The second annual Hard Rock Safety conference was hosted by the SA Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, SAIMM, at Emperors Palace in Kempton Park in August. The annual conference is themed on the motto 'zero harm', supported by the DMR and Chamber of Mines. Below are some of the facts, statistics and perspectives shared by specialists representing various mining disciplines.
Assess fitness up front
Job demands are well known and recorded, and the job fitness of many thousands of workers are stored and maintained on a database. Yet some miners are referred for job fitness test after injury. Fears of aubse of fitness testing are irrational, and stand in the way of a good risk assessment and injury prevention system. Employers should apply testing consistently to get full benefit for themselves and workers. (Tia-Mari Hoffmann)
Miners older and wiser
SA miners are now at an average age of 42, having gradually increased in the last decades. Average risk profiles to employers and employees have changed, due to factors like fitness, ergonomic exposure, fatigue, and diabetes. Maturity offers some drawbacks, and several advantages to employers, including safety advantages based on maturity. (Dr Tutula Balfour-Kaipa)
Nutrition raises stamina
New mining recruits show a low fitness test pass rate, of around 10%, but the rate improves dramatically after taking food supplements. Poor diet makes recruits prone to fatigue, but their stamina could easily be improved, allowing job fitness to develop. (William Taylor)
Epidemics factors
Silicosis, tuberculosis, and HIV /AIDS, could be managed by managing five epidemic factors. Unemployment and related sedentary lifestyle, related to poor nutrition and lack of exercise, is one of these five factors. (Tia-Mari Hoffmann)
Look for the unexpected
Inattentional blindness causes workplace risks when workers become accustomed to expected conditions, and fail to see unexpected conditions. About 25% of unusual occurrences go unnoticed during routine work. The best studied example is in aircraft simulators, where pilots fail to see aircraft obstructing the runway for landing, while non-pilots spot the unusual obstacle. (Dr Ewan Sellers, AEL)
Ask a second opinion
Check with a colleague. Miners tapping walls for acoustic checking by tap bar, listen out for thuds, indicating loose rock, instead of pings for solid rock. A second opinion could save lives and compensate for wandering awareness. The value of a second opinion is considered so highly, that a supplier is developing an electronic 'helmet ear' to confirm or contradict human assessment. The device beeps once for a safe ping, and twice for an unsafe thud. Two heads are better than one. (Stefan Brink, CSIR, Asiza info system, tested at Driefontein)
Shorter seismic window
Fatalities from falls of ground due to seismic events, peaked in the late 1990s due to workers at the face during blasting on neighbouring mines.
The loss rate due to seismic events was reduced by centralised blasting, allowing the blasting window to reduce from 8 hours to 4 hours, centered around 7pm. (Carlos Goncalves)
Lost blasts below 3%
Electric and electronic initiation systems had reduced lost blast, or misfires, to an average of 3%. The industry target is 1%. Most operators achieved a zero lost blast rate in 2010 March to July. (Carlos Goncalves)
Charge correctly
Explosives filling 20% of blasting holes, cause clean tunnel shapes, stable walls, less overbreak, and minimum waste. (Dr Ewan Sellers, AEL)
Test new equipment
Loose rock is about 0.7 degrees Celsius cooler than solid rock wall, a difference that electronic scanners could identify, but too small a difference for human touch to identify. The future of securing a face after blasting could involve scanning by an electronic eye that projects a 'cooler' colour back onto the loose rock section, to enable hazard removal. (Declan Vogt)
Drill 'too quiet'
A new muffled rock drill achieved disappointing sales of 200 by midyear 2010, since some miners perceive the rill as being 'too quiet to work.' The same resistance was met a century ago when dust damping was introduced.
Leading practice detailed
Leading practices developed by pilot teams in the Chamber of Mines sponsored mining occupational safety and health (MOSH) programme, should be followed in detail. Some mines tend to adopt only some aspects of leading practices, and spend months learning the lessons already learnt by pilot teams. (Andre van Zyl)
Deformed bars take knocks
One of the simplest mining inventions is saving many lives. Deformed bars, made to bond in front with grout in 36mm holes, but coated on the rear to remain unbonded, absorbs seismic shocks without breaking or sliding out. The bars are exported to Chile and Sweden. (Duraset)
Conference questions by SMS
Some conference sound system suppliers offer an SMS question session serviced. Delegates SMS their questions to a dedicated number during presentations, operators print out the questions, and hand a sheet to the host chairman after each presentation or session. The application saves time and empowers delegates who may have a fear of public speaking.
Mesh barriers get tough
Wire mesh nets and barriers are finding increased use in underground and opencast mines, as well as road and rail tunnels and passes. Spike plate designs have improved, allowing full benefit from high tensile steel wire mesh of about 1770 Newton per square millimeter, with designs following a Swiss and EU standard for 500kJoule to 5000kJoule barriers. Mechanised installation reduces exposure and saves time in new or retrofit tunnels or stopes. A 5000kJ barrier could stop a 16 ton rock in free fall. (Chrostophe Balg)
Cellular concrete cools ventilation
Ventilation and strata control benefits from cellular concrete, made up of cement, fly ash, sand, mine tailings, admixtures, and foam. Inner paddocks on ventilation channels could reduce heat transfer down to 27degrees Centigrade, or 574kW. The application could also seal off old workings, reduce fire hazards, seal footwall and draining wall, halve grout volumes, and reduce timber use. The key to economic cellular concrete installation, lies in pumping and process design. (Joe Visagie)
Pipes and columns risks
Incidents involving pipes and columns have claimed 25 lives in the last 10 years, according to DMR figures. Installation and handling account for about 60%, failures for 32%, electrocution for 8%, bursts for 1%. The ASME B31.3 standard applies to high pressure piping, and USA API recommended practice 579 applies to fuel piping. Both standards advise operators on about 25 indicators of weak spots and potential failure, like compensators. Seamless piping is more expensive initially, but usually safer and more economical in the medium and long term. (Peter Fraser)
Global mining loss
Miners worldwide make up only 1% of workers, but sustain 8% of occupational fatalities. The figure is less of a discrepancy in Africa, where mining employment is higher. Traffic incidents claim higher fatalities than mining, but most traffic incidents are not considered occupational losses.
2013 targets loom larger
Mining incidents, injuries and fatalities would have to reduce by 30% per year in the next three years, to meet the 2013 health and safety targets that industry, government and labour agreed to in 2003. Operators are keenly aware that most losses are linked to fall of ground, transport, mobile equipment, and machinery.
Culture is the new frontier
Current interventions at operators who have already applied behaviour based programmes, involve culture change. Behaviour and motivation are complex metrics, involving issues like trust, ownership, dependability, barriers, lifestyle, attitudes, peer pressure, and self image. Culture change is variously named 'mental model' or 'leadership', aiming at activating individual and corporate value systems. (Andre van Zyl)
Hard Rock Safety facts
The second annual Hard Rock Safety conference was hosted by the SA Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, SAIMM, at Emperors Palace in Kempton Park in August. The annual conference is themed on the motto 'zero harm', supported by the DMR and Chamber of Mines. Below are some of the facts, statistics and perspectives shared by specialists representing various mining disciplines.
Assess fitness up front
Job demands are well known and recorded, and the job fitness of many thousands of workers are stored and maintained on a database. Yet some miners are referred for job
fitness test after injury. Fears of aubse of fitness testing are irrational, and stand in the way of a good risk assessment and injury prevention system. Employers should apply testing consistently to get full benefit for themselves and workers. (Tia-Mari Hoffmann)
Miners older and wiser
SA miners are now at an average age of 42, having gradually increased in the last decades. Average risk profiles to employers and employees have changed, due to factors like fitness, ergonomic exposure, fatigue, and diabetes. Maturity offers some drawbacks, and several advantages to employers, including safety advantages based on maturity. (Dr Tutula Balfour-Kaipa)
Nutrition raises stamina
New mining recruits show a low fitness test pass rate, of around 10%, but the rate improves dramatically after taking food supplements. Poor diet makes recruits prone to fatigue, but their stamina could easily be improved, allowing job fitness to develop. (William Taylor)
Epidemics factors
Silicosis, tuberculosis, and HIV /AIDS, could be managed by managing five epidemic factors. Unemployment and related sedentary lifestyle, related to poor nutrition and lack of exercise, is one of these five factors. (Tia-Mari Hoffmann)
Look for the unexpected
Inattentional blindness causes workplace risks when workers become accustomed to expected conditions, and fail to see unexpected conditions. About 25% of unusual occurrences go unnoticed during routine work. The best studied example is in aircraft simulators, where pilots fail to see aircraft obstructing the runway for landing, while non-pilots spot the unusual obstacle. (Dr Ewan Sellers, AEL)
Ask a second opinion
Check with a colleague. Miners tapping walls for acoustic checking by tap bar, listen out for thuds, indicating loose rock, instead of pings for solid rock. A second opinion could save lives and compensate for wandering awareness. The value of a second opinion is considered so highly, that a supplier is developing an electronic 'helmet ear' to confirm or contradict human assessment. The device beeps once for a safe ping, and twice for an unsafe thud. Two heads are better than one. (Stefan Brink, CSIR, Asiza info system, tested at Driefontein)
Shorter seismic window
Fatalities from falls of ground due to seismic events, peaked in the late 1990s due to workers at the face during blasting on neighbouring mines.
The loss rate due to seismic events was reduced by centralised blasting, allowing the blasting window to reduce from 8 hours to 4 hours, centered around 7pm. (Carlos Goncalves)
Lost blasts below 3%
Electric and electronic initiation systems had reduced lost blast, or misfires, to an average of 3%. The industry target is 1%. Most operators achieved a zero lost blast rate in 2010 March to July. (Carlos Goncalves)
Charge correctly
Explosives filling 20% of blasting holes, cause clean tunnel shapes, stable walls, less overbreak, and minimum waste. (Dr Ewan Sellers, AEL)
Test new equipment
Loose rock is about 0.7 degrees Celsius cooler than solid rock wall, a difference that electronic scanners could identify, but too small a difference for human touch to identify. The future of securing a face after blasting could involve scanning by an electronic eye that projects a 'cooler' colour back onto the loose rock section, to enable hazard removal. (Declan Vogt)
Drill 'too quiet'
A new muffled rock drill achieved disappointing sales of 200 by midyear 2010, since some miners perceive the rill as being 'too quiet to work.' The same resistance was met a century ago when dust damping was introduced.
Leading practice detailed
Leading practices developed by pilot teams in the Chamber of Mines sponsored mining occupational safety and health (MOSH) programme, should be followed in detail. Some mines tend to adopt only some aspects of leading practices, and spend months learning the lessons already learnt by pilot teams. (Andre van Zyl)
Deformed bars take knocks
One of the simplest mining inventions is saving many lives. Deformed bars, made to bond in front with grout in 36mm holes, but coated on the rear to remain unbonded, absorbs seismic shocks without breaking or sliding out. The bars are exported to Chile and Sweden. (Duraset)
Conference questions by SMS
Some conference sound system suppliers offer an SMS question session serviced. Delegates SMS their questions to a dedicated number during presentations, operators print out the questions, and hand a sheet to the host chairman after each presentation or session. The application saves time and empowers delegates who may have a fear of public speaking.
Mesh barriers get tough
Wire mesh nets and barriers are finding increased use in underground and opencast mines, as well as road and rail tunnels and passes. Spike plate designs have improved, allowing full benefit from high tensile steel wire mesh of about 1770 Newton per square millimeter, with designs following a Swiss and EU standard for 500kJoule to 5000kJoule barriers. Mechanised installation reduces exposure and saves time in new or retrofit tunnels or stopes. A 5000kJ barrier could stop a 16 ton rock in free fall. (Chrostophe Balg)
Cellular concrete cools ventilation
Ventilation and strata control benefits from cellular concrete, made up of cement, fly ash, sand, mine tailings, admixtures, and foam. Inner paddocks on ventilation channels could reduce heat transfer down to 27degrees Centigrade, or 574kW. The application could also seal off old workings, reduce fire hazards, seal footwall and draining wall, halve grout volumes, and reduce timber use. The key to economic cellular concrete installation, lies in pumping and process design. (Joe Visagie)
Pipes and columns risks
Incidents involving pipes and columns have claimed 25 lives in the last 10 years, according to DMR figures. Installation and handling account for about 60%, failures for 32%, electrocution for 8%, bursts for 1%. The ASME B31.3 standard applies to high pressure piping, and USA API recommended practice 579 applies to fuel piping. Both standards advise operators on about 25 indicators of weak spots and potential failure, like compensators. Seamless piping is more expensive initially, but usually safer and more economical in the medium and long term. (Peter Fraser)
Global mining loss
Miners worldwide make up only 1% of workers, but sustain 8% of occupational fatalities. The figure is less of a discrepancy in Africa, where mining employment is higher. Traffic incidents claim higher fatalities than mining, but most traffic incidents are not considered occupational losses.
2013 targets loom larger
Mining incidents, injuries and fatalities would have to reduce by 30% per year in the next three years, to meet the 2013 health and safety targets that industry, government and labour agreed to in 2003. Operators are keenly aware that most losses are linked to fall of ground, transport, mobile equipment, and machinery.
Culture is the new frontier
Current interventions at operators who have already applied behaviour based programmes, involve culture change. Behaviour and motivation are complex metrics, involving issues like trust, ownership, dependability, barriers, lifestyle, attitudes, peer pressure, and self image. Culture change is variously named 'mental model' or 'leadership', aiming at activating individual and corporate value systems. (Andre van Zyl)
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