If you will be carrying out a mining construction project in the near future, here are a few tips that should help to ensure that everyone involved in your project remains safe:
Make sure a mining engineer performs a thorough risk assessment of the construction plans and the site
One of the most crucial steps you will need to take to ensure the safety of those who will be participating in your project is to hire a mining engineering professional to assist you. A mining engineer will be able to assess your construction plans and inspect the site where the mining will take place. Based on this assessment, they can then identify any potential hazards that you may have overlooked when drawing up your plans or visiting the site, and they can guide you through the process of preventing these hazards from causing accidents during the mining process.
For example, if there is a river close to the area where you plan to create an underground mine, the mining engineer may point out that this could increase the risk of the mine flooding while there are workers inside if it rains heavily during the project. In this situation, they may recommend creating a drainage system in or around the mine, in order to prevent this type of accident from occurring.
Inspect the condition of the structural supports inside the mine regularly throughout the project
If the mine will be underground, you will need to install structural supports, made from steel or another robust material, inside the mine. These will stabilise the walls and the ceiling of the mine and thus prevent them from collapsing, even when powerful extraction equipment is being used to extract minerals from the structure.
To keep your workers safe, it is vital to inspect the condition of these structural supports regularly throughout the mining process. The person who carries out these inspections should look for signs of structural weaknesses in the components; things like cracks in the steel or buckling of the archways that line the contours of the mine's walls could mean that these components are being overloaded, and that additional structural reinforcements need to be fitted to ensure that the mine does not cave in.
If any issues like this are discovered during an inspection, you should immediately evacuate the mine and postpone any further mining work until after the structural issue has been fully resolved.