HAZARD IDENTIFICATION AND RISK ANALYSIS (HIRA)

Mining required stringent safety measures to avoid incidences involving life and
damage to machineries. It may cause extensive damage to property and serious
disruption in work inside & outside the premises. Such situations need positioning
of emergency response plans which can be executed without the loss of time.

The objective of hazard and risk analysis is to identify and analyse hazards, the
event sequences leading to hazards and the risk of hazardous events. Risk
assessments will help the mine operators to identify high, medium and low risk
levels.

RISK ASSESSMENT METHOD

Steps of Risk Assessment

STEP-1
Identification
of Hazard

STEP-4 STEP-2
Monitor
Risk Rating
and Review

STEP-3
Implementation
of risk controls

Fig.7.1 Steps of Risk Assessment

1. Identification of Hazard
Devpura Soapstone Mine is semi-mechanized opencast & underground mine with a
lease area of 17.83 ha. Total manpower is around 25 persons. The minerals are
loaded by machine.

Identification of hazards is done taking into consideration:

1. Past experience of related to accidents and its occurrences at the mines

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 2. Work process evaluation
3. Consultation with employees
4. Safety statistic of the mine and other mines in surrounding mines

The hazards identified are:

1. By way of activities like excavation, transportation etc.
2. By way of equipment and machinery like JCB excavator, trucks, tippers etc.
3. By way of geographical areas like mining pit, dumps, mine road, mule tracks etc.

2. Risk Ranking

The risk is the chance of something happening that will ultimately have a negative
effect on health and safety of the person, as well as material & resources. The risk is
measured in terms of likelihood of events & their consequent loss. Risk ranking can
be determined by qualitative and quantitative means.

Risk Ranking = Likelihood (Probability) x Consequence loss

The process of risk ranking is carried out by considering both the likelihood of the
occurrence of each hazard and the potential consequence should the hazard occur.
Each shall be estimated by engineering principle to enable the risk ranking to be
carried out. The risks are ranked according to the level of risk i.e. the highest risk to
the lowest risk. The risk of any hazard is dependent upon the change that will be
occur (likelihood) and the impact of an occurrence (consequence)

Consequence/Severity is the size of the loss or damage. In terms of health and

safety, it is the degree of harm that could be caused to people exposed to the hazard,
the potential severity of injuries or ill health and or the number of people who could
be potentially affected. It should be remembered that consequence of a hazard need
not only be in terms of safety criteria but could also be in terms of a money loss,
incurred costs, loss of production, environmental impacts as well as public outrage.

Likelihood/ Probability is the chance that the hazard might occur. In some cases
personnel are only exposed to the hazard for part of the time. A more detailed
analysis can be carried out of the risk ranking by taking this into consideration.

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Replacing likelihood by exposure (% time personnel are present) and probability
(chance that they will be harmed).

Risk ranking process/ Methodology

Qualitative approaches to risk assessment are the most commonly applied.
Qualitative risk assessment methods are quick and relatively easy to use as broad
consequences and likelihoods can be identified and they can provide a general
understanding of comparative risk between risk events, and the risk matrix can be
used to separate risk events into risk classes (ratings). A logical systematic process
is followed during a qualitative risk assessment to identify the key risk events and to
assess the consequences of the events occurring and the likelihood of their
occurrence.

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 Risk Matrix

:A
Very Likely 5 5 10 15 20 25

Likely 4 4 8 12 16 20

Probability Possible 3 3 6 9 12 15

Unlikely 2 2 4 6 8 10

Very unlikely 1 1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5
Negligible Slight Moderate High Very High

Severity
Risk Risk Level Action

1to 6 Low Risk May be acceptable but review task to see if risk can be reduced further.

Task should be undertaken with appropriate management authorization

8 to 12 Medium Risk
after consultation with the specialist personnel.

Task must not proceed. It should be redefined or further control measures

15 to 25 High Risk
put in place to reduce risk.

qualitative method for the classification of risks

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 The mining operations involve various types of risks. Risks rating of the mining
activities are given as follows:

S. No. Major hazard Hazard Detailed Probability Severity/ Total Risk

/ Likelihood Consequence

1. Mining Maintenance schedules not followed 3 3 9

Machineries
Negligence of PPE 4 2 8

Unskilled operators 2 4 8

Moving parts of the machineries 4 3 12

Movement of machineries at mining faces 3 4 12

Movement of trucks & tippers 3 4 12

Failure of brakes 2 4 8

Over speeding 2 4 8

2. Open cast Working on steep slopes 4 4 16

workings
Fall of stones and sides 4 4 16

Bench height & Failure of benches 4 4 16

Mine road design & construction 4 3 12

Poor illuminations 4 3 12

3. Underground Shaft failure 4 4 16

4. workings
Ventilation failure 4 4 16

6. Dumping Failure of slopes 3 4 12

Dumping of overburden by tippers 3 4 12

7. Hazard due to Blasting 4 4 16

Blasting
associated 4 4 16
Accident due to the Explosives
activities

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8 Work Air pollution, Noise pollution 4 3 12
Environment
Wildlife such as snakes, spiders, insects 2 4 8
9.
Local persons/villagers 2 2 4

Shortage of Absenteeism 2 2 4
skilled persons /
deployment of Training not done as per requirement. 2 4 8
10. unskilled/
Manpower sanction not as per requirement 2 3 6
Poor
supervision/
Negligence / lack of commitment 3 3 9
Lack of
awareness Non existence of documented procedures 3 3 9

Improper communication of objective 4 3 12

Other Flood intrusion of mine (directly or indirectly) 2 4 8

Use of PPE 5 3 15

Implementation of Risk Controls

1. Opencast and Underground Working

The disaster due to falls of sides is caused because of following reasons:

Loose Rocks:
During the excavation, the natural binding of the rocks become loosen. Such loose
rocks may falls at any time cause unfortunate happenings to human beings and
machinery. As a part of corrective and remedial measures it is a common practice in
mining to dress the part of the sides properly by using shovel or manually to avoid
any disasters.

Unmanageable Heights:
In systematic and scientific mining, the bench height should never be more than the
reach of the machine employed for the excavation. If the height is more than the
reach of boom of excavator, it will result in undercutting leading to collapse of

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 inaccessible part of the height. The corrective and remedial measure in this respect
is to maintain the height to a maximum of the reach of the boom of excavator.

Nature & Structure of the Rocks:

Usually the rocks in mineral bearing horizon of the area are bedded and horizontal.
The mineralization is also bedded. Looking to the strength of rocks and its structural
pattern, it has been established that 80° bench slope is good except the places where
loose earth is encountered and the slope has to be made gentle, i.e. on 40o to 60o.

Accident due to hauling

Improper hauling of mineral or overburden can cause the accident in the lease. It is
proposed to keep haulage/ramp gradient 1:16. The width of haul road shall be kept
adequate (5 m) to avoid congestion during passing the tippers/trucks and
machinery.

Accident due to Failure of ventilation

The underground mining area will be provided with good ventilation as per the
DGMS guidelines.

2. Waste Dump
Failure due to waste dump slope is caused because of following reasons:

Unmanageable Heights:
Slope failure of overburden dump is caused of unmanageable height and width and
unsystematic disposal. Overburden disposal is being managed in such a way that
height of dump from one terrace to another should never be more than the width of
terrace. Angle of repose should also be taken into consideration.

Rundown of the Edges and sides of the Dumps:

The edges and sides of the dumps are made of the loose mass and prone to rolling
down. During rains, this problem could be more serious. This requires proper check
and supervision to avoid any disaster on this account. Stabilization process of the
dumps, particularly sides has to be started at the earliest. As soon as a part of the
dumping site becomes inactive or dead, it should be stabilized by growing

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 vegetation on the slopes and terraces, which is the only suitable remedial measure
to avoid such failures.

Tipping by Tippers going too close to the Edges:

The edge part of the dump is always loose, so tipping very close to edges may cause
over turning of the Tipper. To avoid such failure, spotters/ stoppers should be
installed at the edges of dumping site & tipping close to the edges has to be strictly
banned.

3. Flooding of Mines
 Preparation of embankment and its strengthening, proper pumping and
continuous checking of vulnerable points.
 Proper drainage will be maintained to eliminate inundation of working pits
during rains from run-off water.
 Garland drains will be provided to prevent outside water entering the mine.
 Sumps with adequate capacity will be developed inside the mine.
 Adequate pumping capacity will be developed to deal with accumulated
water as per requirement.
 Dumping area will be benched and sloped at the top towards the low altitude
side.

4. Training & Awareness of Personnel

 Appointment and delegating qualified and experienced personnel in various
disciplines.
 Adequate training/ refresher training will be provided to the supervisors,
workers etc.
 Provision of all the safety appliances such as safety boot, helmets, goggles,
ear plugs etc. shall be made available for the employees
 Elevating the awareness of employees, contract workers and public as a
whole by celebrating Annual Safety Week which includes various
competitions like posters, essay, slogan, quiz etc.

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6. Maintenance of Machineries & Vehicles
 Periodic servicing of machineries, periodic Inspection / Audit of Machineries
will be done.
 All transportation within the mine lease area should be carried out directly
under the supervision and control of management.
 The vehicles will be maintained in good working condition and checked
thoroughly at least once a month by the competent person authorized for the
purpose by the management.
 Road signs will be provided at each and every turning point up to the main
road (wherever required)
 To avoid danger while reversing the vehicles especially at working
place/loading points, stopper should be posted to properly guide reversing.
 Only trained drivers will be hired.

7.2.3 Responsibility of Monitoring and Review

A risk monitoring and review program must be established to ensure that the
control measures remain valid, i.e. that they control the risk of exposure to within
acceptable standards. Hazards and risks need to be monitored to ensure changing
circumstances do not alter the effectiveness of control measures. The objectives of
the monitoring & review is to describe the company’s emergency preparedness,
organization, the resource availability and response actions applicable to deal with
various types of situations that can occur at mines in shortest possible time. Thus
the overall components of monitoring programs can be summarized as follows:-

Testing and Maintaining Controls: Ensures the integrity of the controls that have been
put in place

Inspection : Provides confirmation that the nature of the hazard or

the environment in which the hazard exists has not
changed.

Consultation: Allows for communication to ensure any changes to

the hazard, controls or environment can be
appropriately managed.

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In order to achieve effectively the objectives of monitoring and review of risks
controls and emergency planning, the critical elements that form the backbone of
emergency plan is to assign and communicate the responsibility. Persons involved
will be assigned specific jobs which they will be supposed to follow to assess the risk
controls.
For emergency preparedness following procedure will be followed:

1. Standing orders will be made and displayed at prominent places like mine
office and attendance office and the concerned persons.
2. Any person noticing emergency, critical situation will immediately inform
the In-charge / Supervisor available at the site.
3. Competent person will immediately proceed to the place, assess the situation
and its gravity.
4. He will immediately inform his Senior In-charge, Asst. Manager and Manager
by walky-talky giving immediate assessment.
5. Attendance clerk will keep the record of all persons going in and out of the
mine. He will also inform engineer, store personnel, doctor and ambulance.
6. Manager will immediately proceed to the site along with subordinate and
take corrective action.
7. In case of major incident involving life, police station will be informed along
with DGMS authorities.

EGCIPL Devpura Soapstone Mine