Mining industry should improve safety index

Mining industry should improve safety index

The mining industry has dramatically improved its record of safety over the last few decades, but the industry still faces many safety risks. Recent disasters have once again forced mining companies to look at how their techniques and technologies can reduce those risks, and the safety of sub-surface mining remains a controversial issue.
"The mining industry has dramatically improved its record of safety over the last few decades."
Looking at the US coal mining industry, for instance, it is clear that the issue has been taken seriously. According to National Mining Association, from 1970 to 2007 the number of fatalities fell by 87%, while production rose by 87%. Furthermore, the number of injuries is down 70% since 1990. Nevertheless, disasters do happen.
In 2002, for instance, the Quecreek Mine rescue saw nine coal miners in Pennsylvania trapped. In 2007, six were trapped in a mine collapse in the Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah, which investigators later blamed on faulty design.
Around the world, more serious incidents have hit the headlines. A mine blast in Siberia recently killed 87 miners after a rockslide caused a build up of methane gas, with roof collapses and smoke hampering rescue efforts. Most recently, however, it is disasters in China that have brought the safety issue to the fore.
China remains the world's largest producer and consumer of hard coal, and is a key producer of other minerals but its industry is dogged by safety concerns. In June this year 27 miners were killed after an explosion at a mine in Shanxi province, adding to the nearly 4,000 workers killed in accidents in 2007. Poor safety standards have been blamed.
Though the number of fatalities in China is lower than previous years, safety has caused the public and the industry to be concerned over the standards and techniques currently in place. In the coal industry the focus has fallen on the mechanics of room and pillar mining, where rooms are cut into a coal seam with up to 40% of the coal left in place as pillar to support the roof, and longwall mining, where mechanical shears extract the coal and hydraulic supports hold up the roof until it is allowed to collapse when mining is complete.

 

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