Mining
What is the Mining Industry?
The mining industry encompasses the extraction and processing of raw minerals and geographical elements from the Earth’s interior. A few examples of these mining sectors include:
- Coal mining
- Metal ore mining
- Nonmetallic mineral mining
Coal mining takes the fossil fuel and utilizes its nature to generate electric power. Metal ore mining – gold, silver, copper – is primarily utilized for jewelry – while also, electronics. Nonmetallic mineral mining forms crushed stone and gravel for construction. Mining techniques can be broken down into two excavation types:
- Surface mining
- Sub-Surface mining
From coal to gold, oil to lithium, these valuable resources sometimes come at the cost of chronic illnesses, resulting from dust inhalation, flame, and contact with chemicals. While mining represents 1% of the global workforce, it accounts for 8% of workplace fatalities. Although these workplace casualties and incidents still occur, mining will continue to grow because it supplies a range of vital materials and minerals.
Depending on the location and type of mining, safety managers have multiple hazards to control and extreme environments to oversee. The use of PPE certified to recognized standards and an established safety culture saves lives and reduces lost time incidents. Lakeland offers many products that protect from minimizing hazards and are fully certified to global PPE standards including EN, ISO, NFPA, and others.
MicroMax® NS Global provides microporous protection against hazardous dusts, grease, grime, and light liquid sprays. This general-purpose PPE garment is versatile and offers lightweight and economical protection for many mining environments.
For FR chemical protection, Lakeland’s Pyrolon® line has a range of options including lightweight, serged seams, perfect for a secondary FR garment to advanced chemical barriers with taped seams and respirator fit hoods.
ChemMax® 1,2, 3, and 4 Plus protect against splashes and strong sprays of liquid chemicals. Available in multiple seam configurations and a barrier film that is significantly softer than other products on the market, resulting in a quiet, more comfortable garment.
In extreme chemical environments, Interceptor® Plus provides top level protection against gases, vapors, and the highest chemical hazards. Available in Level A encapsulated and non-encapsulated, Interceptor® fabric is compatible with the PermaSURE®, the mobile toxicity risk database.