| Summary: | In 2006, a tragic accident took place at the Sullivan mine in Kimberley, British
Columbia. Four people died as the result of their entry into an oxygen-depleted sampling
station located at the toe of a waste dump. The dump had been in active use for over 50
years and the sampling shed for about 5 years without any problem. The accident was
reported as being unprecedented in the history of mining. The accident shows that
reclamation sites can be an atmospheric danger only recognizable if a risk assessment is
carried out on a regular basis for many years after closure. It is important to conduct
regular assessments since there are physical, chemical and environmental factors that
affect oxygen-depletion in waste dumps that change over time.
In this thesis, an Atmospheric Fuzzy Risk Assessment (AFRA) tool was devised to
recognize confined space dangers at sulfide waste dumps undergoing reclamation. The
tool is a fuzzy expert system to transfer knowledge on atmospheric hazards. Modeling
the complex environment of a waste dump where internal and external factors change
temporally and spatially using conventional mathematical tools is a difficult task.
Therefore, a technique based on fuzzy logic and weighted inferencing was applied since
this method relies on a heuristic approach that allow for case–based reasoning. AFRA
can help mining engineers and other safety professionals to recognize this type of
danger while developing a confined space inventory at any site.
The second goal of this research has been to create an application for hand-held
pocket PCs and/or Smart phones that can be used by first-responders to provide
answers about a possible confined space situation to help them decide to enter or not
into that space. === Applied Science, Faculty of === Mining Engineering, Keevil Institute of === Graduate
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