Mine safety on the forefront

As mining makes a comeback, safety isn’t being left behind inside the rich shafts of the Silver Valley.

Every day, miners venture deep into the earth.

They begin the day by grabbing a numbered brass tag that reveals their name on a board. This tag is then placed on a rack where they take a head lamp. Strapped to their belts, about the size of a paperback book, is a W-65 self-rescue device. Hard-toe boots, hard hats, safety glasses and ear plugs and/or ear muffs complete their personnel protective gear that each miner is required to wear before descending into the Earth.

At the Lucky Friday Mine, 20 men at a time ride a skip that lowers them into a shaft 5,900 feet below the surface, before equipment transports them about a mile to the ore.

As precious metal prices rise, an unbelievable, unknown amount of ore not previously worth mining becomes very lucrative to mine. “We are sitting on a heck of a reserve,” said Mike Dexter, general manager of the Lucky Friday Mine.

“In 1971 we had 588,000 tons of proven and probable reserves. Today we have 1.3 million tons of proven and probable reserves. We still have more in front of us than we knew we had in 1971.”

In November 2001, Lucky Friday had 52 employees. Today it has 234. The other Silver Valley Mines like Sunshine, Crescent and the Galena have all been hiring.

Mining is making a comeback. “I want everyone to know the mining industry is alive and well again in the Silver Valley,” said Dexter. So how safe is the mining industry? Is safety sometimes overlooked in the quest for profits?

“The most important safety issue,” explains Steve Thomas, safety foreman at Lucky Friday, “is proper training,” while he added that most of the bad news this year was in coal mining, not hard-rock mining.

Every miner receives 40 hours of training. “And that is just the beginning,” said Thomas. Safety courses cover the basics such as first aid, and the dangers like explosives. One of the most important training tools is how to use the W-65 self-rescuer, which was not in use during the Sunshine Mine disaster in 1972.

The self-rescuer works by converting poisonous carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide. As it works, you feel discomfort to your lips as the conversion creates heat that makes it feel as if your lips are being melted. “It means you need it,” emphasized Dexter.

“If it gets real hot and you are uncomfortable, you pull it off you may die,” Thomas said.

In case of an emergency there are two ways to get the attention of miners who work in the dark with ear plugs on. One way is the pager phones. “People really pay attention,” said Thomas. The other way, is to create a foul stench to their nostrils, called the “stench warning system.” This is done by dumping ethanol mercaptan, a foul odor, into their fresh-air source. From there miners act accordingly.

In an exit strategy, the way in is the best way out. But if that’s blocked off there is a secondary exit. And if that should be blocked off, they have safe refuge chambers that close off and are provided with fresh air. The chambers are stocked with water, first aid and tools.

At the Lucky Friday Mine, this never had to be used.

Miners are still tracked manually, as global-positioning systems cannot penetrate underground. As miners leave the mine, they must place the brass tag back over their name. “The brass tag system still keeps a good handle on where employees are,” said Thomas.

Safety awareness in general has changed in the last 30 years. It is more on the forefront of the job,” he said.

Danny Peterson, director of the Central Mine Rescue Team, reveals a story on how his dad got introduced to the mine 35 years ago. “He was given a hard hat and a belt and told where to go,” Peterson says. “Not today.”

With the creation of the Mine Safety and Health Administration in 1977, each accident is looked at, solutions and regulations and new training take place, the result is that “the mines are getting safer each year.”

“Mining is hard work, and I am sore every day,” said Chris Elxenberger, a miner at Lucky Friday. “But it’s honest work. It’s dangerous, but I’ve always been a danger junky. It’s skilled labor in absolute darkness. I get to work with dynamite. These factors make it fun and different.”

It is the responsibility of each miner to go over their equipment. They are not allowed to operate a new piece of equipment until properly trained. If something is not working right, that piece of equipment is shut down. Their work area is also observed throughout the shift.

“Working in the mine is as safe as I make it,” said Elxenberger.