Why do mines collapse

Pneumoconiosis is a group of lung diseases that can cause disability, impairment, and even death. There is currently no treatment that can cure these diseases, therefore prevention is crucial. The best form of prevention is firstly reducing the risk that the miners will encounter the dangerous air through exposure assessments and constant monitoring. Regulations are in place that prevents miners from working below an acceptable level of coal dust and this must be adhered to. Air sampling instruments are used to test for high levels of mineral dust with the results deciding if control technologies should be implemented in the most high-risk areas.

Mining is an industry that occurs all over the world. Extreme conditions can make for perilous working conditions, with miners not only having to worry about the extreme temperatures damaging their equipment, but the risk of their own health and safety.

To prevent any lapse in production the mine must stay working efficiently and effectively, ensuring workers are safe while the mines remain operational. Protective clothing must be provided to the workers in the cold and exposure to the outside must be kept to a minimum.

Equipment such as heating systems are used to create a safe environment for the cold mine workers as well as keep the equipment optimised and operational throughout the project. To combat the heat - air conditioning in the form of cooling systems including ammonia chillers, bulk air coolers and skid mounted cooling units. Find out how Howden provides ventilation solutions to some of the toughest environments with their Mine Air Heaters.

The reality is, mining has been, and will still be around for a very long time to come. One way to combat the ever-dangerous mining environments is the innovation of equipment and software, and more automation. Not only does this prevent miners from being put into potentially dangerous environments but it could open up new, safer roles within this ever-changing industry. For more than a century Howden has supplied ventilation equipment to every major mining company in the world, from frozen sites in the Arctic and the hottest nations in Africa.

Howden has made an evolutionary leap forward in the concept, design, engineering, equipment and control of mine ventilation with the Total Mine Ventilation Solution TMVS. This is an integrated suite of expertise, products, and services that reduces operating costs and increases safety and production.

It includes:. Find out more by downloading your Total Mine Ventilation Solutions brochure today. After this validation it was possible to evaluate the residual risk for the other two sections Figure 9.

The western part has a similar condition, and exploitation was performed on only six levels. Thus this area can also be considered almost stable. Therefore new investigations of the eastern and western areas of the mine site are not currently necessary because the situation seems fairly stable, thus the residual risk in west and east areas of Montevecchia mine is not a priority for land management.

Such information will help also to determine if more investigations are necessary. The summary graph in a simple way may allow decision makers to minimize the use of public funds, avoiding expensive studies which a priori are often not useful for a real improvement in the reliability of the final risk scenario. The assumptions introduced in the previous paragraphs must be considered to evaluate the limit of the approach:.

This is a strong simplification but in order to avoid too many numerical simulations a limited number of cases was chosen. For instance a Montecarlo analysis may improve the analysis of this risk but the numerical analysis could require long computational time and it was not the purpose of this work. It could be interesting to test also other codes.

Of course a detailed knowledge of this boundary condition may lead to an improvement of the summary graph. Considering this limitations, the risk scenario should be refined and updated over time as new data become available. Moreover, to really improve the reliability of this approach, a monitoring system capable of detecting detailed information on rock mass behavior may be used.

For instance, remote sensing techniques [ 61 ] could be powerful tools for evaluating surface displacements in the area surrounding abandoned mines [ 62 , 63 ]. Geo-hazards related to the long-term stability of abandoned mines located in urbanized areas are a challenge for all countries with a mining history.

Nowadays, the risks related with active mines are well known and thoroughly studied, but one of the major problems related to underground mines concerns abandoned mine sites. Moreover, neither guidelines nor procedures are currently available for assessing how to approach this problem. In keeping with these environmental problems, long-term analysis of these sites should be planned.

Starting from these considerations, a simple approach is here proposed. The purpose of this approach is to give an overview of the collapse risk of abandoned mine considering how to tackle input data uncertainty. Frequently, in risk analysis a strong interference between uncertainty and decision making is present and therefore it is crucial to generate an easy, accessible and transparent decision procedure capable to solve also complex problem characterized by poor local information.

The summary graph fits well the requirements of transparency the assumptions and the limits are declared and discussed , accessibility data are reported in the text and, graphs are easier to understand and ease the method is based upon an easy and simple approach. Search in Google Scholar. In: Skipp B. Risk and reliability in ground engineering, Thomas Telford, , In: Proc.

IAHS Publ. Risk Analysis, , 29 10 , FLAC Symp. Water Air Soil Pollut. A Case study in central Sweden Landscape Research, , 36 2 , Eng, , Open Geosci. Hazards Earth Syst. Earth Sci. Eclogae Geol. Acta Geophys. Civil Engineer in South Africa, , 15 12 , Rock Mechanics, , 6 4 , Rock Mech. Estud Geol, , 65 1 , Global Environ. Risk, in press. Proc 2, , PhD Thesis. Risk Anal. Chapman, Hall, London, Special issue on rock stress estimation Int.

Remote Sens. Your documents are now available to view. Confirm Cancel. From the journal Open Geosciences. They work together as a team better than anybody I've ever been around. Common Causes of Mining Accidents Coal mine accidents can occur for a variety of reasons and range in seriousness from minor to potentially fatal.

Causes of Cave Collapse in Coal Mining Mining accidents can have a variety of causes, which include leaks of poisonous gases such as hydrogen sulfide or explosive natural gases, especially firedamp or methane. My Company Offered Me a Settlement.

Should I Accept It? Find out more now. At the time of the collapse, our client had been standing behind a safety fence feet away when a fallen piece of crane equipment pinned The verdict will go toward providing the extensive care they have required in the years since Williams Companies tried to blame the incident on Plant injuries are often complex, taking years to fully investigate and litigate.

His settlement will go toward providing him with extensive and They gave our client an award First Name: Please enter your first name. Hobba Jr. The effects of underground mining and mine collapse on areal hydrology were determined at one site where the mined bed of coal lies above major streams and at two sites where the bed of coal lies below major streams. Subsidence cracks observed at land surface generally run parallel to predominant joint sets in the rocks.

The mining and subsidence cracks increase hydraulic conductivity and interconnection of water-bearing rock units, which in turn cause increased infiltration of precipitation and surface water, decreased evapotranspiration, and higher base flows in some small streams.