Cargill SaltMining Incidents in 2022

Hoist fault drive - water leaked from roof onto drive causing it to fault

One of the door hinges broke off on the door for the service hoist.

Got hot oil on the production hoist, tripped breaker. Reset breaker and let cool.

While performing a shaft inspection in #3 shaft, a loose wall bracket was identified. It was determined that it needed to be replaced. A courtesy call was made to MSHA as a notification.

Lost power to production hoist because utility owned line went dead.

Lost power from the utility company that powers our production shaft.

Lost power to production hoist because utility Own line went dead

3 shaft inspectors were doing a shaft inspection in the production hoist when a drive and 2 fuses blew. The skip the inspectors were on was near the mine landing at the time the incident occurred.

A call was made to MSHA's hotline due to the thought that the #3 hoist brakes were not working properly. This call was made by mistake due to a misunderstanding. MSHA arrived on site on 9/6 to better understand the situation and had no findings.

70 ton feeder on the surface was full and a skip was loaded so it could not dump into the feeder. Hoist was still technically operational.

The west hydraulic brake for the #3 hoist was found to be out of spec during the static brake test. The east hydraulic brake and pinion brake were still functional though. MSHA was notified that the hoist was down bc of this but due to redundant braking mechanisms, the hoist was not actually down and there was no need to notify MSHA.

70 ton feeder on the surface was full and a skip was loaded so it could not dump into the feeder. Hoist was still technically operational.

An electrician was working to diagnose a problem with encoder faults on the production hoist. A service specialist remoted in and advised making a change in the diagnostic screen. This change took control away from the hoist operator and made it inoperable when in automatic.

While performing a shaft inspection, the hoist tripped out on a drive fault. The cage was lowered to the bottom using the back up generator, then troubleshooting began. It was found that 2 of the SCRs were bad and were therefore replaced.

Hoisting Manufacturer was preforming annual inspects they triggered a fault in the computer system that they were unable to manually clear.

During skip checks it was noticed that the skip was stopping 3 ft short while dumping in automatic mode. This was because of normal rope stretch that occurs over the life of the hoisting system. The computer program needed to be adjusted so that the skip was dumping at the correct height and limiting spillage.

During a routine inspection an employee noticed a roof fall that appeared to have happened several weeks earlier in the Unit 80 panel within an area that was previously bermed off and blocked from personnel travel. The area was inspected the next day with an MSHA official who had no immediate concerns.

Power outage to the plant due to utility provider issue (Cleveland Public Power) causing main power supply for service hoist to be disrupted.

While chipping buildup in #3 shaft a small chunk of salt fell to the bottom of the shaft and pulled a wire out of a proximity switch on the way down. This caused the hoist to kick out and not run properly until the wire was repaired.

The 70 ton bin that the skip dumps into stopped running and the hoist continued to run and filled the 70 ton up and causing the belt it feeds into to become buried. The skips were fully loaded and had no where to dump the salt. It was determined that this happened because there was bad Diode on the motherboard of the 70 ton bin system.

Fuse in drive cabinet blew for #2 hoist, evac called, everyone out of mine. Fuse was replaced, hoist back up and operating at 12:00am

Employee was performing rehab work to the roof in U86 by running a Smag tram scaler. While doing so, a portion of the roof fell next to the machine and partially onto the machine. There was no injury.

At start of production limit switch trip because the east skip did not make it all the way up to trip the switch.

While chairing the #3 cage during the weekly preventative maintenance inspection, the dogging mechanism cammed too far in the hour glass guides causing it to bend. The Dog could not be released and therefore #3 hoist became inoperable until the dog was replaced.

Electrical fault resulting in the failure of the DC Motor for our Service Hoist.

There was an intermittent control fault and hoist could not be put back in to normal function.

There was a drive fault on the production hoist and for it would not set.

At approx. 10:00pm on 1/7/2022 an UG mechanic was traveling out of the mine when they discovered the a roof fall @ fault hill. The initial report estimated it to be 6'x4'x2'. Upon investigation it was determined that the roof fall was approximately 25'x 12'x 18/24"" at it's deepest and widest section.

Hoisting was commencing as normal until the hoist tripped out and ABB had to be called to trouble shoot computer issues remotely.

The Production hoist had a fault that could not be cleared, making it inoperable. Through diagnostic testing was done remotely by ABB and it was determined that the ethernet card was bad and needed to be replaced.

Employee was exiting the cab of a pay loader during a snowstorm. While turning around in order to descend the ladder, they slipped and fell to the ground below. The employee fell on their feet but fractured their right fibula.

Employee was setting the parking brake on a rail car. As EE tightened the brake EE felt a pop in EE's left arm. Employee was diagnosed with a tricep strain.

On 8/8/22 an employee was attempting to open the landing gate at #4. They were trying to pull up on the latch with no success. They felt something pull/ strain in their back/shoulder area. The employee was sought medical treatment on 8/24/2022 and was prescribed physical therapy.

On 7/24 employee was helping with a belt move. Employee was pulling belt when they felt a pop in their left forearm near the elbow. On 8/6 the employee was pulling brattice curtain when they felt more pain in their forearm/elbow. On 9/6 during a visit to the clinic the employee was advised to begin physical therapy.

Employee was leveling a tail pulley by placing shims under one foot to level it while another employee lifted the foot with a skid steer bucket. The skid steer operator lowered the foot pinching the employees thumb between the foot and wood blocking. This fractured the employees thumb.

Employee was removing a guard when it swung down and cut their arm which required 6 stitches.

Employee was crouching down in order to grease a tail pulley. As they crouched down they felt a pop in their back and sharp pain. Employee diagnosed with a pulled back muscle.

While putting equipment on the lowering slide, a drill cylinder fell off. The employee went to lift it back in place. When lifting it in place they hurt their bicep and shoulder.

Employee was performing visual inspection of equipment while standing on step (attached to machine) elevated approximately 18 inches from ground level. Step failed/broke at the weld point causing the employee to fall on their left arm which led to a dislocation of the employees shoulder.

A seasonal worker was using an unapproved box cutter to cut up a bag when they cut their hand. The cut required stitches.

Large piece of salt got stuck in head chute. Employee was jack hammering the salt piece loose, when the salt piece came loose the employee slipped causing their left hand ring finger to get pinched in between the chute and jack hammer handle.

Two employees were in close contact while powdering on 6/23/2022. One of these employees began to experience symptoms at the end of shift on 6/23 and went home and later tested positive for COVID 19. Based on contact tracing initial employee contracted COVID 19 from outside of work. The second employee who was in close contact began to have symptoms and test positive on 6/26/2022.