Information from intelligent wired and wireless instruments, and other field devices, can help plant personnel optimize operations. by Sharon McCurdy and Victor Mwaba The metals and mining industry is a key player in the global energy transition since it provides many of the raw materials needed for critical components, such as batteries, wind turbine blades, and others. These materials must…
Read MoreThe Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) completed impact inspections in December 2024 at 13 mines in Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah and West Virginia, and issued 119 violations with 32 being evaluated as significant and substantial and two had unwarrantable failure findings. In 2023 and 2024, MSHA conducted 343 impact inspections and identified 5,246 violations, including 1,456…
Read MoreThe U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Worker’s Compensation Programs has issued a final rule revising the regulations under the Black Lung Benefits Act related to self-insurance by coal mine operators. Under the new standard, self-insured coal mine operators will be required to post adequate security for their Black Lung benefit liabilities. It also will protect the Black Lung Disability…
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ABB and Komatsu have signed a Strategic Collaboration Agreement to collaborate on the development of integrated solutions that will help bring net-zero emissions for heavy industrial machinery a step closer to reality. The collaboration brings two global leaders together to share industry expertise and products in a bid to create world-class solutions, ranging from renewable energy generation to fully electrified…
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Three companies talk to North American Mining about recent developments to improve load-and-haul operations. By Jonathan Rowland Trucks, loaders, shovels, dozers: this is the equipment – the Big Iron – that has come to define our view of opencast mining operations. Yet traditional load and haul operations are coming under increasing and competing pressures. Strip volumes rise as mining companies…
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Assistant Secretary for Mine Safety and Health Chris Williamson moderated a live-streamed panel discussion on June 3 to discuss how the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s final rule for respirable crystalline silica will better protect the health of the nation’s miners.
Read MoreThe U.S. Department of Labor announced that its Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) completed impact inspections at 15 mines in 12 states in June 2024 and cited mine operators for 195 violations. The agency conducts impact inspections at mines that merit increased agency attention and enforcement due to poor compliance history; previous accidents, injuries, and illnesses; and other compliance…
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By Willa B. Perlmutter Well, guys, I hate to say I told you so, but…well, I told you so. A few months back, I wrote about a whistleblower retaliation case that had just come out of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission, and shared with you that I thought the Commission’s reasoning gave cause for alarm. (I know,…
Read MoreThe Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has issued a final rule to better protect the nation’s miners from health hazards associated with exposure to respirable crystalline silica. It lowers the permissible exposure limit to 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air for a full-shift exposure, calculated as an eight-hour, time-weighted average. If a miner’s exposure exceeds the limit, the…
Read MoreMSHA reported that on January 2, the driver of an over the road tractor-trailer haul truck died when the trailer tipped over onto the cab of the tractor. The driver was dumping part of the load of gravel from the trailer. Between 2018 and 2024, mine operators reported 14 injury accidents where over the road trucks tipped or rolled over…
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