Risk Analysis of Mining Operations and Industrial Disaster in Detail

This report conducts a comprehensive risk analysis of mining operations, specifically focusing on coal mining. It begins by describing the hazards associated with coal mining, such as explosive use, explosive storage, and the potential for fly rocks, methane explosions, and blasting-related accidents. The report suggests mitigation strategies, including proper blast design, pre-drilling inspection, and adherence to occupational health and safety regulations. Furthermore, the report examines the Westray Mine disaster, detailing the event's nature, causes, outcomes, and impact, while also analyzing the associated risks using the five characteristics of risk. The analysis highlights the importance of safety protocols, worker training, and emergency plans to prevent similar incidents. The report concludes by emphasizing the need for continuous risk assessment and management in the mining industry to protect workers and prevent disasters.

Running Head: Assignment Assessment and Decision Analysis
Assignment
Assessment and Decision Analysis

1
Choose a process, system, design or facility that you deal with in your field of study that
can be the subject of a risk analysis. Provide a description of the item you have chosen.
Identify 3 hazards associated with your choice, and suggest possible
scenarios/consequences on how they can lead to an accident. Describe two ways in
which this can be mitigated. What protection has been created by the government for
the public against hazards such as the ones you have selected (e.g., laws, regulations,
standards)?
Risk analysis is regarded as the science dealing with risks, their probability and evaluation
(Aven, 2015). The process of Risk management, carried out for each project, is a part of risk
analysis. Risk happens when a person is subjected to hazardous situations that could lead to
injury and serious health issue. In this assignment, we would discuss the mining operations
particularly coal mining. In the coal mining, the explosives are used to break the surface
rocks of the mining area till the coal seam is exposed. Once it is exposed it is drilled and
mined in shreds. Such mining operations have its own hazards associated with it like
handling explosives, explosive storage and fly rocks. These possible hazards could lead to
disasters (Paithankar, 2011). Firstly, due to methane or consecutive coal dust explosions.
Methane is an explosive gas found trapped within coal layers, improper implementation of
explosives could lead to explosions. These types of explosions are the biggest cause of
mining disasters. The second possible scenario that can cause disaster is blasting related
accidents such as by fly rocks, misfires and mine induced seismicity. Most explosions related
casualties or injuries are caused to the miners near to explosion site as they are high chances
that they can be struck by flying rock due to the explosion. Secondly, explosions cause
instability of slope in mining region could lead to landslide and such events trap the miners
inside the mines (Bajpayee et al., 2004). These accidents can be mitigated by proper blast
design and pre-drilling inspection. Blast designer optimizes the reasonable balance in

2
explosive energy, its distribution, rock properties and explosive energy confinement so that
serious accident can be avoided. The blaster should ensure that explosive loading and the
blasthole location is altered so that if any irregularities are unchecked during the inspection
the accident can be avoided. By Occupational Health and Safety Act, the workers are
protected from health and safety hazards of the job. This is Ontario's cornerstone legislation
for workplace health and safety.
Choose an industrial disaster from your field of study and write a brief description of
the nature of the event. What happened, why it happened, the outcome and impact?
Describe the risks associated with the event you have chosen. How would you go about
determining likelihood? Use the 5 characteristics of risk to guide your answer.
In the mining world, one of the major disasters that comes to my mind is the Westray Mine
disaster. Westray mine was a coal mine in Plymouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. It was owned and
operated by Curragh Resources Incorporated (Curragh Inc.), a Toronto-based firm. The mine
was politically controversial since 1988. The location of mine was volatile as it was on
dangerous coal seam. On May 9, 1992, an explosion blew off the top of Westray coal mine
entrance which was more than a mile above. This explosion led to 26 people trapped inside
the mine (Dubreuil, 2014). They tried to rescue trapped men if there are any survivors but at
last on 14th May Collin Benner (President, Operations) confirmed that all 26 are dead. The
most of the people were dead by very high concentrations of carbon monoxide while others
being crushed and trapped within machinery that had been crumpled by the explosion. This
accident was caused due to a sudden change in the action plan of mining. The company
changed the tunnel directions to reduce time to reach coal seam which crossed the major
geological faults and the second reason was inadequate training and certification of workers
and the lack of an emergency plan. The accident likelihood was higher which was noticed by
several warning signs like within 2 months of operations mine had four roof falls. There may

3
be much of flammable coal dust and trapped methane which miners have overlooked.
Secondly, they must be lacking blast design and pre-drill inspection as miners were not
experienced. Lack of handling explosives and their placements could also be a reason.
Seismic activity due to blast can also be a characteristic reason behind such accident.

4
References
Aven, T. (2015). Risk analysis. John Wiley & Sons.
Bajpayee, T., Verakis, H., & Lobb, T. (2004). An analysis and prevention of flyrock
accidents in surface blasting operations. In Proceedings of the annual conference on
explosives and blasting technique (Vol. 2, pp. 401-410). ISEE; 1999.
Dubreuil, B.. R. The Canadian Encyclopedia. (2014). Westray disaster.Retrieved February 2,
2017 From http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/westray-disaster/.
Paithankar, A. (2011). Hazard identification and risk analysis in mining industry (Doctoral
dissertation, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ROURKELA).