Fpractical comparison of different osh – risk assessment methods in basalt aggregate production facility

As an industry, mining involves many stages such as general exploration, detailed exploration, drilling, blasting, excavation, crushing, grinding, mineral processing, and transportation, and all these stages have serious occupational health and safety risks. If these risks cannot be prevented, accidents, occupational diseases, permanent disabilities, and even fatal work accidents might occur. Aggregate is defined as coarse particulate material such as crushed stone, gravel, sand, clay, and marn, and its mining is one of the important mining areas nowadays. Because aggregate is used in the construction of buildings, roads, dams, and other infrastructure as a base material. In addition, it is the main material of concrete. As the result of the growth and development of urbanization, which have been trending for years in Turkey, demand for aggregate products and investments in the mining industry have increased. Therefore, aggregate production has become a very popular sector in Turkey and these suitable conditions increase the number of quarries, crushing-screening plants, and the number of employees. However, increasing the number of employees also increases the risk factor and occupational health problems and accidents. In this study, a risk assessment study was carried out on an actual basalt aggregate quarry and its associated crushing plant and other supporting working areas in Diyarbakır province. For this purpose, Fine-Kinney method, Hazard Rating Number System (HRNS) method, and John Ridley occupational risk evaluation methods were used separately in order to determine the most proper for aggregate mining and production plants. As a result, it has been evaluated that all methods have their weaknesses and strengths, and that it is almost impossible to come up with a single and perfect risk assessment method due to the unique conditions of each sector, but the John Ridley method is one step ahead compared to the other two methods.