Evaluation of occupational health and safety risks in a coal mine operating underground and overground mining

Underground and surface mining are of great importance for the mining industry all over the world. In order to underground and surface mining to be carried out safely and under the best conditions, the highest level of security measures must be taken. It is very important to monitor the work against any possible accident or death risk in underground and surface mining. In this study; it was aimed to comparatively evaluate the working environment risks that will affect the health and safety of employees in an underground and surface coal mine operating in Erzurum province and to determine the measures to be taken. For this purpose, the study was carried out using Fine-Kinney, one of the quantitative risk assessment approaches, and 5x5 matrix methods, one of the qualitative approaches. The first step of the risk assessment process is identifying the hazards. Therefore, first of all, hazard inputs were obtained. The mine where the study was carried out was divided into sections and hazards were categorized. Mine main and secondary ventilation section, workshops and work areas, fortification and excavation works, transportation and transportation works, inspection supervision and work organization competence, boiler room section, explosives warehouse section, administrative social facilities section, carpentry section, stock and casting It is divided into a total of 12 sections: field section, rescue station section and washing, screening and bagging facility section. Hazards are divided into 5 sections: explosion, fire and flood, electricity and electrical equipment, emergency first aid, chemical, physical and biological hazards and private security services. As a result of the study, the area with the highest unacceptable risk in the Fine-Kinney risk assessment was the area where explosion, fire and flood occurred, it was revealed that the area with the highest risk was the furnace main and secondary ventilation area in the 5x5 matrix method. With Fine-Kinney and 5x5 matrix risk analyses, it has been seen that the risks posed by the hazards evaluated under the above-mentioned headings can be reduced to acceptable risk and low risk levels. In the applied risk assessments, it is seen that the Fine-Kinney risk assessment method gives us more comprehensive, more efficient and clearer readable results at the point of rating the risks. It has enabled us to more clearly evaluate the intervention time required for the identified hazard. The fact that 5x5 matrix risk assessment is easier and more practical has made it easier to evaluate risks quickly.