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| Syllabus | |
| 1 History of Mining | |
| 2 Using Maps | |
| 3 Geological Exploration | |
| 4 Geophysical Exploration | |
| 5 Geochemical Exploration | |
| 6 Secondary Exploration | |
| 7 Open Pit Mining | |
| 8 *****Mid Term***** | |
| 9 Strip Mining & Placer Mining | |
| 10 Underground Mining | |
| 11 Permits and Laws | |
| 12 Environ/Health/Safety | |
| 13 Jobs and Tools | |
| 14 Mineral Economics | |
| 15 Reclamation | |
| 16**** Final Exam***** | |
| Resources | |
| Staff E-mail | |
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Lesson 12 Objectives:
This lesson will emphasize personnel health and safety aspects and engineering design and control practices to ensure the productive health and safety environment. This lesson will cover the health and safety of the individual miners as well as the safety of the working environment. Health and Safety Issues- Among possible threats to the health of miners are the following: exposure to toxic gases and dusts, exposure to excessive heat and humidity, inadequate illumination, noise and vibration problems, and oxygen-deficient atmospheres. Some of these environmental stresses may interact to produce a greater overall effect, for example: excessive vibration combined with low illumination may lead to higher order stress than either one being present alone. In combination or alone, if environmental stresses exceed human tolerances levels for prolonged periods of time, performance and productivity will drop. Threats to a miners safety may arise from many sources:from falls of roof, face, rib, or side; form haulage or other machinery; from electrical equipment, explosives, or ignitions or explosions of gases and dust; from sudden inundations of water or gas; or from mine fires. The environmental stresses must be managed and under control at all times. Consequences of inadequate control can be sudden and catastrophic-such as injuries and loss of life through suffocation, hat strokes, and explosions-or slow and low enduring-such as lung diseases including coal worker's pneumoconisis or black lung. The debilitation can be permanent . Role of Government Today there is a strong measure of governmental control and inspection of mines to safeguard the health and safety of the miners. The changes are directly related to new and better technological improvements. The "bird in the coal mine" was used until better technology became available. The US Bureau of Mines was created in 1910 about 45 years after it was first proposed. There have been legislative actions that continued to improve safety culminating with safety acts in 1966, 1969, and then the Federal Mine Safety Act. In 1969, the congress declared that the first priority and concern of all in the coal mining industry must be the health and safety of it most precious resource, the miner. OSHA ( 1970) was the most significant piece of legislation with reference to workman's occupational health and safety in US history. MSHA , the Mine Safety and Health Administration, is the federal agency responsible for enforcing the 1977 Mine Act. Three decades have passed since the enactment of the 1969 Coal Act. This act and the regulations it defined, set the standards for what constitutes a good safe operating mine. Stringent standards have been presented for, among other things, respirable dust, noise, illumination, ventilation, roof control, electrical equipment, and escape ways. These have necessitated changes in mining layouts, mining operations, mine equipment and miner training. Provisions for government inspection of mines and for assessment of penalties and violations have been revamped. Yet the fundamental requirements for a safe mining system continue to be : 1) a well engineered system in which all well known hazards that can be eliminated by design are, 2) a motivated work force that is trained to recognize hazards and to insure that all operations are carried out in the safest manner, 3) an effective management that not only maintains the integrity of the system but is constantly searching to improve on existing standards. Miner Training Miner training must emphasize the general and job specific health and safety aspects . Management training must develop in its managers an ability to interpret safety statistics, perform cost analyses on investments promising health and safety improvements, and understand human behavioral patterns. Mine Design For maximum success, mine design must have sound health and safety policies in place. Many changes have taken places in work procedures and practices to control the mine atmospheric contaminations from gases, dust, heat and humidity, and radiation. Air Quality-Exhaust Gases Methods to control the diesel engine exhaust are constantly being explored and improved. The quality of diesel fuel, well maintained engines, new exhaust treatment systems and changes in operational procedures has the potential to improve to greatly reduce the gaseous components in exhaust. MSHA determines the maximum engine generation rate of the worst single gaseous pollutant, and the volume flow of air to dilute that component to a safe level is calculated. Emission levels varies among engines and with different conditions of operations. Aftertreatment solutions include:waterbath exhaust conditioners ( water scrubbers), oxidation catalytic converters (purifiers), diesel particulate filters (ceramic monolith filters- traps). Ventilation Ventilation is an important consideration
in mine design. It must supply fresh air to the miners, control
gas, dust, heat and humidity though as well thought out approved
plan. Computer equipment include: methane monitoring, smoke monitors,
air velocity monitors, carbon monoxide monitors, carbon dioxide
monitors, oxides of nitrogen monitors, relative humidity monitors,
pressure monitors, temperature monitors and vibration monitors.
These digital /analog sensors are connected to a central station.
The number of sensors can be from one to hundreds, depending
on the size of the mine system and layout.
Noise and Illumination Through mine machinery/equipment design
and proper planning, the noise and illumination problems
can be minimized. Improved lighting and controlled noise has
reduced the visual and hearing health problems. Due to the high
degree of mechanization involved in the industry, and the number
of operations and people employed, noise is one problem that
must be addressed. Illumination in
a mine is a challenge to the engineers. Room dimensions and surface
reflectance in underground mines are defined by the deposit mined.
The dust and explosive atmosphere complicate matters even more.
The majors concerns to be addresses are adequate illumination
for hazard and operational working of equipment, the quality
of lighting and health maintenance. The instruments required
to evaluate lighting systems and components. The tools are called
photometers. The photometers are used to verify MSHA lighting
regulations, to design and evaluate lighting systems. The lumination
system should be at the planned usage ( fluorescent lights warmed
etc.) MOVIE:How did the miners have light before
electricity? Computers have contributed to better monitoring of atmospheric conditions mine-wide. Important information as well as automated corrections to atmospheric conditions have offered improvement in the health and safety in mines today. Glossary OSHA: Occupational Safety and Health Administration MSHA: Mine Safety and Health Administration Occupational Illness- an illness or disease of a mine worker that may have resulted for work at he mine or for which an award of compensation is made. Worktime: worktime includes numbers of workers and number of employed -hours worked. Degree of Injury: FATAL injuries result in death, NFDL is nonfatal injuries with days lost, NDL is injuries with no days lost Permanent Total Disability: injuries that are not fatal but permanently and totally incapacitates a worker form any gainful occupation or an injury that results in loss of limbs or eyes. Permanent Partial Disability: injury or illness that is caused by work that results in the loss of any member of the body, or permanent impairments Incidence Rate: is a incidence rate defined as the number of injuries per 200,000 employee-hours rounded to 2 decimal places.
Lost Workdays: (LWD) Lost workdays consist of days away from work. Noise: unwanted sound dBA noise level: the overall noise level measured in decibels, A-weighted Frequency Distribution: the range of frequencies that compose the the noise spectrum, typically in the audible range of 20 to 16,000 Hz. Acoustical Materials: any material specifically designed for or used to reduce the noise levels. Retrofit: to modify existing equipment. Noise Dose: the amount of noise exposure that an employee is exposed to over a given amount of time. Pneumoconisis: black lung AAC 05.070. All Occupations in Connection With Mining All occupations in connection with mining are considered dangerous and prohibited to minors, except the following:
Resources A (PDF) condensed report combining hundreds of studies and publications on various safety and health hazards in the mining industry worldwide.The report is 60 pages long but it covers metal /nonmetal mining with charts that that show changes as health and safety regulations have changed. The table of contents is helpful for navigation. http://www.iied.org/mmsd/mmsd_pdfs/worker_community_health_impacts_literature_review.pdf Hearing Protection- an Excel document
that lists MSHA (Mine
Safety and Health Administration) OSHA (Occupational
Safety and Health Administration) |
Delta Mine Training Center
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