Airleg mining

facthunter · March 16

Airial inspection of powerlines has killed quite a few .. Nev

onetrack · March 16

I employed up 102 people at one time over more than 30 years in the business of earthmoving and mining contracting. In an industry littered with major personal injuries and fatalities (as most industries where powered equipment is in use), the only fatality incurred in my business, in that period of more than 30 years of operation, was a 20 yr old operator who rolled a company dual cab Hilux in the middle of the day, on a superb straight section of highway in the W.A. Goldfields.

He was told as part of his training that seatbelts were to be worn at all times - yet he wasn't wearing his seatbelt. For some reason (inattention or carelessness), he drifted off the bitumen at 110kmh, and hit a wooden guide post.

It appears hitting the guidepost startled him and he swerved back on the bitumen. But in an incredible one-in-10,000 chance, as he hit the guidepost, it broke in two.

The bottom piece of the guidepost was laid out flat by the front tyre as it ran over it - but as it came out from under the front tyre, it stood up at about a 30°-40° angle - and it hit the centre of the tread of the LHR tyre, straight on at 90° to the tread, and it punched straight through the tyres tread, effectively guillotining the rear tyre across the tread, and flattening the tyre instantly.

As he swerved right, back onto the bitumen, the LHR wheel, now effectively just running on the rim, and going nearly sideways, dug into the shoulder like a brake. The effect of the now-tyreless rim also lowered that side of the Hilux, facilitating a rollover.

The Hilux rolled 2.5 times (still doing around 100kmh) and the driver was ejected from the vehicle via a broken window, and he broke his neck instantly upon contact with the road.

It was a very sad day when this happened, he was the only boy in a family of 6 - but the essence of the accident was, it was all totally preventable, just caused by carelessness and inattention.

As to rockbolting or installing supports to the roof of shafts or drives whilst standing underneath - well, mining lost a lot of blokes in W.A. doing that up to about 35 years ago, when they worked under unsupported roofs.

"Barring down" was the most dangerous job of all - prying loose rocks out of roofs, after a blast. So they stopped blokes from doing all that in company operations, and made sure they operated from machines with reinforced cages that operate mechanical arms to remove loose rocks and install rock bolts.

There's no need for anyone to stand under newly blasted unsupported roofs in mining today, faults in the ground trick even the best geologists.

The biggest mine collapse event we had in W.A. was the Scotia Nickel Mine cave-in. Hundreds of thousands of tonnes fell in the Scotia Nickel Mine when underground workings collapsed. It was pure luck that no-one was underground at the time.

But a bloke on the surface saw clouds of dust rising from the mine shaft, and jumped in his Holden ute to go and alert management. But he inadvertantly drove across the ground that fell in, and he and his ute were sucked down into the mine in the massive collapse. Neither he nor his ute were ever recovered from the collapse as it was was deemed too dangerous to go near the fallen ground.

https://www.wavmm.com/2023/02/19/scotia-nickel-mine-tragedy/