LYDENBURG – South Africa’s mines are installing net-and-bolt safety systems at a rate of 170 000 a day and 200 kilometres of netting as part of an initiative that slashed fall-of-ground fatalities by 80% last year. According to a Mining Weekly article, the industry also made great strides with new proximity detection technology that reduced transport risk, the second main cause of mine fatalities after falls of ground, which were by far the biggest single underground killer.
South Africa’s mines are spending R2,2 billion a year on safety bolts and 200 km of netting costs R100 million, Chamber of Mines of South Africa safety head Sietse van der Woude recently said. The local manufacturer of safety bolts has created 3 000 South African jobs and the local manufacture of nets another 2 000 jobs. The 170 000 bolts, if placed a kilometre apart, would cover a distance equal to circumventing the earth four times over and the netting installed covers the distance from Rustenburg to eMalahleni.
Moreover, these volumes are poised to increase as the nets and bolts are extended to additional areas. New proximity detection also allows guard car operators to communicate impending danger to locomotive drivers and, if necessary, apply an emergency brake. “We could have saved 14 lives if just the hard-rock rail-bound equipment alone had been available over the past five years,” Van der Woude added.
Three months ago, the coal-mining industry’s proximity detection technology saved the life of a Khutala colliery employee when the electromagnetic field generated by the transponder in his cap lamp halted an oncoming shuttle car, after he had collapsed in its path from a medical condition. In the 12 months to June 30, South Africa’s second-largest platinum-mining company, Impala Platinum (Implats), eliminated fall-of-ground fatalities totally, mainly through the use of nets and bolts, which had been installed on 90% of the Impala Platinum mine’s Merensky reef horizon and in 45% of its upper group two stopes, adding R200 million a year to working costs. Implats intends providing net-and-bolt protection throughout the mine by year-end. In achieving its best safety performance ever, it increased its alcohol breathalyser tests by 190%, its road behaviour test by 59% and carried out 3 528 safety stoppages, an increase of 51%.
Proximity detection systems have been fitted to 79% of Implats’ trackless vehicle fleet and will also be fitted to all underground locomotives. Its entire centralised blasting system is being replaced with a safe-blast system and conventional conveyor belts are being replaced by fire-retardant versions, Mining Weekly reported.
Van der Woude pointed out that the nets and bolts and proximity detection systems have come out of the chamber’s mining industry occupational safety-and-health learning hub initiative aimed at encouraging companies to share best practice.
