Mining News: MSHA concerned about lone miners

Five miners lost their lives while working alone at mines in the United States during the first quarter of 2017, prompting the U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration to launch a campaign to raise awareness of the dangers miners may face when working in isolation.

There were eight mining fatalities in the U.S. during the first three months of this year, five of which were miners who were working alone.

MSHA began to become concerned about these unaccompanied miners when two such workers died in underground operations over a 24-hour span at the end of January. Both were working alone in restricted areas of underground mines and were discovered missing when they were unaccounted for at the end of their shifts.

Three more such fatalities over the next two months raised this concern, prompting the federal safety administration to issue and re-iterate best practices for both mine operators and miners working alone.

Among the guidelines for operators, MSHA advises:

• Make an assessment to determine if the task can be safely completed by a miner working alone.

• Provide training to assure the miner can safely complete the task while alone.

• Provide the unaccompanied miner with limits to work that can be completed while alone.

• Know where the miner will be at all times.

• Establish and follow routine communication procedures.

• Account for miners working alone at intervals appropriate to the job assignment.

• Account for all miners at the end of each; assignment and shift.

For the unaccompanied miner:

• Determine if you have the skills to safely complete the task alone.

• Inform a responsible person where you will be working and traveling in the mine.

• Identify and correct hazards, if hazards can’t be corrected, inform supervisor.

• Don’t take shortcuts.

• Follow established communication procedures.

• Use established check-in/check-out procedures to assure you are accounted for.

“Mine operators should have procedures in place so they can account for the whereabouts of every miner at the beginning of the shift, while they are working and at the end of the shift,” said Patricia Silvey, deputy assistant secretary for operations, MSHA.

“They should assess whether a particular task can be safely completed by a miner working alone, and always follow established communication practices.”

The focus on miners working alone will include MSHA inspectors and training specialists engaging miners and mine operators in “walk and talks” during regular inspection visits. These talks will emphasize accounting for all workers at all times and provide operators with best practices for working alone.

-SHANE LASLEY