The Fifth International Symposium on Mine Safety Science and Engineering (ISMSSE2021)

40 / 2021-08-16 00:46:57

Special safety issues in mines located in remote areas and extreme weather conditions

mine safety,safety organization and management,Extreme Weather,Psychological wellness of mining workers

Special safety issues in mines located in remote areas and extreme weather conditions

Katowice, Poland – November 21-25, 2021





Rachid Halabi¹ and Mustafa Kumral<sup>1,*

1</sup>Department of Mining and Materials Engineering

 McGill University, Montreal Canada

* Corresponding author: Tel +1 514 398 3224 # mustafa.kumral@mcgill.ca



ABSTRACT



In Canada, there are many mines located in the North, including the Canadian Arctic, where extreme weather conditions rule. Consequently, the working atmosphere and employment circumstances of these mines are highly different from regular mines. Therefore, there are special safety issues. For example, difficulty to find skilled employees; extreme fatigue generated by rotation, traveling and the rotation between day shift and night shift;  companies’ values on health and safety and its impact on employees and workers; high employee turnover rate; training and certification requirements associated with high turnover; delicate employment circumstances affecting the psychological well-being of employees; mine inspection challenges; inventory and logistic issues affecting mine safety; and the legislative and regulative needs corresponding to the particular working environment. In this paper, we aim to identify specific safety cases in the mines located in the Canadian North. Then, it argues what safety organizations and management are required to deal with these cases. Furthermore, the legislative frameworks are reviewed, and how the current frameworks can be improved is discussed. Mining in the North already has challenges linking to the social license to operate and global warming challenges. Safety issues stemming from extreme weather conditions and location remoteness of mines add further challenges to the viability of projects. The paper underlines that mining operations need certain safety organizations and management approaches supported by strong legislative regulations. Also, it proposes a framework for how operations located in the North can improve their approach to specific health and safety issues.