Safety and the Mining Industry

The mining industry – with its large machinery, explosives, and in some cases underground work environments – is perceived by the public to be full of all manner of dangerous jobs. Truck wheels the size of a small car, huge excavators, staff dressed in all sorts of protective gear, and movie images of big explosions all contribute to this sense of danger.

The public see images of mining on television, and there is no doubt they can look dangerous.

In the industry we always say that mining isn’t so much dangerous as unforgiving, and for that reason sites such as Newmont’s Martha and Favona mines have lengthy safety inductions, daily safety meetings and frequent reviews of procedures. The exploration crews out in the field have similar programmes. The jobs are not unsafe – otherwise we wouldn’t be doing them – but the environment we work in each day amplifies the consequences of any incident.

ACC figures for 2009 show that there are several groups well ahead of the mining industry in claims accepted. Agriculture, forestry and fishing, construction, cultural and recreational services (in other words sport), and manufacturing all recorded more injuries than mining.

In fact the mining industry is almost on the median for accepted ACC work-related injury claims, just ahead of the transport and storage category in recorded claims for 2009 (the most recent figures available).

Perhaps one of the key issues in public perception is that when an accident happens in a mine it often involves more than one person; 39 dead in a coal mine in China, 33 trapped in a mine in Chile, 29 dead at Pike River.

A significant number of people are seriously injured or die as a result of quad bike accidents, usually on farms. These incidents happen, and are reported, one at a time. In 2010 there were 51 serious injuries and five fatalities relating to quad bikes and a total of 312 serious injuries in the agriculture sector. Which is more dangerous in the eyes of the public – farming or mining?

But of course no injuries are acceptable, so we continue to make every effort to determine the underlying cause of all accidents and injuries. We may then introduce new ways of doing a job, modify equipment, or use additional safety gear. If the job is still unsafe, we stop doing it until we find a way of doing it safely. It’s not in the interests of the industry to injure people.

We have heard the slogan about some industries ‘putting profits before people’. There is a cost to industry every time a person gets injured at work; increased ACC levies, replacement staff, counselling services, and production downtime are all likely results of even a moderate injury. No business can ignore these costs. It makes financial sense to be safe, and in fact the number of work related injury claims across the board has been trending downwards since 2006.

Coal Mining Tragedies in New Zealand
David Williams of NZPA | 24th November 2010
The deaths of 29 miners in the Pike River Coal mine eclipsed the death toll from the 1967 Strongman mine disaster, but it was not the among deadliest New Zealand mining disasters.

Before the West Coast tragedy, New Zealand had seen its share of mine disasters, with 181 people killed since 1896.
The worst single event was in 1896 at the Brunner mine, about 25km from Pike River and essentially mining the same coal block, where 65 miners were killed in New Zealand's worst industrial accident.

It was believed an unauthorised detonating of a charge in an abandoned section of the mine -- the most likely cause -- set off a methane gas explosion, killing half the underground workforce.

Fifty-three of the miners were buried at Stillwater Cemetery, 33 in the one grave.

A commission of inquiry found management of the mine could not be blamed, and the explosion had been the result of a charge placed the wrong way around, in a part of the mine where there should have been no one working.

In 1967, at the Strongman mine, northeast of Greymouth, an explosion killed 19 miners. There were 240 men working in the mine at the time, but a wet patch 140m down the tunnel put out the fireball from the explosion.

A memorial to the dead men, in perhaps a sign of ignorance of the region's history, was vandalised this month.
Other mining disasters which claimed dozens of lives include Kaitangata, 10km southeast of Balclutha, where in 1879, 34 men and boys died in an explosion caused by candles in an area known for firedamp -- methane gas given off by coal.

At Ralph's mine, near Huntly, in 1914, 43 miners were killed when a miner's naked light ignited firedamp.

At the Dobson mine, also near Greymouth, in 1926, an explosion killed nine men and in 1939, at the Glen Afton mine near Huntly, 11 men were asphyxiated by carbon monoxide.

In 2006 at Black Reef Mine, near Greymouth, Robert McGowan, 39, drowned when he hit flooded mine workings.

Traditional mining is highly dangerous -- rock falls, explosions and accidents involving equipment were the most frequent causes of deaths in the New Zealand mining industry when it started out in the 1840s.

At Denniston, near Westport, in the 10 years from 1881 to 1891 there were 10 deaths and 35 serious injuries. Of the 141 men killed nationwide between 1900 and 1914, 98 were individual deaths.

Following the Kaitangata disaster in 1879, the Mines Department was given power to inspect mines but 40 years later inspections were sporadic and depended on a strong union to be effective.

Increased opencast mining brought greater levels of safety and by the early 21st century, the mining industry had brought in its own codes of practice and there was regulation by the Occupational Safety and Health Service of the Department of Labour.

According to West Coast historian Brian Wood, who has written several books on mining, most of the nation's serious accidents have occurred in coal mines, which are different to hard-rock mines.

``You've had your quartz-mining areas in Thames, Waihi and Reefton, but there's not been a major entrapment of miners underground in any of those mines,'' he said.


http://www.hawkesbaytoday.co.nz/local/news/pike-river-joins-list-of-mining-tragedies/3931370/