The mining industry is continually striving to increase productivity and profitability. What is often overlooked is that the ventilation discipline plays a major role in achieving these goals. Good ventilation engineering design and optimization means good working place conditions which leads to higher productivity, improved profitability and reduced operational costs.
There have been numerous incidents recently that have highlighted problems with safety on SA mines. The majority of the incidents have resulted from the absence of a culture of safety and health, while other causes include rock stability and possible ventilation issues. Actively adopting a culture that will ensure the underground environment is safe, healthy and productive for everyone will benefit not only our members, but also the broader mining community.
Outcomes from education interventions will ensure:
- Raising awareness of potentially unsafe/unhealthy conditions
- The Management and control of products or materials that could lead to dangerous/unsafe/unhealthy conditions
- Changing attitudes of workers, management and suppliers towards their own and their co-workers’ safety and health.
Over the past few years, the annual MVSSA Conferences have raised the question as to how we can improve ventilation conditions in a cost-cutting environment. These conditions have possibly resulted or contributed to some of the incidents. The proper management of this environment can ensure that we sustain safety and health standards.
The aim of the conference will be to explore how the Ventilation discipline can remain at the forefront of improving and raising awareness of safety and health on our mines and how these improvements will also have a positive impact on productivity and profitability. Where possible, practitioners are invited/urged to unpack incidents to enable others to learn from the root causes in order to prevent similar incidents from occurring. Preventing re-occurrences must be at the forefront for all contributing to the discipline. Abstracts are called for from practitioners, educators, management and suppliers on knowledge sharing and learning from incidents to ensure that our mines continue to provide a safe, healthy and ultimately productive environment for workers. Invited speakers from associated institutions, such as AAMSA, AMRE, SAIMM, SAIOSH, will be asked to give their views on the value (or otherwise) of mine ventilation. These presentations will hopefully be the catalyst for new discussions and collaboration and even participation from the members of these institutions.
The conference will held at Emperors in Ekurhuleni in conjunction with the Mine Ventilation Society of South Africa AGM on 30 and 31 May 2019. Workshops covering a number of practical topics will be held on 29 May 2019.
Important dates:
- Submission of abstracts 16 November 2018
- Acceptance of abstracts 3 December 2018
- Submission of completed papers 15 February 2019