Microsoft Word LeonreportVo doc

COMMISSION
  
OF
  
INQUIRY
  
INTO
  
SAFETY
  
AND
  
HEALTH
  
IN
  
THE
  
MINING
  
INDUSTRY 
 
35 
-tripartite groups should visit collieries in USA, Europe and Australia to study methods applied in 
these countries for face and goaf ventilation, stone dusting and the use of stone dust barriers. 
 
 
3.4 
General Safety Problems 
 
This review of safety hazards would not be complete without mentioning other major 
hazards that may not occur regularly on annual statistical returns, but constitute hazards that 
can lead, and have in recent years in South Africa led, to major catastrophes. 
 
 
3.4.1  Underground Fires 
 
Fires in the underground environment are even more dangerous that they are on the 
surface.  Mine ventilation has to be coursed through the elaborate workings of a 
mine, so that if a fire occurs anywhere in the underground working, all persons who 
may be working on the return side of that place, that is, all passages leading to the 
upcast air shaft, will be affected by the smoke and the deadly carbon monoxide or 
other toxic products of the fire that kill in a very short space of time. 
 
In coal mines some coals, by their nature can ignite spontaneously, and this 
spontaneous combustion possibility can add to the problems of fire in coal mines. 
 
It was an underground fire that caused the disaster at the Kinross Mine in 1986 when 
177 mineworkers were killed by the products of combustion of the fire.  The fire 
started when welding equipment was used and a spark ignited the highly flammable 
polyurethane lining of an air intake roadway.  The mineworkers who were on the 
return side of the fire perished, although many were a long way from the seat of the 
fire. 
 
Underground fires always provide a reminder that flammable or combustible 
materials should not be used or stored below ground without the consent of the 
enforcing authority.  There are many materials that, because of their flammability 
and the toxic fumes they produce when consumed in a fire, should not be used 
below ground.  Rubber and polyurethane fall into this category.  Mineral oil has 
featured as a fuel in many underground fires and its use in electrical equipment used 
below ground can form a major hazard.  Some materials can be made fire resistant to 
approved standards to make them acceptable for use below ground.  Materials and 
operations that produce open sparking or heat that can start a fire should be 
prohibited or carefully controlled by the enforcing authority.  Some coals and other 
materials can ignite spontaneously under certain conditions, and the control of coal 
mine workings which are liable to spontaneous combustion calls for special 
management skills. 
 
Fire fighting equipment and the organisation necessary at a mine to operate fire 
fighting procedures are specified in regulations, and should be carefully inspected 
periodically by the enforcing authority.  Means of escape, self rescue equipment, 
well equipped underground rescue bays, a good mine communication system, and a 
full rescue service that is available quickly in the event of an emergency are all 
requirements essential for dealing with the threat of fires in mines. 

---

COMMISSION
  
OF
  
INQUIRY
  
INTO
  
SAFETY
  
AND
  
HEALTH
  
IN
  
THE
  
MINING
  
INDUSTRY 
 
36 
 
3.4.2  External Dangers to Mine Workings 
 
Mine workings sometimes encroach on adjacent old mine workings, either 
accidentally or as part of the working plans, and mine headings sometimes approach 
bodies of surface water or material which flows when wet.  Disasters have occurred 
when such operations have gone wrong, and mining regulations set out parameters 
which must be followed when these hazards are present.  Normally the dimensions 
of these workings are regulated and test drilling in advance of the leading excavation 
is required to prove the safety of the operation. 
 
3.4.3  Entombment Below Ground 
 
Many mining accidents can result in persons being trapped in remote underground 
workings, sometimes without communication to the outside world.  Falls of ground 
can result in this situation, which often attracts great public and media attention. 
Mine regulatory codes usually limit the number of persons that can be employed in 
dead ends from which there is only one way of escape, in order to limit the 
magnitude of possible disaster. 
 
In shallow mine workings such as many of the coal mines of South Africa it may be 
possible to drill large diameter holes from the surface to where the persons are 
trapped below ground, pass food and communication to those trapped, and raise 
them to the surface using special capsules designed to fit the boreholes of about 
0,5m diameter. 
 
The South African mining industry has already demonstrated its expertise in this 
technology when called to rescue men trapped underground at a mine in an adjacent 
territory.  In deep mines this is not possible and mining operations must be designed 
to avoid the possibility of entombment. 
 
3.4.4  Explosives and Blasting 
 
Explosives and their initiating mechanisms are used in very large quantities in the 
South African mining industry, especially in the hard rock mines where the strata 
cannot be broken by other means, such as in the gold and platinum mines. 
 
The storage, transportation and use of explosives are hazardous operations, that 
require well trained persons, knowledgeable in the correct method of use.  This is 
why the issue of blasting certificates is controlled by the enforcing authority.  
Explosive when initiated produce large volumes of gases, some of them toxic, and 
considerable heat and flame which can ignite methane, flammable gasses or coal 
dust if present near the shothole.  Historically, the use of explosives has caused 
many major coal mine explosions, and research efforts over the years have 
developed explosives and initiators that are far less likely to ignite methane or 
flammable gases than earlier explosives.  These explosives developed for mining 
work where flammable gas is a hazard are termed “permitted” explosives, and have 
lower flame and heat emission, but they can never be made absolutely safe because 
of the large amount of energy that an explosive charge has to generate.  They must 
always be used and handled with care, and mining regulations are designed to ensure 
this. 
 

---