International Journal of Mining Science and Technology 27 (2017) 589–590
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International Journal of Mining Science and Technology
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijmst
Guest Editorial – Special issue on advances in mine safety science &
engineering
Mitri Hani S. ⇑
Department of Mining and Materials Engineering, McGill University, Montreal H3A 0E8, Canada
Mine safety encompasses many aspects of a mining operation,
ranging from personnel and equipment safety to the safety of the
environment. Mine disasters such as fires, floods, explosions, out-
bursts, rockbursts, ground caving, pit slope slides, and tailings
dam failures, pose serious threats to the lives of mine operators,
and could further cause devastating damage to equipment, mine
infrastructure and even the surrounding environment such as
wildlife and fisheries.
Recognizing the importance of mine safety, the global mining
industry has strived over the past three decades to combat mine
disasters to provide a safer work place for the mine operator and
assure the community of a clean environment. Leap advancements
in mine safety science and engineering led to the development of
new technologies and the evolution of new and better tools – both
hardware and software, thus enabling sophisticated mine designs
to be assessed against potential mine disasters, implemented,
and monitored both remotely and in real time [1–9]. As a result,
the global mining industry has seen dramatic improvements in
safety records in the last two decades. For example, the death rate
per one million tonnes of coal in China coal mines has dropped sig-
nificantly over the 10-year period between 1999 and 2009 [10].
At the same time, human perception of safety was recognized
vital to the success and safety of a mining operation. For example,
without a clear understanding of the significance of a red traffic
light, a car driver is potentially going to have a collision, even if
the signalling system is synchronized to be perfectly safe. There-
fore, much emphasis in recent years has been placed on mine
safety education and training [11–14].
Despite these efforts, there is still much work to do – academics
and practitioners continue to work together to advance the state-
of-the-art for a better future of the industry. The need for advances
in mine safety is further accentuated by the unconditional require-
ment to remain profitable in a severely competitive, global mineral
commodity market, in which the occurrence of mine disasters can
no longer be tolerated.
The first two symposia on mine safety science and engineering
were held in Beijing in 2011 and 2013. The aim of the symposia
was to provide a forum for the exchange and cooperation between
national and foreign experts, giving the opportunity for sharing
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: hani.mitri@mcgill.ca
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmst.2017.05.001
2095-2686/Ó 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of China University of Mining & Technology.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
experiences, new ideas, and new developments. The first sympo-
sium held from October 26 to 29, 2011, was sponsored by China
Academy of Safety Science & Technology, China University of Min-
ing & Technology Beijing, McGill University, and University of Wol-
longong. The second symposium was held from September 21 to
23, 2013, and was sponsored by China Academy of Safety Science
& Technology, North China Institute of Science and Technology,
China University of Mining & Technology Beijing, and McGill
University.
McGill University organized and hosted the 3rd International
Symposium on Mine Safety Science and Engineering (ISMS 2016)
in Montreal from August 13 to 19, 2016 in collaboration with the
University of Science and Technology Beijing, China University of
Mining & Technology Beijing, and Henan Polytechnic University.
The symposium was held with the theme ‘‘Operational and Envi-
ronmental Mine Health and Safety Practice and Innovation”. Essen-
tial objectives of ISMS 2016 were to discuss safety-related
problems; to create awareness, cooperation, and recognition of
mine safety; and to ensure knowledge transfer and mobilization
amongst industry practitioners, mining engineers and academics.
Amongst the papers presented at ISMS 2016, several excellent
papers have been selected to be published in this Special Issue
entitled ‘‘Recent Advances in Mine Safety Science and Engineer-
ing”. The reader will quickly notice the wide variety of topics on
different aspects of mine safety. The depth of the analysis, the clar-
ity and relevance of the papers, and the comprehensive literary
reviews are only some of the features of the selected papers. Some
of the highlights of the Special Issue are as follows.
I sincerely hope that this special issue will be of interest to the
readers. I trust it will serve as a state-of-the art reference for scien-
tists and engineers–academics and practitioners, in their future
endeavors to advance mine safety.
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590 Guest Editorial / International Journal of Mining Science and Technology 27 (2017) 589–590
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