Mine Hazards

The author, having been born and raised in a village that depended on a coal mine for its existence and without even referencing news media reports written as recently as the previous edition of this book, has no doubt that coal mining was and continues to be an extranely dangerous activity. 

Joints are fractures commonly found in hard rocks. They occur in sets with similar orientation. Often several sets of joints occur at angles to each other, creating unstable blocks that must be supported by roof bolts. 

Fossil remains are the remnants of plants and animals that lived during the time when the sediments that later became rocks were being deposited. For example, kettle bottoms are fossil trees that grew in ancient peat swamps and they occur in every U.S. coal basin, but are especially abundant in southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky. Dinosaur footprints are another fossil remain found in the roof rocks of coal mines in Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado. Fossil r ains can fall without warning and should always be carefully supported. Roof bolt holes should never be drilled directly in fossil remains, because the vibrations could cause them to be dislodged. 

Bedding planes are typically found in sedimentary rocks and can extend great lateral distances. Bedding planes represent sharp changes in deposition (such as limestone to clay, or sandstone to coal). These planes can separate readily and are frequently involved in roof falls. 

Transition zones occur in many types of strata but are particularly common in sedimentary rocks. A transition zone occurs when some change in deposition causes a change in sedimentation. Different types of sediments compact at different rates. Discontinuities are abundant in the transition zones between distinct strata. For example, where ancient streambeds eroded the adjacent sediments, remnants of the stream channel disrupt the continuity of the normal roof beds, resulting in large slip planes. 

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WV. Mining Hazard Evaluation and Technical Assistance Program, Division of Respiratory Disease Studies. 

Study on coal mine hazard information management system based on PDCA... 

The PDCA management model is applied to coal mine hazard information closed-loop management system. It will implement the closed-loop hazard information management according to the science program of plan-do—check-action, in the meanwhile, it increases the work of information audit and feedback about the hazard information input, the hazard rectification, assessment and other information. It makes various processes closely linked and hazard information timely and effective... 

Joseph H. Saleh Amy M. Cummings. 2011. Safety in the mining industry and the unfinished legacy of mining accidents Safety levers and defense-in-depth for addressing mining hazards. Safety Science 49 764-777. 

Strengthening security evaluation method using fault tree, safety checklist and other methods, in the presence of various coal mine hazard evaluation were made By theoretical data to guide the actual work, and through practical work to come back to the theory, constantly the cycle to improve mine safety values. 

Feng, K.K., Chakravorty, R.N., and Cochrane, T.S. 1973. Spontaneous combustion A coal mining hazard. 

MSHA jurisdiction has also been conferred on what might otherwise be an OSHA operation when some equipment (i.e., conveyors and electric motors) is used at both mining and nonmining facilities. The commission looks at the integrated nature of the operation and whether exposure of workers to mine hazards is sufficient to confer jurisdiction upon MSHA. 

Most of the required science for most mining hazards is now well understood (with one or two notable exceptions, for example, rock bursts in deep hard rock mines). However, even when the science is known and the necessary control measures are fiiUy understood and documented for all to follow, the real control and the everyday rehability of risk management, hes in the hands of the people at the mine. If methane monitoring standards are not maintained, if effective dust control measures are not introduced, if PPE is not worn, if mles and procedures are not used, etc. then all the hard won knowledge which, theoretically, allows us to control risk will have been wasted. 

A move from being expert in mining operations to being familiar with mining operations this reflects the change in focus evident in, for example, the Buchanan (2000) and the Simpson and Widdas (1992) papers where the point is made that more expertise is needed in the industry on safety issues which are not associated with the traditional uniquely mining hazards. 

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