OREANDA-NEWS. August 22, 2011. The management of Krasnodonugol coal group has developed a set of enhanced measures beyond the legal requirements, which ensure the highest level of health and safety of miners. The actions will introduce additional air cooling, automated systems to control location of people and equipment in the mines and additional health and safety training courses for the employees.

Also, Krasnodonugol has decided to introduce a rewarding system for compliance with the safety rules, a move that will encourage the miners to take a responsible attitude to the health and safety.

All mines within the group have inspected their electromechanical equipment and cable systems to develop a set of measures for additional air cooling in the faces exposed to high temperature.

Also, by the end of 2011 the group will devise and roll out a programme for introducing APPO, an employee and rolling stock tracking system. It will help to monitor continuously and automatically the location of people and fleet in the mines, alert underground transport operators if people are on the tracks, streamline underground fleet operations, and facilitate search and rescue operations in cases of emergency.

Krasnodonugol is committed to continuous improvement in staff training.

Krasnodonugol's Training Centre will extend the training time for new staff from 2 to 2.5 months and allocate more time for practical training. The Centre will have access to a special longwall and drifting faces equipped with H&S appliances for practical training of students. Experienced workers will be engaged as mentors.

A group of public H&S inspectors comprising of engineers and technicians with wide mining experience will be established at the Krasnodonugol’s Technical Service. Trade unions will be also engaged in the process.

In 2011 the company plans to invest over UAH 80m in health and safety, with UAH 14m to be invested in Sukhodolskaya-Vostochnaya Mine.

In addition, Krasnodonugol mines have introduced a special control regime with the senior staff being on 24-hour duty on a shift basis. The primary goal of the tightened control is to ensure compliance with requirements for the pulverised coal and gas content, dust explosion protection, and ventilation stability, as well as with the mining charts and drilling and blasting schedule.

Also, according to conclusions of the State Commission investigating the accident at Sukhodolskoye-Vostochnoye coal mining group and orders of Krasnodonugol six senior officers of Sukhodolskoye-Vostochnoye Coal Mining were dismissed in the manner established by law: Chief Engineer, Vice Health and Safety Director, Tunnel Foreman, Ventilation and H&S Supervisor, Shift Foreman and Drilling and Blasting Operations Foreman.

In addition, according to the Commission's resolution a number of employees and senior officers from Krasnodonugol head office faced administrative sanctions for executing poor control over workers' compliance with the requirements of H&S regulations.