Garbled Communications Cost You...Personally, Professionally/Lack of preparedness and other missteps have significantly impacted U.S. mining in the eyes of the media, public and legislators

摘要

A series of tragic mine disasters during 2006 and 2007 in U.S. mines captured public attention at an almost unprecedented level. The explosion at the Sago mine in West Virginia, which killed 12 miners, and the recent cave-in at the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah which took the lives of six miners and three rescuers, has focused media, regulatory and general public attention on mining safety. And, although these disasters involved only coal mines, the impact of this attention has brought all mining sectors face-to-face with unprecedented challenges in the media and legislatures, both state and national. In years past, tactical approaches to safety were "good enough," as technology, e.g. trackless mining with hydraulic drills underground and ultra-scale trucks and shovels in open-pits, and correlatively diminished manpower, helped lower risk. Further reductions in incident rates will be harder to come by.