FMC CorpMining Incidents in 2007

Our purchased power supplier had an arrestor blow up at an off site location causing a power outage at our location.

A maintenance man was air arcing some bit holders off of a borer miner and the sparks ignited a methane seep in the floor. The maintenance man kicked dirt on the seep putting it out. The borer miner was located outby the last open crosscut.

There was an offsite power interruption that took down our onsite generators, creating a power loss to our man hoists (escape shafts). We are still re-creating the timeline to evaluate the actual length of the power outage.

While lowering a longwall ranging arm the hoist tripped on over current, setting the brakes and then the hoist ropes slipped on the hoist drum. This gouged the high density polyurethane rope liners, requiring some liners to be replaced and the drum regrooved.

We believe an ember came out of an electric toilet and came to rest against the bottom left corner of a wooden stopping 44 ft away. We believe that the ember was from a rag instead of the supplied paper toilet paper. The stopping began to burn and was discovered in the early stage. The location was on its own vent split and went directly into the returns, not endangering anyone.

Employee was lifting pump impeller and felt pain in abdomen. Employee went home that night and by the next morning there was a lump in the area. Surgical repair was done on 12/5/07. It was unclear as to whether or not the injury was work related. After reviewing surgeon's notes on 12/27/07, it was determined that the injury was work related.

Employee running the dry bolter. While he was drilling a hole the drill steel plugged up; he was removing steel from the top; he did not notice that the steel was still slowly rotating. He grabbed the steel & it bent his right thumb back.

A Sein Brute 612 mantrip carrying two miners was traveling at 38-39 xc, 592 S.Longwall Panel 3 Road (1 Room). A mechanical failure within the steering mechanism resulted in the over-turning of the mantrip. A miner was pinned under the mantrip resulting in fatal injuries. The other was ejected, sustaining injuries. The company is investigating this incident with MSHA.

Employee was drilling hole thru wall & drill bit hung up in the metal causing the drill to twist in his right hand. Returned to work the next day with right thumb swollen. He was examined by a physician & it was determined that the thumb was actually broken.

Mechanic climbed up & was standing on a 3 1/2"" angle iron. He was putting a chocker around a counterweight in order to lift it up & change the take up roller. After chocker was in place, he was attempting to get down, when he lost his footing, fell & landed on his back on the grating below.

Lifting the miner cable to hang it on the miner tail, he felt pain in the left shoulder. Surgery was on 5/22/07, FMC received medical report on 7/3 and internal review completed on 7/9, accepting the injury as work related.

Employee was helping shift mechanic put bumper on 11 CM; mechanic hit keeper pin with a 4 lb. hammer. This caused a piece of metal to come off pin head and fly into employee's neck.

Employee was operating the headgate end of the shearer; heading towards head when shearer threw rock about 14' in diameter. Employee was about 20' away when the rock bounced off the top of the spill tray & struck him on the left leg & right foot. Medical information not received until middle of March.

Employee was walking west on the road between Mono Elect Shop & Mono I Calciner. Started to cross to the north side of road, looked back to the east to see if any traffic was coming & stepped on edge of pot hole causing her to fall. This resulted in a sprained right ankle & bruised left knee.

Was standing on pile of soda ash to obtain sample from CS-47 discharge chute; as operator was walking away, lost footing & started to fall. Reached out & grabbed beam/bar to catch herself. Said it felt like her wrist popped as she went down.

Walking to break stepped into a pot hole and twisted knee (r)

While sitting in back of truck being hauled into plant, the driver hit a pot hole, bouncing the people in back of truck. He hit his back right side middle on the plywood bench.

Mechanics were trying to break impeller from shaft. Employee had a bar wedged in the impeller and when pressure was applied to the shaft, the bar popped loose, and punctured employee's hand.

Employee was sparging an upcomer trying to unplug the line when hot water belched from the line, contacting the employee on the abdomen and arm. Case didn't become recordable until April 6, when employee returned to work with restrictions from Physician.

Helping other mechanics remove damaged chain case when his hand was cut on sharp edges on the bottom of the case. Medical information received mid March.

Cutting tabs on conveyor belt & inserting them into belt core. Kneeling on the belt, had both hands on the knife & was cutting away from his body. As he finished the cut & as the knife released from the belt the knife slipped out of his right hand (still had hold of knife with left hand), moved upward & cut his little finger on right hand.

Employee was working with 6 other employees moving longwall expandoveyor. As he was loading top conveyor belt idler onto the belt parts trailer he shoved the belt part forward on the trailer & pinched his left index finger between the part & the trailer.

While pulling the power cord from a jammed tangle, when it pulled free, he had enough momentum to jab left thumb with grinder front. (Back of left thumb).

The injured employee was unbolting a 3 inch pipe flange. When it was completely unbolted the pipe sprang out of alignment, smashing his right index finger between the flange and another pipe, creating a laceration requiring sutures.

Employee was picking up and moving iron to fabrication area to prepare it for installation on platform. Hernia lower right side of stomach.

The employee was jacking the jaws of a crusher closed with a porta-power. While applying pressure to the porta-power it slipped loose, flying out and striking the employee in the forehead causing a laceration that required 4 sutures.

Electrician was turning a pulley from belts while observing meter. Middle finger of right hand was pinched between the pulley and the belts requiring 3 sutures in finger.

Employee reports chronic pain in both wrists. There were no lost work days until 1/18/08 when he had surgery for carpal tunnel. Medical records weren't received until 1/21/08 from the doctor.

Employee observed and assisted wtih aide for fatally injured employee. The employee's experience has caused the employee to not be able to return to work.

Employee said his carpal tunnel was getting bad and he needed to go to Med Core. There were no lost work days until 11/1/07 at which time he was scheduled for surgery. This is bi-lateral carpal tunnel.

Employee was operating a hydraulic drill (drilling pin holes in the floor) when he felt his hand go numb. He had Carpal Tunnel surgery on July 11, we recieved the medical reports on July 25 to make the determination it was work related.