Just wanted to offer a quick thank-you for my recent appearance at NOSHCON. First, of course, I wish to thank Beatrix for making all the arrangements and taking such good care of me from door to door. I would also like to acknowledge the excellent team at NOSA for organizing such a vibrant event. The sessions, catering, booths, and tone of the entire conference was as good as I've seen.
Finally, I'd like to thank all the delegates for taking time out from their "real" jobs and trusting in us to deliver something of value for your time. I had a wonderful group to speak to with tough questions and a real desire to understand Ergonomics from my perspective.
I hope this isn't the last time I can get together with this group!
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Say NO to second hand imitations!
Others try to COPYCAT, but NOSHCON remains the only event on the SHEQ calendar that repeatedly delivers world-class speakers, growing numbers of delegates and record numbers of exhibitors from across the globe and this year is NO different. http://www.noshcon.co.za/programme.html
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Explosion in Pretoria
2010-08-03 11:57
Johannesburg - Paramedics were responding to an industrial explosion in Pretoria on Tuesday morning. The explosion happened at a site on Piet Rautenbach street in Pretoria, said Netcare spokesperson Jeffrey Wicks.
"Details of what has transpired are vague," he said.
SAPA
Johannesburg - Paramedics were responding to an industrial explosion in Pretoria on Tuesday morning. The explosion happened at a site on Piet Rautenbach street in Pretoria, said Netcare spokesperson Jeffrey Wicks.
"Details of what has transpired are vague," he said.
SAPA
Friday, July 30, 2010
New platinum mine safety measures could hit Aquarius output - and others too
Instructions from South Africa's Mines Inspectorate following the Marikana platinum mine accident will force a number of operations to alter their mining plans.
LONDON - The issue of deaths in the South African mining sector has been brought to the forefront again by the recent fall-of-ground accident at Aquarius Platinum's flagship mechanised Marikana platinum mine, and measures now imposed on Marikana, and other similar operations, could have a sharp short to medium term impact on production. UG2 reef mines, like Marikana, are the most likely to be affected as the wider reef widths lend themselves more to this type of mining than the generally narrower Merensky reef.
With regard to Aquarius' Marikana operation itself, its No. 4 shaft area, where the accident occurred, is still shut down while investigations into the cause of the fall-of-ground continue and the company can not yet give a date when operations will be allowed to resume.
Marikana, as well as some of the other platinum mines, but not all, work on the bord (room) and pillar system leaving pillars behind as support for the working areas. Additional support between the pillars is provided by roofbolts. At the moment Aquarius mines leaving 10 m wide rooms, but the company - and others using this method of mining - have been instructed to reduce the room widths to 6 m which will require a change in mining plan which will not be quick, or easy, to implement at short notice. The maximum permitted extraction in these areas will be 75%. While the mines will be allowed time to implement the new restrictions it is unlikely the Mines Inspectorate will allow much prevarication on the changeover. This is bound to have some impact on production.
This latest blitz on mine safety comes as, in fact, South African mine safety is improving - but the death rate is still seen as totally unacceptable - particularly in the country's gold and platinum mines. Interestingly South Africa's coal mining sector is among the world's safest. The gold and platinum mines do have particular problems because of depth-related rockbursts and groundfalls and do have extremely high labour forces - although considerably smaller than they used to be and while the number of deaths are falling, quite drastically - and are nowhere near as bad as those of say mining in China or in a number of other countries which are loath to publicise statistics.
This year, for example, deaths in the platinum mines after a little over half the year are 20% lower than at the same time a year ago - and 63% lower on all mines at this stage so the increased emphasis on safety in the industry, under pressure from the government and trade unions, is beginning to have a significant impact and will almost certainly raise mining costs.
South Africa has around 80% of the world's known platinum reserves and platinum group metals are a hugely important contributor to the country's export earnings.
Extract from http://www.mineweb.co.za/
Mining Accident News No 1021 Editor: Mark Freeman
mark.freeman@industry.nsw.gov.au
LONDON - The issue of deaths in the South African mining sector has been brought to the forefront again by the recent fall-of-ground accident at Aquarius Platinum's flagship mechanised Marikana platinum mine, and measures now imposed on Marikana, and other similar operations, could have a sharp short to medium term impact on production. UG2 reef mines, like Marikana, are the most likely to be affected as the wider reef widths lend themselves more to this type of mining than the generally narrower Merensky reef.
With regard to Aquarius' Marikana operation itself, its No. 4 shaft area, where the accident occurred, is still shut down while investigations into the cause of the fall-of-ground continue and the company can not yet give a date when operations will be allowed to resume.
Marikana, as well as some of the other platinum mines, but not all, work on the bord (room) and pillar system leaving pillars behind as support for the working areas. Additional support between the pillars is provided by roofbolts. At the moment Aquarius mines leaving 10 m wide rooms, but the company - and others using this method of mining - have been instructed to reduce the room widths to 6 m which will require a change in mining plan which will not be quick, or easy, to implement at short notice. The maximum permitted extraction in these areas will be 75%. While the mines will be allowed time to implement the new restrictions it is unlikely the Mines Inspectorate will allow much prevarication on the changeover. This is bound to have some impact on production.
This latest blitz on mine safety comes as, in fact, South African mine safety is improving - but the death rate is still seen as totally unacceptable - particularly in the country's gold and platinum mines. Interestingly South Africa's coal mining sector is among the world's safest. The gold and platinum mines do have particular problems because of depth-related rockbursts and groundfalls and do have extremely high labour forces - although considerably smaller than they used to be and while the number of deaths are falling, quite drastically - and are nowhere near as bad as those of say mining in China or in a number of other countries which are loath to publicise statistics.
This year, for example, deaths in the platinum mines after a little over half the year are 20% lower than at the same time a year ago - and 63% lower on all mines at this stage so the increased emphasis on safety in the industry, under pressure from the government and trade unions, is beginning to have a significant impact and will almost certainly raise mining costs.
South Africa has around 80% of the world's known platinum reserves and platinum group metals are a hugely important contributor to the country's export earnings.
Extract from http://www.mineweb.co.za/
Mining Accident News No 1021 Editor: Mark Freeman
mark.freeman@industry.nsw.gov.au
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Acid water threatens Joburg
2010-07-21 21:52 (Extracted from News24 http://www.news24.com/)
Johannesburg - Millions of litres of highly acidic mine water is rising up under Johannesburg and, if left unchecked, could spill out into its streets some 18 months from now, Parliament's water affairs portfolio committee heard on Wednesday.
The acid water is currently about 600m below the city's surface, but is rising at a rate of between 0.6 and 0.9m a day, water affairs deputy director water quality management Marius Keet told MPs.
"(It) can have catastrophic consequences for the Johannesburg central business district if not stopped in time. A new pumping station and upgrades to the high-density sludge treatment works are urgently required to stop disaster," he warned.
Speaking at the briefing, activist Mariette Liefferink, from the Federation for a Sustainable Environment, said the rising mine water posed an "enormous threat", which would become worse if remedial actions were further delayed.
"This environmental problem is second (in SA) only to global warming in terms of its impact, and poses a serious risk to the Witwatersrand as a whole. At the rate it is rising, the basin (under Johannesburg) will be fully flooded in about 18 months."
Mine drainage
She said the rising mine water had the same acidity as vinegar or lemon juice, and was a legacy of 120 years of gold mining in the region.
Acid water is formed underground when old shafts and tunnels fill up. The water oxidises with the sulphide mineral iron pyrite, better known as fool's gold. The water then fills the mine and starts decanting into the environment, in a process known as acid mine drainage.
Keet said the problem was not just confined to Johannesburg, which is located atop one of several major mining "basins" in the Witwatersrand, known as the Central Basin.
In 2002, acid mine drainage had started decanting from the Western Basin, located below the Krugersdorp-Randfontein area. The outflow had grown worse earlier this year after heavy rains, prompting his department to intervene.
However, a lack of treatment capacity in the area "compelled in-stream treatment as a short-term intervention".
This intervention saw the department pouring tons of lime, an alkali, into the Tweelopies Spruit in an effort to neutralise the acid mine water. This had led to problems with the resulting sludge that had formed in the water course.
The region's Eastern Basin, below the town of Nigel, was also threatened. The last working mine still pumping out water in the area was Grootvlei. Keet said that if the mine stopped pumping, acid water would start decanting into the town "within two to three years".
Legal action
Water Affairs is currently taking legal action against the mine, after it allegedly failed to comply with a departmental directive to treat the pumped water before discharging it.
On stopping the growing threat below Johannesburg, Keet said about R220m was needed to establish pump stations, pipelines and treatment works. Responding to a question, he said there were plans to tackle the problem.
"The idea is to build a pump station; the challenge is where the money will come from," he said.
Liefferink said if the acid mine water rose to the surface in Johannesburg's CBD, it posed a threat to the city's inhabitants, its buildings and the surrounding environment.
She told MPs that residents of many of Gauteng's poorer communities were living alongside, and in some cases on top of, land contaminated by mining activities. They were exposed to high concentrations of cobalt, zinc, arsenic, and cadmium, all known carcinogens, as well as high levels of radioactive uranium.
"In some cases, RDP houses are being erected next to radioactive dumps," she told MPs, who expressed shock and concern at the news.
Liefferink said acid mine drainage was exacerbating the problem, because it dissolved the heavy metals and precipitated them in water sources and wetlands, where people grew crops and abstracted water.
Threat
She also warned that some of the heavily polluted streams drained into the Vaal River system, and posed a threat to the region's water supply.
Liefferink, who backed up her presentation with a series of photographs showing, among other things, shacks erected on top of an old mine tailings dump, received a round of applause from MPs.
Mining started on the Witwatersrand about 120 years ago. More than 43 000 tons of gold and 73 000 tons of uranium have been extracted from the region's mines.
According to Liefferink, this mining activity has left a legacy of about 400km² of mine tailings dams and about six billion tons of pyrite tailings containing low-grade uranium.
"Waste from gold mines constitutes the largest single source of waste and pollution in South Africa... Acid mine drainage may continue for many years after mines are closed and tailings dams decommissioned," she said.
- SAPA
Johannesburg - Millions of litres of highly acidic mine water is rising up under Johannesburg and, if left unchecked, could spill out into its streets some 18 months from now, Parliament's water affairs portfolio committee heard on Wednesday.
The acid water is currently about 600m below the city's surface, but is rising at a rate of between 0.6 and 0.9m a day, water affairs deputy director water quality management Marius Keet told MPs.
"(It) can have catastrophic consequences for the Johannesburg central business district if not stopped in time. A new pumping station and upgrades to the high-density sludge treatment works are urgently required to stop disaster," he warned.
Speaking at the briefing, activist Mariette Liefferink, from the Federation for a Sustainable Environment, said the rising mine water posed an "enormous threat", which would become worse if remedial actions were further delayed.
"This environmental problem is second (in SA) only to global warming in terms of its impact, and poses a serious risk to the Witwatersrand as a whole. At the rate it is rising, the basin (under Johannesburg) will be fully flooded in about 18 months."
Mine drainage
She said the rising mine water had the same acidity as vinegar or lemon juice, and was a legacy of 120 years of gold mining in the region.
Acid water is formed underground when old shafts and tunnels fill up. The water oxidises with the sulphide mineral iron pyrite, better known as fool's gold. The water then fills the mine and starts decanting into the environment, in a process known as acid mine drainage.
Keet said the problem was not just confined to Johannesburg, which is located atop one of several major mining "basins" in the Witwatersrand, known as the Central Basin.
In 2002, acid mine drainage had started decanting from the Western Basin, located below the Krugersdorp-Randfontein area. The outflow had grown worse earlier this year after heavy rains, prompting his department to intervene.
However, a lack of treatment capacity in the area "compelled in-stream treatment as a short-term intervention".
This intervention saw the department pouring tons of lime, an alkali, into the Tweelopies Spruit in an effort to neutralise the acid mine water. This had led to problems with the resulting sludge that had formed in the water course.
The region's Eastern Basin, below the town of Nigel, was also threatened. The last working mine still pumping out water in the area was Grootvlei. Keet said that if the mine stopped pumping, acid water would start decanting into the town "within two to three years".
Legal action
Water Affairs is currently taking legal action against the mine, after it allegedly failed to comply with a departmental directive to treat the pumped water before discharging it.
On stopping the growing threat below Johannesburg, Keet said about R220m was needed to establish pump stations, pipelines and treatment works. Responding to a question, he said there were plans to tackle the problem.
"The idea is to build a pump station; the challenge is where the money will come from," he said.
Liefferink said if the acid mine water rose to the surface in Johannesburg's CBD, it posed a threat to the city's inhabitants, its buildings and the surrounding environment.
She told MPs that residents of many of Gauteng's poorer communities were living alongside, and in some cases on top of, land contaminated by mining activities. They were exposed to high concentrations of cobalt, zinc, arsenic, and cadmium, all known carcinogens, as well as high levels of radioactive uranium.
"In some cases, RDP houses are being erected next to radioactive dumps," she told MPs, who expressed shock and concern at the news.
Liefferink said acid mine drainage was exacerbating the problem, because it dissolved the heavy metals and precipitated them in water sources and wetlands, where people grew crops and abstracted water.
Threat
She also warned that some of the heavily polluted streams drained into the Vaal River system, and posed a threat to the region's water supply.
Liefferink, who backed up her presentation with a series of photographs showing, among other things, shacks erected on top of an old mine tailings dump, received a round of applause from MPs.
Mining started on the Witwatersrand about 120 years ago. More than 43 000 tons of gold and 73 000 tons of uranium have been extracted from the region's mines.
According to Liefferink, this mining activity has left a legacy of about 400km² of mine tailings dams and about six billion tons of pyrite tailings containing low-grade uranium.
"Waste from gold mines constitutes the largest single source of waste and pollution in South Africa... Acid mine drainage may continue for many years after mines are closed and tailings dams decommissioned," she said.
- SAPA
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Mr Mandela has reminded us, “it’s in our hands” to create a better world.
Being good is commendable, but only when it is combined with doing good, is it useful. In the spirit of Madiba’s recent birthday and Mandela Day celebrations, we call on you to join NOSA and NOSHCON in helping to facilitate and accelerate the process of health and environmental education and awareness.
We are donating a percentage of all NOSHCON registration fees (during the months of June and July) to CHEEA – a women-centered health, environmental and justice non – profit organisation.
Register for NOSHCON before end of July and we will add an additional 6.7% (in honour of Madiba's own 67 years of service to humanity) towards this cause.
http://www.noshcon.co.za/ or chantell@nosa.co.za
We are donating a percentage of all NOSHCON registration fees (during the months of June and July) to CHEEA – a women-centered health, environmental and justice non – profit organisation.
Register for NOSHCON before end of July and we will add an additional 6.7% (in honour of Madiba's own 67 years of service to humanity) towards this cause.
http://www.noshcon.co.za/ or chantell@nosa.co.za
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Africa: Blast at Harmony Mine Kills Three
Extract from the Wall Street Journal, USA
JOHANNESBURG — Three mine workers investigating a possible fire were killed and two others seriously injured in an underground explosion at one of Harmony Gold Mining Co.'s mines in South Africa, the company said Friday.
The explosion occurred about 2,013 meters below the surface late Thursday at the Phakisa mine near the town of Odendaalsrus in the central Free State province.
Management halted operations at the mine and are working to make the area safe, said Esha Brijmohan, a spokeswoman for the company. Investigations to determine the cause of the fire will begin when the area is safe, she added.
The explosion was the second incident at Phakisa in a week after a rockfall about 2,100 meters underground killed a worker early last Saturday.
The explosion happened while employees were investigating a suspected fire in an underground raise, Harmony said. The company, one of South Africa's largest gold producers, said management and officials from the Department of Mineral Resources worked through the night on rescue operations. The two injured employees are being treated in a local hospital, and all other workers underground at the time of the explosion have been accounted for and are safe, Harmony said.
"At this stage, we cannot comment on production," Ms. Brijmohan said. "Our primary concern is for the families of the deceased and the injured employees."
Phakisa came into production in the 2008 financial year and comprises a single shaft system. The mine produced 345,000 kilograms of gold in the three months through March.
Mining Accident News No 1019 Editor: Mark Freeman
mark.freeman@industry.nsw.gov.au
JOHANNESBURG — Three mine workers investigating a possible fire were killed and two others seriously injured in an underground explosion at one of Harmony Gold Mining Co.'s mines in South Africa, the company said Friday.
The explosion occurred about 2,013 meters below the surface late Thursday at the Phakisa mine near the town of Odendaalsrus in the central Free State province.
Management halted operations at the mine and are working to make the area safe, said Esha Brijmohan, a spokeswoman for the company. Investigations to determine the cause of the fire will begin when the area is safe, she added.
The explosion was the second incident at Phakisa in a week after a rockfall about 2,100 meters underground killed a worker early last Saturday.
The explosion happened while employees were investigating a suspected fire in an underground raise, Harmony said. The company, one of South Africa's largest gold producers, said management and officials from the Department of Mineral Resources worked through the night on rescue operations. The two injured employees are being treated in a local hospital, and all other workers underground at the time of the explosion have been accounted for and are safe, Harmony said.
"At this stage, we cannot comment on production," Ms. Brijmohan said. "Our primary concern is for the families of the deceased and the injured employees."
Phakisa came into production in the 2008 financial year and comprises a single shaft system. The mine produced 345,000 kilograms of gold in the three months through March.
Mining Accident News No 1019 Editor: Mark Freeman
mark.freeman@industry.nsw.gov.au
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