Pit & Quarry, February 2017

SAFETY UPDATE MAIN LOOKS FORWARD BACK AS NEW MSHA ERA DAWNS J oe Main assistant secretary of labor at the Mine Safety Health Administration MSHA reflected on his tenure at the agency during a teleconference with reporters near the end of 2016 Main also addressed MSHAs future on the call expressing optimism for continued progress in mine safety and health as he prepared to exit the agency that the Trump administration will guide I have a lot of hope that the strength of the mining industry is going to continue moving forward Main says But well just have to wait to see where things go Citing conversations and meetings had with the nations miners over the years Main says the mining industry has bought into MSHAs policies and is largely appreciative of the results generated from agency initiatives According to Main those initiatives brought mining fatalities and injuries to all time lows Fatality and injury rates are also significantly down Six out of seven years during this administration weve been able to hold mining deaths and fatality rates to all of the previous years in history Main says The only exception in this administration was 2010 when the Upper Big Branch disaster occurred Another positive takeaway for Main Main is that MSHA completed all of its mandated inspections during his tenure Legislation requires two annual inspections at every surface mine and four at every underground mine The agency kept up with that rule in both the metal nonmetal and coal mining sectors inspecting between 13000 and 14500 mines each year We have every single year done our full inspections at every one of those mines Main says Thats the first time thats happened in the records since 2008 We have a very dedicated staff able to do that The industry also made progress with the pattern of violations POV regulation he adds The agency overhauled the POV process in 2010 identifying 51 mines that fit the criteria for the enforcement tool Last year we did a screening using the same criteria and there were no mines identified that met the criteria Main says Other areas Main references as having achieved progress are significant and substantial violations which declined 54 percent between 2010 and 2016 citations and orders which dropped from 170064 in 2010 to 107965 in 2015 and fines which dropped from a high of 1628 million in 2010 to 65 million in 2015 US MINING DEATHS REACH HISTORIC LOWS D ata from the Mine Safety Health Administration MSHA indicates that mining deaths in the U S reached a new low in 2016 According to the data 26 miners died in work related accidents at the nations mines down from 29 deaths in 2015 This figure represents the lowest number of mining deaths ever recorded and only the second year mining deaths dropped below 30 MSHA adds Sixteen deaths occurred in metal and nonmetal mines in 2016 According to MSHA the leading cause of death in these mines was machinery accidents In 2015 17 miners died in the metal and nonmetal sector While these deaths show that more needs to be done to protect our nations miners we have reached a new era in mine safety in the past few years says Joe Main assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health Each year since 2009 injury rates have dropped and the number of mining deaths and fatality rates were less than in all prior years in history except in 2010 when the Upper Big Branch mine disaster occurred H A R D N U M B E R S 1255 The number of impact inspections the MINE SAFETY HEALTH ADMINISTRATION MSHA has conduced since the agency began conducting the inspections in April 2010 According to MSHA it has issued 17123 citations 1329 orders and 62 safeguards related to those inspections BROUGHT TO YOU BY OUR MISSION IS SAFETY Austin Powder Company 25800 Science Park Drive Cleveland OH USA 44122 216 464 2400 www austinpowder com Our commitment to safety includes our manufacturing storage technical and blasting services We strive to be the safest explosives manufacturer supplier and blasting company in the world 98 PIT QUARRY February 2017 pitandquarry com