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Site risk management Risk management systems for decision support in underground coal mines Many mine-related incidents could be predicted or even avoided if suffi cient information were available at the appropriate time and to the appropriate mine personnel, warning of the danger and the risks associated with particular condition and providing mitigation strategies. report. T here are many inherent dangers in mining and particularly underground coal mining that affect mining and coal-producing countries worldwide. Historical incidents and statistics demonstrate this high risk associated with mining; in 2002 approximately 6000 people died in underground coal mines in China alone (Tu, 2007). In November 2010 , the multiple explosions that killed 29 miners at the Pike River Coal Mine has highlighted how volatile an underground coal mine environment can be when it enters an uncontrolled state. The grim statistics are not confi ned to less-developed countries but are intrinsically woven within the mining industry worldwide. Potential hazards in mines arise from the mines' hazardous conditions where incidents of fi res, explosions, roof falls and fl ooding are part of the environment in which mining operates with long-term consequences of, for instance, coal dust inhalation, which can lead to Coal Workers' Pneumoconiosis (CWP) or 'Black Lung'. Hazards also arise from and in combination with human factors, such as fatigue and distraction, which often lead to operator error and subsequently to personal injuries and equipment damage. High injury and mortality rates are not the only indication of the magnitude of risk associated with mining; conditions in an underground coal mine can easily reach a state where it is no longer safe for even rescue or recovery teams to enter the mine, and the mine can be sealed for years while underground fi res continue to burn. Mine risk management In general, before any work commences, risk assessments are carried out within mining operations. The outcomes of such risk assessments are recorded manually underground and the results are then transferred to the surface risk assessment ledger, also manually. If moderate to high risk of incidents were detected, work must not commence until either the likelihood or consequence of the risk is reduced to a safe level i.e. low risk. Within the Queensland mining industry, when incidents do occur, mine operators generally refer to a Trigger Action Response Plan (TARP) or Principal Hazard Management Plan (PHMP) for instructions on how to mitigate the consequences. The procedures clearly state the steps to be taken including contacting relevant personnel. Incident reports are then completed to record what has occurred and to reduce the future likelihood of such or similar incidents occurring. Many mine-related incidents could be predicted or even avoided if suffi cient information were available at the appropriate time and to the appropriate mine personnel, warning of the danger and the risks associated with particular condition and providing mitigation strategies. Studies of past incidents have shown that suffi cient data had been available to mine operators to predict those incidents and, if interpreted effectively, could have assisted in avoiding the incidents altogether (Addinell et al., 2005). Unfortunately this data was delivered in overwhelming quantities and in disparate and inconsistent formats, which hindered proper interpretation in the time available to take preventing action. An important distinction within the mine control room is the difference between data and information. Superfl uous amounts of data describing the mine state is available in the mine control room across various disparate systems, however, without effective fi ltering and transformation into concise and straight-forward information this data is of little use for human interpretation and hence risk analyses and decision support for mine personnel. The conversion of superfl uous mine data to concise mine information is essential to any mine in monitoring and maintaining a safe environment for operations to continue. The lack of concise data or information can be overwhelming to mine operators unsure about which information to pay attention to and which data is important. Due to an operators' limited capacity for analysis and interpretation, this is a very important factor in risk management. Often important information can be disguised by enormous amounts of data and is not made useful until incident prevention is no longer possible. In addition, an essential element of mine risk management is effective mine communication enabling the appropriately trained personnel to be contacted about mine state, hazard and incident information promptly as it becomes available. Mine communications have made great advances in technology in recent years with the evolution of mobile phones, in particular, which combines mobility with standard voice call, video calling, SMS, email, and mine messaging systems. One problem with these systems, however, is that they are often implemented within the mining system as a stand-alone subsystem or subsystems, adding to an already high congregation of disparate systems and making data analysis, interpretation and response more diffi cult. This also forces the control room operator to coordinate the communication between the available mine monitoring systems and personnel. Once again, as overwhelming amounts of data are available and can be hard to integrate between the disparate systems, new communications systems can further challenge the already stretched operator's cognitive abilities. While systems can be well designed to account for user cognitive abilities and ergonomic principles, Haustein, Dr Eleonora Widzyk-Capehart, Peter Wang, Dean Kirkwood and Ricky Prout Kerstin 66 The Australasian Mine Safety Journal Spring 2011