Faculty of Health Sciences
School of Medical
0212352d
dlabuschagne@anglogoldashanti.com / Dust has been recognized as the most serious occupational health hazard across
the South African Mining Industry. During 1998 more than 5600 mineworkers were
certified with silicosis, a silica related lung disease. The objective of this research
project is to describe the trend in respirable dust concentrations in four
underground gold mines for the period 1999 to 2002.
The mines under discussion are situated in the Klerksdorp area and they were
selected because they are a typical representation of deep underground gold
mines. Typical gold mines use the same method of ventilation distribution and
have similar dust sources e.g. breaking, transporting and tipping of rock. They are
all situated in the same geographical area and all make use of conventional mining
methods. A total of 4645 previously collected personal respirable dust samples
were analysed for this research report making use of a central laboratory situated
in the Klerksdorp area. The respirable dust samples were collected by the
Occupational Hygienists appointed on the mines for control purposes over the
years 1999 to 2002.
The arithmetic mean respirable dust concentrations for the four mines in
discussion was 0,39mg/m3 in 1999, 0,33mg/m3 in 2000, 0,30mg/m3 in 2001 and
0,31mg/m3 in 2002 against the mine’s internal target of 0,4mg/m3.
The report shows a statistically significant downward trend in the proportion of
measurements below 0,4mg/m3 for mines 1, 2 and 3. The percentage of respirable
dust samples above the internal target of 0,4mg/m3 was 6,78% in 1999, 6,15% in
2000, 4,71% in 2001 and 4,38% in 2002.
Although there is a general downwards trend in the percentage of samples above
the target, there is an increase in the number of samples above the target. In
1999, 202 samples were above, 310 in 2000, 402 in 2001 and 361 in 2002.
The key limitation to the project is the integrity of the data. The major limitations
identified include non compliance with the sampling strategy. There is no
guarantee that the instrumentations were worn on the body for the whole shift or
whether any tampering of the gravimetric pumps took place. The sampling
strategy measures all occupations, but all occupations do not receive the same
type and amount of exposure, making it impossible to allocate exposure to a
certain workplace. Samples could get affected during storage and transport.
The most recent audits on the mine’s central laboratory show 100% compliance
with the required standards. The mines under study are well in line with the DME
requirements on the guidelines for a measurement strategy of airborne pollutants.
The gravimetric sampling strategy includes the scheduling of samples managed by
the electronic database system.
Although the report indicates that the results are pointing in the right direction, the
integrity of the data should be tested continuously. Supervision of the pump
wearers is of great concern and training of these wearers is essential for
explaining the purpose of the personal monitoring strategy.
There is a scarcity of published information on respirable dust concentrations in
underground gold mines and further research is required.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/1693 |
| Date | 14 November 2006 |
| Creators | Labuschagne, Jacobus Andries |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1381631 bytes, 8259 bytes, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf |
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