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Post by Soutpeel on Jul 16, 2018 17:09:47 GMT 7
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Five miners died on Sunday in a fire at a South African copper mine operated by unlisted Palabora Mining Company, the company said in a statement. Safety is a huge issue in South Africa’s deep and dangerous mines and increasingly a focus for investors. A spate of deaths at Sibanye-Stillwater’s gold operations, including a seismic event that killed seven miners in early May, has highlighted the risks they face www.euronews.com/2018/07/15/five-miners-killed-in-fire-at-south-african-copper-mine |
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Post by Soutpeel on Jul 16, 2018 17:11:47 GMT 7
Sad day, I worked on that expansion project many moons ago...they were putting in a vertical in addtion to the open cast pit they already had
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rubl
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Post by rubl on Jul 16, 2018 19:10:32 GMT 7
Mining will always have risks especially the deeper you get. Still sound procedures and drill (as in training, getting the right mindset) can help a lot. How easy that is in S.A. I have no idea, neither do I know if things have improved or deteriorated over the last ten years.
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Post by Soutpeel on Jul 16, 2018 19:21:49 GMT 7
Mining will always have risks especially the deeper you get. Still sound procedures and drill (as in training, getting the right mindset) can help a lot. How easy that is in S.A. I have no idea, neither do I know if things have improved or deteriorated over the last ten years. Early 90's when i first got involved the safety standards were shocking, especially since i had come from nuclear power, over the 1990s, things did improve slightly, The pivot moment was 12th May 1995, when the loco went down the shaft at Vaal Reefs #2 and 105 men lost their lives that day, things started changing after that....although not directly involved with Anglo, i worked for one of the competitors.... it was one of those "JFK" moments, were one remembers exactly what you were doing when the news came through...i was driving between JHB and Cape Town in rhe middle of the Karoo when it came on the radio |
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rubl
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Post by rubl on Jul 16, 2018 22:46:22 GMT 7
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Post by Soutpeel on Jul 16, 2018 23:47:43 GMT 7
Where you get 10th May from,? always had it in my head it was 12th May..maybe my memory is fading If your inclined work out the physics of a 12 metric ton loco hitting a 120 man cage...breaking the rope, and those guys dropping at almost terminal velocity........and hitting a shaft bottom....if i remember correctly, a 3 deck 120 man cage is around 10 meters high (including the bridle) at Vaal reefs 2 when they started pulling bodies out, the cage was 0.5m heigh..!! |
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rubl
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Post by rubl on Jul 17, 2018 0:15:40 GMT 7
Where you get 10th May from,? always had it in my head it was 12th May..maybe my memory is fading If your inclined work out the physics of a 12 metric ton loco hitting a 120 man cage...breaking the rope, and those guys dropping at almost terminal velocity........and hitting a shaft bottom....if i remember correctly, a 3 deck 120 man cage is around 10 meters high (including the bridle) at Vaal reefs 2 when they started pulling bodies out, the cage was 0.5m heigh..!! You ever wonder why we are able to remember the date of the 9/11 attacks?  Anyway, the articles talk about the 10th of May. Also about the two-deck elevator cage being reduced to 1/3 of original size. I must admit none of this I remember, not ever the disaster itself. |
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Post by Soutpeel on Jul 17, 2018 1:44:40 GMT 7
Where you get 10th May from,? always had it in my head it was 12th May..maybe my memory is fading If your inclined work out the physics of a 12 metric ton loco hitting a 120 man cage...breaking the rope, and those guys dropping at almost terminal velocity........and hitting a shaft bottom....if i remember correctly, a 3 deck 120 man cage is around 10 meters high (including the bridle) at Vaal reefs 2 when they started pulling bodies out, the cage was 0.5m heigh..!! You ever wonder why we are able to remember the date of the 9/11 attacks? Anyway, the articles talk about the 10th of May. Also about the two-deck elevator cage being reduced to 1/3 of original size. I must admit none of this I remember, not ever the disaster itself. For a fact on deep levels, its normally a 3 deck cage..ie capcity c.a. 120 men, not 2...9/11 in a hotel in Colmbus ohio thinking is was an accident |
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tolsti
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Post by tolsti on Jul 17, 2018 16:05:31 GMT 7
I grew up in a copper mining community in Northern Rhodesia. At one time my Dad was the safety manager and so got called out quite a few times. They were mainly rock falls after blasting incidents during 'bar down and make safe' ops and/or machinery related incidents of the 'what if I put my hand in here' genre.
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oldie
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Post by oldie on Jul 17, 2018 16:18:50 GMT 7
I only ever worked under one mining engineer, but in another field of production.
He locked the site down after someone grazed a bollard at the expense of production.
He was marched off site in his socks and undies.
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