News Releases
CBU Coal Mine Safety Team Begin Training Program in China
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
The recent departure of Cape Breton University’s coal mine safety team aligned with yet another mine disaster in Central China. While the People’s Republic of China accounts for the largest production of coal in the world, it also holds the world’s worst record for mine safety with disasters taking lives on a regular basis.
In April of this year, CBU announced the introduction of a coal mine safety education and capacity building program with Heilongjiang Coal Commission in eastern China. At that time, President and Vice-Chancellor John Harker committed two Cape Breton experts to spend time on site in Heilongjiang Province. The two experts, David Forrester, an experienced mining engineer and Senior Researcher with CBU’s Institute for the Development of Energy and Sustainability (IDEAS) and John Baldwin, a former mine manager with the Cape Breton Development Corporation and coal mining industry specialist, arrived in China on June 26th to initiate the first phase of a capacity building program specific to underground coal mine safety. On June 27th they travelled to Jixi in Heilongjiang Province, to begin training for the Jixi Branch of Longmei Coal Mine Group, the fifth largest coal group in China with more than 300,000 employees. The opening program was attended by senior mining officials from and 40 mine managers from throughout China.
On July 1st and 2nd, Forrester and Baldwin are meeting with the Director General of HLJ Coal Mine Safety Administration and touring the Coal Mine College in Harbin.
The capacity building sessions with Chinese mine managers focused on emergency response, gas management and explosion prevention, new technology for coal mine safety and related best practices as well as water management and flooding prevention. Ross McCurdy, Chief Operating Officer of CBU’s Centre for Sustainability in Energy and the Environment notes that, “Discussions and content revolved around practical coal mining practices and lessons learned in Nova Scotia. This is an excellent platform for creating a safety framework that the Heilongjiang Provincial Administration of Coal Mine Safety can address based on Cape Breton’s long established record of ensuring safety for workers underground.”
It is anticipated that a group of mine managers from Heilongjiag Province will visit Cape Breton in September to expand their knowledge base and gain broader exposure to processes and solutions tied to the many issues that they face in their mine operations. “The need for safe mining capability is significant,” according to President Harker, “and CBU has the proven ability to combine curriculum and training programs with resident and well respected mining knowledge and assist with building a mine safety culture. We have established relationships and networks in China that have led us to this opportunity for the university and the mining industry of Heilongjiang Province.”
Needs have been clearly identified and Forrester and Baldwin have spent this week working on this initial piece of capacity building with tailored programming intended to improve mine safety records for this region of China.
