Updating and maintaining the accident database.

Abstract

A database was developed in 1990 to store and allow analysis of information on rockfall and rockburst fatal accidents that have occurred in the South African gold mining industry. The information populating the database is extracted from the inquiry reports compiled by the inspectorate of the Department of Minerals and Energy. Also included in the database is the annual production, expressed as m (2) mined, for each of the reefs mined. The production data is used as a normalizing factor in the analysis of the accident statistics. This normalization nullifies the effect of varying production levels during the period under review and of different reefs. This report covers the analyses carried out on data collected. The objectives of the analyses are, inter alia, to determine trends with time in fatality rates; in the occurrence of rock related accidents with respect to working place; and in the ratio of rockburst to rockfall accidents, bearing in mind the difference in the behavior of different reefs. In order to optimize the relevance of the analyses, the reefs in which major production occurs are treated separately.