Miner Safety Underground and Open-pit

One of the challenges to increasing production at a high rate are the needed resources. Over the past century of grand-scale mining, the amounts of energy and water required to work the same quantities of rock have risen more than tenfold as the ores within have become more and more elusive. Mines are facing stark costs if they do not improve the efficiency of their mining. For example, companies experiment with processes that tolerate larger particles and therefore allow drier separation. Because crushing to a larger size, less energy is needed and more throughput is generated. This decreases operating costs significantly. Additionally, operators are recycling "left-overs" and extracting precious materials even more effectively than from the original site. Muda (wastefulness) in the past offers now great potential for improvement.

Mining operations demand long-term and substantial investments, and turning a mine into a profitable business is a challenging, ongoing project. Strategic and operational answers will decide if success is feasible. Industry experts often claim that mining safety and productivity correlate and influence each other. For further reading, learn about underground safety and lone worker's safety.

So, how can we achieve mining targets in a safe, timely and cost-effectively? If we want to exploit the full potential of our mining investment, we should investigate the idea of risk management.

Covering zones means monitoring the access to zones. Let's say you have ten sub-levels of each 1 km length. Instead of putting fibre and WiFi routers along 10km underground tracks, you only add reading devices at every sub-level entrance. By this, you will always know how many people entered, are still in a specific zone or left it. Workers equipped with transponders enable the system to locate them continuously and increase miner safety. In case of an emergency, the rescue coordinator can immediately identify people in a zone at risk and act accordingly.

RFID technology is used in various ways in the mining industry to improve efficiency and profits. One way RFID is used is to track the location of equipment. This helps to reduce delays caused by human error, as well as optimize activities for greater profit. Another way RFID is used in the mining industry is to track the status of maintenance and repairs. This allows mining companies to schedule downtime better and avoid costly delays. Finally, RFID is also used to monitor safety conditions in mines to ensure that miners are working in safe conditions and can quickly respond to any potential hazards. Overall, RFID technology is a valuable tool for the mining industry as for miner safety.

Imagine, it is Thursday afternoon and you send a person out to perform a routine check in a hazardous area. The person checks his PPE, prepares his tools and walks to the specific area.

On site, his personal gas monitor alerts him to high levels of dangerous gases. He should call for backup, but it could be another hour before an assistance can get to the location. He knows this situation, it has happened before, so he thinks he can manage to do the routine check quickly and get out there in a few minutes. He mutes the alarm on his monitor entering the area, starts his routine checks and is overcome by the gases.

Lone worker tracking solutions come in various forms, but all usually include some form of tracking device that the employee wears while working. The device then communicates with a central server, which the employer or emergency services can access. In the event of an emergency, the employee can activate a panic button on the device, which will send an alert to the server. Much better, the device recognizes potentially threatening situations and alerts safety coordinators to trigger a rescue operation. The employer or emergency services can then track the employee's location and respond accordingly.

Mines can be an extremely unsafe environment with possibilities of collapsing, explosion, flooding, fire, and machinery accidents which can instantly affect a huge number of people. Workers might also be exposed to hazardous gases and dust, which can lead to many diseases. 

Learn in this article about mining technology, safety systems and devices that improve and maintain safety standards in the mining industry.

As a centralised institution, the state-of-the-art control centre is where all aspects of the mining operation can be monitored and controlled. These expectations can be achieved by visualisation of all operations, including production, plant and logistics, and creates a highly efficient, automated, low-cost, and, most importantly, safe operation.

The capabilities built into the control centre include mine planning, production scheduling, fixed plant management, safety management, monitoring miners and production, control, backfill management, breakdown and planned maintenance management, processing and remote operations and analytics.

The Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response (MINER) Act of 2006 amended the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 to allow greater protection for underground (coal) miners and enhance emergency preparedness.

It mandated mine operators to develop emergency response plans, guarantee that rescue teams were nearby, and maintain communications and tracking systems for use in a crisis. In addition, it also boosted mine safety training and research.

The mining accident of 2010 in Copiapó was a turning point in the way how mines are run, particularly in Chile, generally in South America. 33 miners were rescued after spending more than two months underground.

In this article, we illustrate the current state of mining in South America and how multiple accidents in the 21st century have changed the perception of safety. In addition, we show what measures were implemented to improve safety standards in the region.