South Africa Mine Safety Legislation Falls Behind
Once again, the South African mining community is rocked by a fatal incident. This stresses the need for better mine safety legislation..
Once again, the South African mining community is rocked by a fatal incident. This stresses the need for better mine safety legislation..
South Africa now has a opportunity to take the recent Harmony incident as a quiet reminder that more needs to be done with regards to regulations placed on underground mining emergency response planning.
Learning from real-life emergencies, Turkey mandates the use of refuge chambers.
In comparison to metal mines, the need for a coal mine refuge chamber has long been debated. Coal mines have significant quantities of fuel that can burn for days, so perhaps the rescue and evacuation strategies should be different.
Guidelines for refuge chambers are present in South Africa. However, they are vague and lack vital standards for adequate life support systems.
Turkey’s mining industry should look at the events that followed the Sago coal mine disaster before hastily implementing refuge chamber policy.