USA legislation set to launch zero fatalities' era
Rescue of 33 miners trapped for 69 days in San Jose Mine in Copiapo,
Chile, had drawn comparison with mining fatalities in Africa and China.
Investors and the media are asking why miners continue to die in all mining countries, at different but nearly predictable rates, including the death of 38 Chinese miners on July 17. A million Chinese work in thousands of coal mines, and in one incident 203 miners died after a gas explosion. Yet some Chinese mines are fully mechanized and run as safety as technology allows.
That safe mining is possible, is not merely an uninformed opinion. J Davitt McAteer, former assistant secretary for the USA Department of Labor for the Mine Safety and Health Administration, wrote that "we could mine without placing people at risk of death or serious injury." Six million people make a living in mines. Mining deaths used to tally in the thousands, then hundreds per year, but improvements in fatality, injury and occupational disease rates have become more static, and even erratic. "Mining companies worldwide have acquired the knowledge and capabilities to prevent and manage disasters. Hundreds of mines to operate without fatal incidents for years on end", writes McAteer. He believes that "accident prevention philosophy is not in place universally," due to local lack of either safety technology, legislation, education, systems or practices. In time honoured political tradition, Chile is now forcing operators to improve safety and health programs, while many mining countries and companies continue a relentless search for loss prevention methods.
ILO Convention and new laws
In 1995, the International Labor Organisation adopted a Convention on Mine Safety and Health, negotiated by business, unions and regulators worldwide. The standard was ratified in the USA by pres Bill Clinton in 1999, and passed in 2000.
The USA will soon also pass the Robert C Byrd Miner Safety and Health Act of 2010, expected to lead the world into a new ear of technology-led disaster prevention, writes McAteer, who was lead investigator for West Virginia's independent investigation into the Upper Big Branch Mine explosion.
Aussie response
Australian radio host Keri Phillips, in a safety historic feature on ABC's 'Rear Vision', mused on the apparent lack of progress in practical mining methods, due in part to high costs of mechanisation.
Martin Lynch, author of 'Mining in World History', wrote that since the Industrial Revolution, mining principles and technology had not changed much, despite multiplication of demand for metals.
In a 1550s book, 'De Re Metallica', a German mine owner showed mining technology by woodcut print illustrations. "By 1850, except for the steam engine replacing manual or water driven bellows, virtually nothing of significance had changed", wrote Lynch.
And then came regulation
By the late 18th century, governments had become interested in regulating mining, beyond ruling on ownership and taxation.
Dr Jan Wegner specialises in mining history at James Cook University, Australia. "Gradually state attention turned towards safety," she explained to Keri Phillips on Australian radio.
"Miners were quite happy to cut corners… they started to think that rock drills were causing silicosis, mine owners strenuously denied that, and it took legislation to force watering down of dust."
Miners were a tough lot, crimping detonators into fuses with their teeth. "In England there was no regulation in the early 1800s, and many more disasters than on the Continent that had a culture of state intervention. Only after some serious disasters that captured public imagination, in the 1850s, inspectors came in.
Mechanisation step change
After the Second World War, mechanised mining was possible, but is still not universally fully used, said David Cliff, Associate Professor at the Minerals Industry Safety and Health Centre at the University of Queensland.
"A modern, underground long wall coalmine can produce in Australia up to 7-m tonnes of coal a year from a single face. A pre World War 2 mine, even with hundreds of men, could produce only half a million tones."
Advance blasting techniques with new generation explosives, further increases production.
"Technology has allowed us to protect people better against a lot of hazards, but technology has introduced new hazards. We are mining much faster, much bigger, and geology comes more into play.
"We are using more powerful energy sources. Coal mines run 11 000 volt power cables underground. We drive very big vehicles in very small roadways.
Duty of care
Legislation up to the 1990s in Australia, it was very much compliance based, rule based, everything was specified. Now, we follow the English model, developed by Lord Robens, explained Prof Cliff.
"Australian legislation is based on the principle of duty of care, shared responsibility for safety. People with more authority and responsibility, carry greater duty of care.
"We assess risk, and oeprators implement systems and processes to manage risk. Australian legislation is different to other countries, enforcing participation by workers in that management process."
Commenting on the quest for 'zero harm', Prof Cliff said "practically that is very difficult, because of the complexity of mining. We are working towards that, and systems encourage people to try and predict hazards and risks before they occur, and minimise them.
"In Australina underground coal mining, we have had no fatal of major incidents for 17 years."
Current boom
Demand for minerals are leading miners to deeper and more difficult terrain, demanding better health and safety management.
Radio host Martin Lynch, himself a former miners, sees regular mining booms of 25 years, and mining recession of 25 years, in the last century
"We are in the middle of a boom… technology will lead the next step in extraction and safety. Drama and development in mining is far from finished."
USA legislation set to launch zero fatalities' era
Rescue of 33 miners trapped for 69 days in San Jose Mine in Copiapo, Chile, had drawn comparison with mining fatalities in Africa and China.
Investors and the media are asking why miners continue to die in all mining countries, at different but nearly predictable rates, including the death of 38 Chinese miners on July 17. A million Chinese work in thousands of coal mines, and in one incident 203 miners died after a gas explosion. Yet some Chinese mines are fully mechanized and run as safety as technology allows.
That safe mining is possible, is not merely an uninformed opinion. J Davitt McAteer, former assistant secretary for the USA Department of Labor for the Mine Safety and Health Administration, wrote that "we could mine without placing people at risk of death or serious injury." Six million people make a living in mines. Mining deaths used to tally in the thousands, then hundreds per year, but improvements in fatality, injury and occupational disease rates have become more static, and even erratic. "Mining companies worldwide have acquired the knowledge and capabilities to prevent and manage disasters. Hundreds of mines to operate without fatal incidents for years on end", writes McAteer. He believes that "accident prevention philosophy is not in place universally," due to local lack of either safety technology, legislation, education, systems or practices. In time honoured political tradition, Chile is now forcing operators to improve safety and health programs, while many mining countries and companies continue a relentless search for loss prevention methods.
ILO Convention and new laws
In 1995, the International Labor Organisation adopted a Convention on Mine Safety and Health, negotiated by business, unions and regulators worldwide. The standard was ratified in the USA by pres Bill Clinton in 1999, and passed in 2000.
The USA will soon also pass the Robert C Byrd Miner Safety and Health Act of 2010, expected to lead the world into a new ear of technology-led disaster prevention, writes McAteer, who was lead investigator for West Virginia's independent investigation into the Upper Big Branch Mine explosion.
Aussie response
Australian radio host Keri Phillips, in a safety historic feature on ABC's 'Rear Vision', mused on the apparent lack of progress in practical mining methods, due in part to high costs of mechanisation.
Martin Lynch, author of 'Mining in World History', wrote that since the Industrial Revolution, mining principles and technology had not changed much, despite multiplication of demand for metals.
In a 1550s book, 'De Re Metallica', a German mine owner showed mining technology by woodcut print illustrations. "By 1850, except for the steam engine replacing manual or water driven bellows, virtually nothing of significance had changed", wrote Lynch.
And then came regulation
By the late 18th century, governments had become interested in regulating mining, beyond ruling on ownership and taxation.
Dr Jan Wegner specialises in mining history at James Cook University, Australia. "Gradually state attention turned towards safety," she explained to Keri Phillips on Australian radio.
"Miners were quite happy to cut corners… they started to think that rock drills were causing silicosis, mine owners strenuously denied that, and it took legislation to force watering down of dust."
Miners were a tough lot, crimping detonators into fuses with their teeth. "In England there was no regulation in the early 1800s, and many more disasters than on the Continent that had a culture of state intervention. Only after some serious disasters that captured public imagination, in the 1850s, inspectors came in.
Mechanisation step change
After the Second World War, mechanised mining was possible, but is still not universally fully used, said David Cliff, Associate Professor at the Minerals Industry Safety and Health Centre at the University of Queensland.
"A modern, underground long wall coalmine can produce in Australia up to 7-m tonnes of coal a year from a single face. A pre World War 2 mine, even with hundreds of men, could produce only half a million tones."
Advance blasting techniques with new generation explosives, further increases production.
"Technology has allowed us to protect people better against a lot of hazards, but technology has introduced new hazards. We are mining much faster, much bigger, and geology comes more into play.
"We are using more powerful energy sources. Coal mines run 11 000 volt power cables underground. We drive very big vehicles in very small roadways.
Duty of care
Legislation up to the 1990s in Australia, it was very much compliance based, rule based, everything was specified. Now, we follow the English model, developed by Lord Robens, explained Prof Cliff.
"Australian legislation is based on the principle of duty of care, shared responsibility for safety. People with more authority and responsibility, carry greater duty of care.
"We assess risk, and oeprators implement systems and processes to manage risk. Australian legislation is different to other countries, enforcing participation by workers in that management process."
Commenting on the quest for 'zero harm', Prof Cliff said "practically that is very difficult, because of the complexity of mining. We are working towards that, and systems encourage people to try and predict hazards and risks before they occur, and minimise them.
"In Australina underground coal mining, we have had no fatal of major incidents for 17 years."
Current boom
Demand for minerals are leading miners to deeper and more difficult terrain, demanding better health and safety management.
Radio host Martin Lynch, himself a former miners, sees regular mining booms of 25 years, and mining recession of 25 years, in the last century
"We are in the middle of a boom… technology will lead the next step in extraction and safety. Drama and development in mining is far from finished."
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