Thesis (LLM.) -- University of Limpopo, 2017. / In South Africa, during the then apartheid era, the mining sector had records of extremely high fatalities, injuries and occupational diseases that led to massive death of miners predominantly the Blacks. In the post-apartheid era, numerous laws have been enacted to address the problem. One of the laws that was introduced is the Mine Health and Safety Act 29 of 1996 which provides for radical enforcement of health and safety standards using various mechanisms, such as monitoring systems and inspections, investigations, and employers' and employees' duties to identify hazards and eliminate, control and minimise the risk to health and safety of mine workers. This study examines the extent, efficient and efficacy of the implementation and enforcements of these laws and points out the challenges being encountered and prospects made thus far. The study used Australia and Chile for comparative study and showcased how the government and the laws they have passed are being effectively used to contain and curtail health hazards, accidents and fatalities in the mining environment.

Following the promulgation of new permissible respirable dust standards by MSHA in 2014, new alternative rock dusts were created that combined the advantages of current industry applications while potentially reducing miner exposure to respirable dust. Research was performed to compare the explosion suppressing and ejection characteristics of three new types of rock dust to existing rock dust types. Explosion suppression tests were conducted in a 38-L chamber where pressures were recorded. Angle of ejection tests were conducted using a high explosive shock tube and high speed photography to determine angle of ejection and lift velocity. A comprehensive comparison of the results of these tests shows that these newly developed dusts have improved results for flame suppression and ejection when compared to typical wet dust applications.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / Safety culture is a multi-layered dynamic concept, meaning that it is not only the aspects pertaining to compliance with compulsory legislation, but also many other non-compulsory safety management and leadership initiatives, which enhance the companies’ safety performance. Most of the available literature focuses on a safety climate, which is an aggregate measure of employee attitude and opinion regarding safety. This paper presents the zero harm safety culture, a common contextual framework, taking readers beyond the traditional safety climate metrics and presenting a variety of assessment and analytical tools for each level of the framework. Techniques used to transform the safety culture toward a state of zero harm are explored in this research report. Finally, 26-components exist in a zero harm safety framework, to illustrate the development and application of a zero harm safety culture in the mining industry. It is also worth mentioning that the most important element of clearly perceived leadership has been found to be neglected in the past and resulted in persistence of incidents leading to fatalities. This important factor, which requires constant leadership interaction, is what makes or breaks the zero harm safety culture framework. Hence, it is crucial that organisations appoint leaders in positions influencing direction of the safety culture, and that these individuals are committed to the drive towards zero harm. This would assist leaders in the mining industry, especially small mines where resources are scarce, to apply the zero harm framework in such a way that the drive towards a zero harm safety culture becomes a reality. When considering implementing the zero harm safety framework in any mining company, irrespective of its size, a successful safety culture can be accomplished realistically within three to five. This paper also provides a series of recommendations to help implement this framework.

Following three major mining accidents in 2006, the MINER Act of 2006 was enacted by MSHA and required every underground coal mine to install refuge alternatives to help prevent future fatalities of trapped miners in the event of a disaster. The following research was performed in response to NIOSH’s call for the investigation into new refuge alternatives. A 15 psi safe haven polycarbonate wall for use in underground coal mines was designed and modeled using finite element modeling in ANSYS Explicit Dynamics. The successful design was tested multiple times in both half-scale and small scale using a high explosive shock tube to determine the walls resistance to blast pressure. The safe haven wall design was modeled for an actual underground coal mine environment to determine any responses of the wall within a mine. A full scale design was fabricated and installed in an underground coal mine to determine any construction constraints and as a final step in proof of concept for the safe haven design.

Thesis (M.Eng.(Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

M. Ing. / Managing the risks to life and limb and to the environment due to potential accidents and structural failures during the lifecycle phases of a TD is a complex, intricate and dynamic process, because of the sheer number of hazards that are involved. Fault and event trees enable one to systematically identify these hazards within the context of their intricate relationships. An internationally accepted qualitative scale enables one to assign probabilities in terms of engineering judgement to the sub-causes in the fault trees and the probabilities of the top faults to be calculated. Mine and industry accident statistics enable one to assign relevant frequencies to the subtended event trees and to determine the resulting probabilities of fatal injury or environmental damage. An internationally accepted relationship between lifetime probability of failure causing death and the potential number of fatalities enables one to determine whether the resulting probability of fatal injury is acceptable. If such resulting probability of fatal injury is not acceptable, the biggest contributing subcauses in the underlying fault tree can be identified and mitigating measures considered on an optimal cost benefit basis. The fault trees for the different life cycle phases of the TD also enable one to take cognisance of the dynamic changes in the frequencies of the sub-causes in the various phases and how the risk management focus may change over the life of a TD although the overall threat may not necessarily vary very much. During investigation of the causative modes for personal injury due to mine accidents/hazards at or on the TD it was found that the probabilities associated with fatal injury during the life cycle phases considered were acceptable. The sensitivity of the factors was however investigated further to provide confidence, and event and consequence trees were developed for TD road accidents which were identified as having the highest probabilities of occurrence. The most efficient risk management intervention measure evaluated was found to be increasing compliance with the mine’s road traffic safety regulations. Investigation of the causative modes for personal injury due to structural failure of the TD determined that the probabilities associated with fatal injury were acceptable and no risk mitigation measures were thus required. The causative modes for environmental damage due to mine accidents/hazards were examined next and the probabilities associated with environmental damage were found to be unacceptably high for the life cycle phases considered. Risk management intervention 57 measures were thus required to lower the associated risks to acceptable levels based on relevant and realistic environmental protection guidelines. No mitigation measures were developed as part of the study. Causative modes for environmental damage due to structural failure of the TD were investigated last. The probabilities associated with environmental damage during the life cycle phases considered were also found to be unacceptably high. Risk mitigation measures were thus required but none were developed as part of the study. Fault and event tree methodology as employed in this study can thus be used as valuable supporting instruments for investigating the causative failure modes of a complex system, the identification of potential risk mitigation measures, and for evaluation of the effectiveness of the proposed risk management measures.

The study that is described in this thesis deals with stope support design from a rockmass stiffness approach. Three models were developed and combined into a single one in the third part of the study in an attempt to describe and quantify the stop support and rockmass interaction. The first model describes stope support with all the factors having an influence on its performance, where this is referred to as the capacity of the stope support. The second model describes rockmass behaviour and is referred to as the rockmass demand. These two models are represented on a common load-deformation graph during the third part of the study. Here the demand of the rockmass is compared to the capacity of the stope support as a whole. In contrast to previous design attempts, both the demand and the capacity for any given situation are considered as variables. The demand varies according to the position relative to the abutments and the capacity varies according to the state of deformation of the support. Each combination of mining configuration, rock type and support type results in a unique base set within which variation is allowed according to position. This is achieved by: (a) comparing the energy released by the rockmass to the energy absorbed by the support system for a given deformation interval; and (b) comparing the rockmass stiffness to that of the support system at any given point of deformation. The methodology is tested by two case studies on Beatrix Gold Mine. In the first study the condition of unstable failure of the support was evaluated where the support failed and the stope collapsed in a relatively short span of time. This is referred to as unstable failure of the stope. The underground observations were confirmed by the outcome of this study. The energy released by the rockmass, that is rockmass demand, exceeded the capacity of the stope support after a given stage of mining. The absolute value of the rockmass stiffness was also less than the absolute value of the load-deformation curve of the stope support for the same mining interval. During the second case study some elements of the stope support failed while the excavation remained open and stable. Underground observations again confirmed the model during this study. Here the Pencil Props failed some distance from the stope face. In this case the absolute value of the rockmass stiffness was less than the magnitude of the negative load-deformation curve of the Pencil Props, while the Matpacks have a positive load-deformation behaviour throughout the deformation process. In the latter case the total energy generated by the rockmass never exceeded the capacity of the permanent stop support. This is referred to as stable failure of the stope support. The study proves that it is possible to evaluate stope support even when a combination of different supports is used as permanent support. The latter is achieved by adding the capacities of the stope support as deformation takes place and comparing that to the rockmass demand for the same mining steps. / Thesis (PhD(Mining Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Mining Engineering / unrestricted

Plese read the abstract in the section 00front of tis document / Thesis (DBA)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Graduate School of Management / unrestricted

Acting on behalf of the its executive council, the Chamber of Mines of South Africa conducted research into the impediments to improvements to health and safety in the mining industry. The study concluded that there was a need for a transformational change of the mining culture to embed health and safety as part and parcel of production. The study further concluded that the involvement of senior executives and underground mineworkers was critical to the success of the initiative. This was to ensure that the initiative does not end with the people who were running it in the mines.This study led to the implementation of the MOSH Leading Practice Adoption System which was intended to ensure that the culture of health and safety was embedded in the culture of the mining industry to an extend where mineworkers were perceived, and saw themselves, as part of the decision process specifically on health and safety.The leaders of the mining industry were critical in creating an environment that would ensure that impediments to the transformational initiative were removed as well as creating incentives for the change initiative.This research was conducted in 2012 with the objectives of establishing the role played by leaders in the effective implementation of transformational initiatives with a specific focus on the MOSH Leading Practice Adoption System. To establish this qualitiative research was conducted with a group of underground mineworkers and mine officials who wer part of the transformational initiative.The findings of this research, supported the findings of a survey conducted early in the year that the transformational initiative did not achieve the intended results of transforming the behaviours and attitudes of underground mineworkers.Literature is sparse on transformational initiatives that are industry-wide as the MOSH Leading Practice Adoption System was. Based on Organisational Development and Transformation principles, recommendations are made on how an industry-wide initiative could be successfully implemented. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Thesis (MPH.) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / The purpose of this study was to determine the provision and utilisation of personal protective equipment amongst contractors in a mine in Phalaborwa Limpopo Province. A quantitative, descriptive and cross-sectional research approach and design were used to conduct the study. Information was gathered through self-administered questionnaires that were analysed statistically. A cross-sectional study was used to investigate the provision and utilisation of PPE amongst contractors in a phosphate mine. A quantitative research study was conducted using a questionnaire to gather data from contractors working at Foskor mine. Two hundred sixty-one employees responded to the questionnaire. The findings revealed that contractors were not being provided with PPE hence there is little utilisation of it. They have to buy PPE from their own pockets. Respondents also reported that they were not trained on the use of PPE. The use of PPE among contractors is very low as compared to permanent employees. Conclusions The contracted companies were not providing PPE to their employees. As result, PPE was not utilised as required in the mine. The response also indicated that they were not trained in the use of PPE.