organized safety programme was out of the question.

Jan 1, 1935

By A. Golder, I. Roy

The Jayant opencast operation is one of the largest opencast coal mines in India. Prior to 2008 the mine experienced a number of dragline dump failures, which was a major hindrance in sustaining production. Northern Coalfields Limited (NCL) and the mine management engaged several design, research, and academic institutions to carry out dump slope stability studies, particularly of dragline dumps. BirlaInstitute of Technology prepared a report on the investigations in May 2009. In this paper we review the findings of the report and the measures taken to tackle the safety aspects of dragline dumps.

Jan 2, 2022

By Congcong Chen, Bo Ma

When assessing the safety of a tailings dam, the constant weight method (CWM) is one of the most commonly used methods. However, when the evaluation indicator value suggests serious defects, the evaluation value is often inconsistent with the actual situation. To address this issue, the variable weight method (VWM) is introduced to assess the safety of the tailings dam. Initially, a three-layer indicator system for dam failure safety assessment is built, and individual indicator values are divided into four grades. Then, an appropriate state variable weight function is constructed and relevant parameters are determined. Finally, a case study is illustrated to verify the effectiveness of the model. The assessment results of the VWM more closely represent the actual situation than that of the CWM, which is more helpful for decision makers and technicians to take scientific and reasonable precautionary measures, thereby improving the safety management of the tailings pond.

Oct 8, 2022

By Kunihisa Katsuyama, Yuji Ogata, Takuya Taguchi, Toshinori Arikiri, Yuji Wada, Kiyoshi Hashizume

The impact sensitivity of hot emulsion matrices was examined to investigate the safety assessment in the emulsifying equipment which forms the emulsion matrix in a water-in-oil type emulsion explosive. The sensitivity could not be evaluated by the small fallhammer test device commonly used in Japan. Therefore, a large fallhammer test device was used. It was confirmed that an explosion, a decomposition, or a no-reaction took place according to the degree of the impact. When a decomposition took place in the hot emulsion matrix, the behavior of it was investigated further by a DDT test. It was found that a decomposition, or a no-reaction occurred according to the degree of confinement.

Jan 1, 1997

By T R. Meng, C Wu

After carrying out a brief review of the existing safety assessment criteria for the spontaneous detonation of explosives in the mining of sulphide ore deposits in China, and giving a detailed description of the dynamic process and mechanism of the spontaneous detonation of explosives and the relative factors, the latest research results of three kinds of explosives reacting with a group of sulphide ores are presented, based on a reliable experimental method. Afterwards, a complete safety criterion for spontaneous detonation assessment, which depends on the hole temperature, the water solution Fe2+ and Fe3+ and the pH value, is established to determine (he safe charging time of explosives in variable conditions. The criterion is verified as correct by a large-scale field test.

Jan 10, 1996

By K Biegaj

During the author’s 25+ year career in mine management in various parts of the world (mostly in Australia), the author has been privileged to live and work in mining towns (not FIFO) for more than 20 years. And has personally observed other people from the mining industry carrying out work at home in an unsafe manner, eg pushing lawn mowers whilst wearing thongs or performing electrical jobs whilst standing on aluminium ladders, as well as many others. It is common that injuries sustained at home whilst on break are not reported upon arrival back on a mine site. A large number of compensation claims for injuries at work, which in fact had been sustained at home, come at substantial extra costs to mining companies.

May 5, 2022

By McLennan R. G

The principle of personal safety is as old as the human race. The application of this principle to industry is of much more recent origin, and may be said to be almost exclusively the product of the twentieth century. The enormous strides in technique and production mode prior to the turn of the century had been achieved without any real regard for the crippled human by-products of that expansive era. It was accepted that. accidents were inevitable and formed part of the price that must be paid for production. It was not until 1885 that the first Workmen's Compensation Act was passed in Germany making the employer financially liable for injuries suffered on his plant.With awakening social conscience came the first organised efforts to reduce accidents in industry. Early 19th century literature dealing with the development of powerdriven machinery and the growth of industry in Europe contains many references to the unsafe and unhealthy working conditions that accompanied the change-over from the home workshop to the industrial plant. By the year 1900, there were in Germany - and a little later in England governmental regulations dealing with the guarding of hazardous machinery. American industry, now the acknowledged leader in industrial safety, admits freely that when an organised safety movement commenced in that country, there was already a considerable amount of information available to them from European experience. The steel industry was well to the fore in this work, and in...

Jan 1, 1957

By McLennan R. G

Mr. F. Cavanaugh (E.R.S. Co. of Aust. P'ty. Ltd.) ; What is your opinion of the expendable gauze type respirator? Would you give your views on what type of training is most effective to improve the safety consciousness of "new" New Australians?Mr. Lewis: For many jobs, the expendable gauze respirators are quite satisfactory. However, where silica dust of less than 10 micron sizing is present, they Cannot be recommended. Generally, they are more acceptable to the men than the heavier but more efficient types of industrial respirator.The best avenues of approach to training appear to be:(a) Liberal use of vi~ual aids (posters, photos, slides, etc.)(b) Efficient interpreter service.(c) Constant follow-up and check by foreman and fellow workmen.Mr. W.Marsden (B.H.P. Collieries); Most colliery employees only wear masks when they can see dust which, of course, is not the hazardous dust, and they take the mask off when they can't see the dust and so expose themselves to the hazard which is often present.Mr. W. W. SoIIy (S.A. Mines Uranium Treatment Plant) ; Safety equipment as supplied by manufacturers is inefficient and short of safety and common sense requirements-operators don't wear equipment because it is uncomfortable, clumsy, or unsightly. In the case of face masks,* they are not completely, effectively sealed; hard hats should be made even lighter and yet efficiently strong; concerning gloves, it seems not too much to ask of suppliers to put up a durable glove, preferably lined for comfort, with the maximum amount of "feel". Adaptation of, say, tubeless tyre methods...

Jan 1, 1958

A mine in the mountains of southeastern British Columbia is fast earning a reputation as the safest metal mining operation of all time. Already officially proclaimed as the safest mine in Canada, the H.B. mine of The Consolidated Mining and Smelting Co. of Canada (Cominco) continues to advance its safety performance far in the lead of average accident frequencies in mines across the country. Official recognition came its way again this spring when the Cominco mine was awarded the John T. Ryan trophy for the fourth time in the last five years. This award is emblematic of top national safety performance of a metal mining operation. The H.B. mine is its only four-time winner. The Ryan award is based on a frequency of accidents involving lost time of more than six days. In each of the years that the H.B. has won the award-1958, 1959, 1961 and 1962-its frequency was zero, with no accidents involving a time loss of more. than six days

Jan 12, 1963

By J. J. McClelland

The face area of a continuous mining section of an underground coal mine is the most dangerous area in the mine. Workers there are at nearly twice the risk of death or disabling injury than those in other parts of the mine. Despite extensive training of miners and improved equipment and mining methods, fatality and injury rates have remained constant during the past few years. It is clear that advanced research is necessary to apply new technologies or modify work procedures to solve the continuing problem of the loss of lives and the numerous injuries at the mine face. A U.S. Bureau of Mines research program is developing a Reduced-Exposure Mining System (REMS) that relocates personnel operating the mining machinery at the face away from the hazards to a nearby haven of relative safety. REMS uses proven technologies of computer automation and robotics to help control the operation of the mining machines at the face, while personnel are moved away to a nearby, safe control room. In this protected, well-ventilated environment, they can supervise or control the operation of the machines while viewing what the machine is doing using video and graphic display monitors.

Jan 1, 1994

By Milos J. Bila

I would like to discuss today several safety topics that we at Nobel feel are going to be particularly critical to all of us who are involved in the manufacturing, transportation, storage and use of commercial explosives during the '90s. My purpose is to identify these topics in order to allow those in the commercial explosives community to better understand the potential difficulties we face.

Jan 1, 1992