Greater stakeholder collaboration can reduce fatalities by a significant margin

At the 2003 Health and Safety Summit, Government committed to bringing safety in mining up to international standards by 2013. However, ten years later the industry is still grappling with the issue, with mine deaths having risen by 8% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2012.

According to Johan Duvenhage, Managing Director for Gold and Uranium at AEL Mining Services, while good strides have been made by the industry to improve safety at mines, it is critical that Government reviewscurrent safety regulations to help reduce the number of fatalities, particularly in the platinum and gold sectors where South Africa is deemed to be one of the world’s top producers.

Johan Duvenhage notes that Act 29 of the 1996 Mine Health and Safety Act can impose certain consequences on mines that have fatal incidents, such as a temporary suspension of mining activities or even closure of the mining house itself. “In addition to the tragedy of an employee losing their life, such an incident could also leave thousands of miners unemployed as well resulting in millions of Rands being lost to the mining industry and the wider economy.

“At the very least, mining houses often suffer production losses after fatalities due to routine shutdowns ordered by the government for investigations, as well as work stoppages by union members who vow to stop work for a day to mark the death of a colleague,” he says.

Duvenhage says greater collaboration and increased dialogue between mining houses and suppliers to the industry would help to improve safety conditions at mines in a sustainable manner. “Safety should be the top priority for all stakeholders.

In order to reduce the risk of fatalities, AEL Mining Services is in the roll-out phase of three new service offerings for the deep level mining industry which is expected to reduce the risk and exposure significantly “The new services should also result in a substantial improvement in revenue through improvements to operational efficiency, production costs and a reduction in man power being utilised,” explains Duvenhage.

The products include (bagged) Underground Bulk Systems (UBS), Visibility Shock Tube Initiating Systems and Pro Blast, a team of AEL specialists who go underground to conduct back-to-basics training programmes on the stope-face.

“A mistake among some mining suppliers is to only offer the mining houses their products on a commodity basis, forgetting about the need to offer an after-sale service. A service offering such as Pro Blast is vital to ensuring that employees have the right skills and knowledge to use the products properly, improving safety standards as well as maximising profitability of the mine,” explains Duvenhage.

He says the mining industry is on the brink of shifting from using traditional explosives to the use of chemicals in the form of bagged emulsions, such as the development of the UBS, which works through a pumping mechanism. “The ammonium nitrate chemical emulsion presents properties which require a mixer, sensitising agent and a pump to be detonated in a controlled manner. Unlike traditional cartridged explosives, these emulsions require all three items to work in unison to create a detonable product, which helps to eliminate the problem of pilferage in mines, illegal mining activities as well as preventing crimes such as ATM bombings,” says Duvenhage.  Additional advantages include the fact that the emulsion is not classed as an “Explosive” under the explosives act but as a hazardous chemical.  This has the advantage of reduced shaft transporting times (no need for dedicated explosives time slots) as well as increased efficiencies on the stope-face as the bagged emulsion can be transported to the working face by means of the mono winch.  A further notable advantage is the reduced risk exposure of the employees during charging up time as studies have proven that a blast face can be charged up by as much as 50% less time it will take if making use of traditional explosives.

He also notes that the underground conditions in a mine can make visibility extremely poor, which proves a challenge when trying to maintain safety standards whilst dealing with dangerous, but necessary, products such explosives. “Until recently, white, transparent shock tubes and white or grey coloured packaged explosives have been used.  The main risk here is not being able to properly see the product, with the result that one could face accidental detonations with fatal consequences or alternatively miss detonating an explosive that leads to poor blasting and failure to meet optimal resource yields.”

Eliminating this problem is the bright green emulsion produced by the UBS pump together with the Vivid (High Visibility Shock Tube) which is now being produced in a ‘brilliant yellow’. These products are integral mining components which can now easily be spotted further reducing the risk to miners who have to use them.

“In order for South Africa to meet international safety standards, all stakeholders in the industry need to be aware of the progress that is currently being made and adopt new practices to improve their risk profile and reduce inefficiencies,” concludes Duvenhage.

AEL Mining Services
Modderfontein, Johannesburg
South Africa, 1645
Tel: +27 11 606 0000
Fax: +27 11 605 0000
www.aelminingservices.com