Guides & Handbooks

Comprehensive, mine-specific emergency preparedness and response systems are critical to effective rescue and recovery operations. This guide applies best practices from the Incident Command System (ICS) approach to training in mine emergency preparedness and response. ICS is a standard methodology used by fire departments, search and rescue organizations, and other government agencies nation-wide. Our guide focuses on capacities to improve self-escape and provides an overview of key social and behavioral responses to high stress situations. An Emergency Preparedness and Response Competency Model was developed in parallel work and serves as a basis for the learning objectives of this guide.

This 87-page resource is suitable for trainers and instructional designers who are developing training for emergency response (e.g. mine rescue) as well as supervisors looking to identify gaps in response plans and improve organizational resiliency. Funding for this initiative was provided in part by MSHA through the Brookwood-Sago Mine Safety Grants Program.

This comprehensive program guide addresses all required topics for MSHA 30 CFR Part 48 New Miner and Annual Refresher training. It provides a standardized framework for instructional design in mine safety and health, with a focus on active-learning to support or supplant lecture-based presentation. The content is conveniently arranged into modules around the 30 CFR Part 48 required topics, allowing trainers to select materials based on their organization's training needs. Many templates are included, providing ready-to-use activities for the trainer. The guides also provide knowledge checks and quizzes for assessment and group discussion.

The New Miner and Annual Refresher program guides include a student handbook (171 pages) and in-depth facilitator guide (466 pages) containing additional presentation and instructional design materials. These resources were developed by the Lowell Institute for Mineral Resources n part with funding from the Alpha Foundation. Hard copies are available to our industry partners. The Center offers a train-the-trainer workshop to help you integrate these program guides into your curriculum.

The Center has developed a comprehensive Spanish translation of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Toolbox Training for Construction Aggregate Miners. The guide contains 52 modules that are "designed to stimulate safety discussions among your employees. Each module is intended to be completed in roughly 10 or 15 minutes, so a Toolbox Training session can be conducted once a week for the entire year. Each session can count toward your employee's 8-hour annual MSHA refresher training."^[1] Modules are divided into stages that include identifying hazards, discussing causes, identifying best practices, and reviewing relevant near misses. Additional information may be found on the NIOSH toolbox training website.

This resource has been vetted by mining industry professionals who are fluent Spanish speakers to verify the accuracy of the translation. Our Spanish toolbox training guide has been tested extensively by industry partners in their 30 CFR Part 46 annual refresher courses.

Although the mining industry understands the value of sharing lessons in safety through data collection and reporting on incidents and fatalities, there are few avenues to share strategies on prevention and mitigation. To address this problem, the Center is working to identify and share the critical controls that companies are using to prevent or mitigate accidents and injuries. Through a series of workshops and meetings, we are soliciting critical controls for inclusion into a standardized database that can be shared across the mining industry. The critical controls database currently focuses on geotechnical controls which are associated with material unwanted events (MUEs).

The critical controls database is being developed in collaboration with the Geotechnical Center for Excellence at the Lowell Institute for Mineral Resources. This safety-focused geotechnical resource will be useful for trainers seeking new annual refresher content, as well as supervisors wishing to evaluate or improve their own geotechnical controls for MUEs. Further information on this initiative may be found in our white paper (PDF).^[2]