Comprehensive Analysis and Assessment of the Role of Hard-to-Handle Factors in the Reasons of Methane and Coal Dust Explosions in Mines in Russia

Valeriy Vitalievich Smirniakov and Victoria Vladimirovna Smirniakova

National Mineral Resources University “Mining University”, Russian Federation, 199106, St. Petersburg, 21-st line, 2, Russia.

ABSTRACT: The authors made a detailed analysis of the circumstances and reasons of accidents caused by explosions of gas and dust in the period from 1990 till present. The results of the assessment of accidents reasons made using statistical methods and methods of technical analysis have been shown. The research has shown that currently there is a steady trend towards stabilization of the number of accidents, despite the high level of technological infrastructure at enterprises and improvement of the main methods of fighting methane, i.e., venting and degassing widely used in mining enterprises. The reason for this, in the opinion of the authors, is the fact that the factors that influence gas situation in working areas can be classified as those manageable and those hard to manage. Factors have been proposed that make it possible to classify the factors provided for by the work practice as the manageable ones. It was shown that the impact on the manageable factors in strict compliance with occupational safety and working methods minimizes the danger to the level of acceptable risk. It is proposed to classify as hard-tomanage those factors that affect the sustainability of the ventilation process and have natural or mixed natural and technogenic nature. Additional accounting and classification of hard-to-manage factors in conjunction with other reasons will make it possible to assess more comprehensively, during investigation the place, the circumstances and the structure of their relationships, ways of development and nature of accidents, and to identify the maximum number of violations in case of accidents. The probability of complete detection during investigation of accidents increases in the whole time and space chain of reasons, from facilitating and accompanying to the main and immediate ones. Safety management in mining production may only be improved by means of a differentiated approach to the role of each factor, including the hard-to-manage one that can affect emergence and development of an accident.

KEYWORDS: gas and dust explosions; methane; coal dust; underground accidents; explosion reasons; accident analysis

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