Reliable Communication Network for Emergency Response and Disaster Management in Underground Mines

Introduction

Natural or man-made disasters are unpredictable and increasing in number nowadays throughout the world. Without warning, disaster can strike and affect people, living society and environment in many ways. An underground mine is an inherently hazardous workplace. Mine disasters have been a crucial issue among mine operators, safety and health personnel, and miners for decades (Brnich, 2010). Although catastrophic mine accidents, such as the Benxihu colliery mine disaster that killed 1,549 people and the Courrieres disaster in France that killed 1,099 people, understandably make the headlines, many smaller incidents remain unnoticed. For example, there were 69 fatalities and 11,800 injuries in US mines in 2006-2007 alone. Every year several miners die due to fatal incidents. Even during normal operations, mining workers are five times more likely to be exposed to occupational hazards than the industrial average. In case of disaster in an underground mine, it is very difficult for emergency response and disaster management team to identify actual person trapped, their number, and exact location (Bandyopadhyay, 2009). Therefore, identifying and locating of miners, explosives and critical exits are very important tasks for underground mine management in case of disaster as well as usual working conditions.

Most important factors of accidents in the mining industry are (i) Poisonous or explosives gases present in the ground and (ii) Use of explosives (blasting operations) for rock breaking purpose. Followings are the most common accidents occurring in the mining industry (Dozolme, 2016):