In Mining Engineering operations, mines act as sources of constant danger and risk to the miners and may result in disasters unless mining is done with safety legislations and practices in place. Mine safety engineers promote and enforce mine safety and health by complying with the established safety standards, policies, guidelines and regulations. These innovative and practical methods for ensuring safe mining operations are discussed in this book including technological advancements in the field. It will prove useful as reference for engineering and safety professionals working in the mining industry, regulators, researchers, and students in the field of mining engineering.

This book focuses on instilling a safety culture and fostering the ability to recognize and manage health and safety responsibilities and requirements. It details effective and safety management systems and concentrates on safety and health hazard anticipation, identification, evaluation, and control.

Mine Safety combines detailed information on safety in mining with methods and mathematics that can be used to preserve human life. By compiling various recent research results and data into one volume, Mine Safety eliminates the need to consult many diverse sources in order to obtain vital information. Chapters cover a broad range of topics, including: human factors and error in mine safety, mining equipment safety, safety in offshore industry and programmable electronic mining system safety. They are written in such a manner that the reader requires no previous knowledge to understand their contents. Examples and solutions are given at appropriate places, and there are numerous problems to test the reader’s comprehension. Mine Safety will prove useful for many individuals, including engineering and safety professionals working in the mining industry, researchers, instructors, and undergraduate and graduate students in the field of mining engineering.

The consideration of human factors issues is vital to the mining industry. As in other safety-critical domains, human performance problems constitute a significant threat to system safety, making the study of human factors an important field for improving safety in mining operations. The primary purpose of this book is to provide the reader with a much-needed overview of human factors within the mining industry, in particular to understand the role of human error in mine safety, explaining contemporary risk management and safety systems approaches. The approach taken is multidisciplinary and holistic, based on a model of the systems of work in the mining industry domain. The ingredients in this model include individual operators, groups/teams, technology/equipment, work organisation and the physical environment. Throughout the book, topics such as human error and safety management are covered through the use of real examples and case studies, allowing the reader to see the practical significance of the material presented while making the text rigorous, useful and enjoyable. Understanding Human Error in Mine Safety is written for professionals in the field, researchers and students of mining engineering, safety or human factors.

This comprehensive technical book on highwall mining covers theory and practice coupled with practical examples and design aspects. It contains eight extensive chapters elaborating broad-spectrum functionalities of highwall mining and its operational aspects, covering world scenario, economic potential, methods of coal extraction, design methodology including empirical web pillar design, numerical modelling for stress analysis, safety factor for web pillars, panel and barrier design, small-and large-scale numerical modelling, multiple seam interaction and design, coal web pillar strength, equivalent width concept, laboratory testing, new web pillar strength formula, effect of weak bands in coal seam, slope stability, safety and ground monitoring, hazards and regulatory requirements, case examples, norms and guidelines for practice. It also summarizes the results of research carried out by the CSIR Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research (CSIR-CIMFR), India and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia on the subject. The book will equip readers in understanding the complex, multiple seam scenarios for highwall mining, and its design for maximum coal recovery from any given site with better economics, which will aid the mining companies in extracting locked-up coal following the safety norms to avoid hazards and minimise instability issues. A large number of case studies is included to illustrate the application of numerical modelling for prior estimation and viability of highwall mining operations under varying geomining conditions. The book will be of interest to professionals and academics in the field of mining engineering specifically, but will also interest civil, geomechanical and geological engineers as well as rock mechanics professionals.