Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Sidenote on Utah Mine Collapse

Let me first say that my prayers are with the the trapped miners. Over my mining career, I have only worked at one underground mine (not coal) and even then I think I went underground only about 10 times. But having that experience under my belt I see this excerpt a little different then most people.

Inspectors have cited Genwal for 30 violations in 2007, MSHA records show.
Recommended fines in the 10 cases where penalties have been leveled so far range
from $60 to $524.

Underground mines are inspected every quarter and always receive citations. The citations are divided up into three categories. The first being minor and are considered to be exceptions to the safety program. Something like a shovel or a hose not being where it should be. It could be one individual not wearing his safety belt. In general the minor violation are isolated events and are not consider a hazardous situation. When these minor violation become more numerous or repeated then that steps it up to a S&S.

Serious & Significant violations are what inspectors consider a hazardous work environment, an accident is imminent. These citations carry a heavy fine (in the thousands) and must be corrected in a reasonable time. If an operation does not correct them by the next visit, the repercussions are serious.

Which brings us to the next level, a Cease and Desist Order. This could be just the area where the violation occurred or the entire operation.

So back to the story, Genwal received 30 citation or an average of 7.5 per inspection. Only ten of them actual carried a fine and not a single one of then was an S&S. In the mining industry this is win and would have been seen as a very good year. Does this mean that Genwal ran safe mine? Without know their incident rate I can't say for sure but it is a good sign that they did.