Celebrating Saint Barbara; Patroness of Miners and Mine Safety in December
By Barbara Arnold
December 11, 2018 - Way back when I was in graduate school at Penn State, someone posted an article from Mining Engineering on the door of the Mineral Processing office. Saint Barbara, the patroness of miners, was featured. You would think that being named Barbara and being Catholic, I would have known that Saint Barbara was the patroness of miners, but somehow that was skipped in my education. I, of course, read that article with great interest at the time and over the years have somehow amassed a small collection of Saint Barbara statues and other items. I also had the pleasure of attending the St. Barbara's Day Award Luncheon in Denver, CO last December where they honored @Marc LeVier (retired from Newmont) with the St. Barbara's Day Award for outstanding contributions to the mining industry.
Saint Barbara is the patroness of miners and armorers, artillerymen, architects, mathematicians and the Italian navy - things associated with explosions or with the tower that she was sequestered in or her bath house with three windows (for the Trinity). She became a Christian against her father's will. When he found out, he was very angry and tried to kill her with a sword. She ran away and he chased her. Legend has it that a hill opened up and she hid in a crevice. Her father condemned her to death by beheading, with her martyrdom taking place on Dec. 4 in the late third century AD. He was killed by a lightning strike. (An interesting tidbit is that my first knee replacement surgery was on Dec. 4, 2014 - I thought that was a good thing.)
With this celebration of Saint Barbara, we also take time to highlight mine health and safety. At the SME Pittsburgh Section/Pittsburgh Coal Mining Institute of America joint meeting in October, David Zatezalo, the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health, provided the latest statistics related to mine fatalities. The U.S. mining industry continues to reduce fatalities, but we still need to strive for zero. Reducing injuries goes hand-in-hand with reducing fatalities, and efforts are underway at the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and within other organizations to look to the use of new technologies to improve safety - think drones, automation, robots, etc. - many of the things that were discussed at the THRIVE conference in September. Some of the presentations from THRIVE will be posted on the SME website, so make sure that you check that out.
We were also treated to a demonstration by the West Virginia University and Penn State mine rescue teams at the SME Pittsburgh/ PCMIA meeting. I salute all who participate in these activities, both as collegians and in industry. This is important work.
Yes, your SME president gets around. On Oct. 25, I gave a presentation on coal beneficiation at the National Academy of Science's (NAS) workshop on Progress, Challenges and Opportunities for Research on Upstream Aspects of U.S. Coal Production. In addition to presentations on coal reserves, coal mining and beneficiation and reclamation, we heard a review of the NAS study on "Monitoring and Sampling Approaches to Assess Underground Coal Mine Dust Explosions." Black lung or coal worker's pneumoconiosis (CWP), was attacked vigorously starting with the 1969 Coal Mine Safety and Health Act, with incidence rates falling dramatically until about the year 2000. Since 2000, however, there has been an uptick in the prevalence of CWP. What is causing this increase? Increased mechanization? Increased mining of the roof and floor that may contain more silica-bearing minerals? New technologies for measuring dust have been implemented since the 2014 Mine Safety and Health
Administration's dust rule took effect. More data, new technologies for both measurement and control of dust, and additional studies are required to assure that the recent increase does not continue.
We can ask for Saint Barbara's intercessions to protect our miners every day. Let's get to zero.?