Metal Mine Accidents

It is generally supposed that a great many more men are killed in coal mines than in metal mines. The following tables show that during 1900-09 the average fatality rate per thousand men employed in the coal mines of Canada was 4.79; and, for the metal mines, 3.82.

TABLE IV

SHOWING COAL MINE ACCIDENTS IN CANADA, 1900-1909

BRITISH COLUMBIA

NOVA SCOTIA

CANADA

Year

Fatality
Number Fatal
Ratio per
of Men Accidents 1,000 men of Men Accidents 1,000 Men 1,000 Men
Employed
Employed Employed

Number Fatal

Fatality
Ratio per

Average
Fatality

Ratio per

Employed Employed

Including Alberta.

b Reports of the Bureau of Mines, British Columbia.

c Nineteenth Annual Report, Bureau of Mines, Ontario, 1910.

The fatality rates for the principal mining countries of the world are given below. With few exceptions they are for the period 1899-1906 and were compiled by F. L. Hoffman, Statistician, Prudential Insurance Company, from the reports of the chief mine inspectors of the United Kingdom." Algeria, chiefly iron mines, average rate 1.38 per thousand.

Austria-Hungary, iron mines, 1.48; other metal mines 3.11 per

thousand.

Bohemia, iron mines, 1.67; other metal mines 0.81 per thousand. Bosnia and Herzegovina, iron mines, 1.84; other metal mines 0.82 per thousand.

Belgium, metal mines 0.75 per thousand.

France, metal mines, 2.02 (for men working underground the rate was 2.49, and for men working overground, 0.92 per thousand).

Germany, ore mines and smelting works, 1.07; Prussia considered separately, 1.08, and Saxony 0.81 per thousand.

Italy, metal mines, including sulphur, 1.73. In Italy, the fatalaccident liability in sulphur mines alone, during the 10-year period ending with 1899 was 2.84 per thousand.

Japan, metal mines (1903-1906) 1.50 per thousand.

Portugal, metal mines, 0.95; but for underground workmen alone the rate was 2.15 per thousand.

Spain, chiefly metal mines, but including some coal mines, 2.65 per thousand.

Russia, gold mines (1901-1903), 0.55 per thousand.

United Kingdom, metalliferous mines, 1.14; but underground workmen alone, 1.67, and workmen overground 0.39 per thousand.

New South Wales, alluvial gold mines 0.54; gold quartz mines, 0.87; silver and lead mines, 2.49; copper mines, 1.22; tin mines, 0.38; and other metal mines, 0.83 per thousand. (In the Broken Hill district the percentage of cases of lead poisoning averaged during the decade 1897-1906, 0.32, but the ratio was as high as 1.12 per cent. in 1902).

Tasmania, metal mines (1901-1906), 1.19 per thousand.

Victoria, gold mines, 1.08 per thousand.

Queensland, gold mines, 1.70 per thousand.

Western Australia, gold mines, 2.15 per thousand.

British Guiana, gold mines, 0.28; alluvial placer gold mines in 1895, 8 per thousand.

a Engineering and Mining Journal, March 5th, 1910.

Kimberley, diamond mines (white miners only), 1.36; underground workmen considered alone, 5.28; and workmen above ground 0.47; (coloured miners only, 3.60); workmen underground only, 7.27, and above ground, 1.71 per thousand.

South African Republic (1895-1898), white miners, 5.41; coloured miners, 4.44; total, 4.56 per thousand. (See Transvaal).

Ceylon, metalliferous mines, mostly plumbago, 0.37; underground 1.01; overground, 0.07 per thousand.

Gold Coast, gold mines (1898, 1903-1906), 2.41; workmen underground, 6.03; overground, 0.54 per thousand.

India, gold mines, 2.24; underground, 3.23; overground, 0.70 per thousand.

India mica mines, 0.75; underground, 1.18; overground 0.13 per thousand.

India, manganese (1901-1906), 0.37 per thousand.

India (Mysore) gold mines, 2.51 per thousand.

New Zealand, alluvial gold mines 1.53; quartz gold mines, 1.32 per thousand.

Transvaal (1902-1906), gold mines, white labor, 4.15; coloured native labour, 4.74; Chinese labour, 6.50 per thousand.

The average fatality rate in the United States during the period (1894-1908) was 3.09. This rate was considered so high that, in 1906, the American Mining Congress at Denver, Colorado, appointed a committee to draft a law for the regulation of quarrying and metalliferous mining under the criminal codes of the States, with the hope that the uniform adoption of such a law would tend to reduce the number of accidents. The report of this committee is contained in Bulletin No. 46, of the American Institute of Mining Engineers. (See Appendix I.)

With the exception of the Kimberley diamond mines and the Transvaal, where native and Chinese labour are employed, the fatality rate during 1900-1909, was considerably lower elsewhere than in Canada. It requires no discussion to emphasize the importance of a inquiry into the whole subject of fatal accidents in metal mines of Canada.

An analysis of the statistics respecting metal mining accidents of British Columbia for the last ten years, shows that over twenty-six per cent. of the fatalities were caused by explosives directly or indirectly. Mr. E. T. Corkill, Inspector of Mines for Ontario, states, in the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Mines (p. 58), that, "Accidents from explosives are the main source of danger, and were, ultimately the cause of 49 per cent. of the fatalities in 1909." An Act respecting the testing and inspection of explosives has been prepared by the Mines Branch, Department of Mines, and will be presented to Parliament this session.

(a) Quantity of product sold or shipped. (b) The metals, copper, lead, nickel and silver, are for statistical and comparative purposes valued at the final average value of the refined metal in New York. Pig iron is valued at the furnace, and non-metallic products at the mine or point of shipment. (c) Copper contents of smelter products and ores exported at 12.982 cents per pound.

(d) The total production of pig iron in Canada in 1909 was 757,162 tons, valued at $9,581,864, of which it is estimated 607,718 tons, valued at $7,359,649, should be credited to imported ores.

(e) Refined lead and lead contained in base bullion exported at 4.273 cents per pound.

(f) Nickel contents of matte produced, at 36 cents per pound (the lowest quotation for nickel in New York, less 10 per cent). The value of the nickel contained in matte was, as returned by the operators, $2,810,748, or an average per pound of 10.7 cents. (g) Estimated recoverable silver at 51.503 cents per ounce.

(h) Gross returns for sale of gas.

(i) Quantity on which bounty was paid and valued at $1.33 per barrel.

*Summary Report of Mines Branch, 1909.

† Additional returns increase this item to $90,950.

PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE MINERAL PRODUCTION OF CANADA IN 1909-Continued.

REMARKS. The preliminary table of mineral production in Canada, given herewith, shows the total value of the production in 1909 to have been in excess of $90,000,000. Compared with the total value for 1908$85,927,802-it shows an increase of a little over five per cent. The actual increase or betterment in the industry in 1909, was, however, somewhat greater than is indicated by this comparison. Owing to a slight change in the method of compiling statistics of the quantities of metals produced, the values for 1909 are somewhat less than they would otherwise have been.

Of the total production in 1909, $45,188,387-or 49.9 per cent of the total-is credited to the metals, and 44,927,376-or 49.7 per cent-to nonmetallic products. Among the individual products coal is still the most important, its value constituting twenty-seven per cent of the total; silver occupied second place with 15.9 per cent; gold and nickel come next with 10.8 and 10.5 per cent respectively; copper contributes 7.8 per cent; cement 5.8 per cent; clay products 6.1 per cent; and asbestos 2.5 per cent.