Boulby Mine Accidents· Page 2 · AditNow Community

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Knocker
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Newbie

10 years ago

#21

The do use hydraulic pit props in some areas. The mining method is a "Stress Relief" method which is a kind of composite of Room and pillar and retreat mining (Like long wall, but there is no longwall. Each mining panel consists of 4 parallel drives, with links joining all four every 15m or so.
An opened excavation will collapse as an ellipse in effect, the stress is greatest near the sides and less in the middle. What this means is the two outermost drives collapse at a far greater rate than the two middle drives, which are used as supply and return airways as well as conveyor and access roads.
When the mine initially opened they did use a conventional room and pillar method and found the collapse rate was far too hih, leading to the development of their mining system.

BertyBasset
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10 years ago

#22

Thanks Knocker. Very informative.

Robin

derrickhand
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10 years ago

#23

"rufenig" wrote:
As said on one of the coal mining forums.

"The training manual was written in blood"

Interesting comment. It was certainly possible to see the effects of the rapid, uncontrolled introduction of private management into mining in the 90s - I'm thinking particularly of the fatal accident at Clipstone in about 1993, because I happened to be in the area at the time, but it wasn't the only such incident by any means.

Piper Alpha had the effect of introducing a wide range of very necessary regulation into the offshore oil and gas industry, in UK and elsewhere.

Civil Engineering has also been through a similar process since the 1980s.

The point about being set up on NCB lines, because that was the technology if the time, then following a specific learning curve sounds very much like what happened in the North Sea

plus ca change, plus c'est le meme chose

Trewillan
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10 years ago

#24

"derrickhand" wrote:

Interesting comment. It was certainly possible to see the effects of the rapid, uncontrolled introduction of private management into mining in the 90s - I'm thinking particularly of the fatal accident at Clipstone in about 1993, because I happened to be in the area at the time, but it wasn't the only such incident by any means...

Do you mean the three deaths at Bilsthorpe? That was the most significant incident around that time. It was still British Coal in 1993, not "private management".

derrickhand
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10 years ago

#25

"Trewillan" wrote:

"derrickhand" wrote:

Interesting comment. It was certainly possible to see the effects of the rapid, uncontrolled introduction of private management into mining in the 90s - I'm thinking particularly of the fatal accident at Clipstone in about 1993, because I happened to be in the area at the time, but it wasn't the only such incident by any means...

Do you mean the three deaths at Bilsthorpe? That was the most significant incident around that time. It was still British Coal in 1993, not "private management".

I stand corrected, then. I remember it because I was in Mansfield at the time, and the site was deluged with unemployed coal miners looking for work.

It involved a rock-bolting failure of some sort, if memory serves.

plus ca change, plus c'est le meme chose

Trewillan
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Newbie

10 years ago

#26

"derrickhand" wrote:
It involved a rock-bolting failure of some sort, if memory serves.

Yes, that's right. There must be a report to be googled somewhere, but I'm sure it involved some "unwise" practices regarding the layout of roadways and pillars.

John Lawson
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

10 years ago

#27

Article was on page 41 of Monday's Times, along with a photo of two miners.
Whose expression, I think you would call, glum!
From their dress I would assume that due to the heat, body protection, must be an issues.i.e. grazes, knocks etc. must be fairly common.
The only other fact, mentioned in the article is the statement they have driven over 600 miles of roads.

Ty Gwyn
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10 years ago

#28

Here`s one of many articles on the Bilsthorpe bolting failure,

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/inspectors-criticised-over-pit-accident-roof-bolts-unsuited-to-bilsthorpe-tunnel-1463390.html