This 1967 safety film by the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Mines explains and details open mining hazards and safety measures. Official synopsis: “Accidents involving dump trucks, power shovels, front end loaders, rail haulage, and highrail workers’ carelessness, when safety precautions are overlooked, or where unsafe machinery and mining methods are used. Explains why the accidents happened, and then emphatically stresses the correct and safe way of performing various mining jobs to prevent future accident occurrence.”
The film begins with a backhoe lifting debris from an open pit mine, possibly a copper mine in a state like Arizona or Utah (2:23) as narration explains that open pit mining exposes low-grade ores that otherwise would be unprofitable. Although many miners believe it has lower risks than underground mining, equipment issues, blasting, loading, transportation, and inclement weather can still pose hazards. A miner steps on a pile of loose rubble, causing an avalanche of dirt (2:40). Bulldozers and cranes move mining debris (2:55). The film shows how one miner, Don Kovach, an ex-Marine, fall victim to a front loader accident when the brakes failed (3:10). A white Chevrolet pickup truck drives to the accident scene (3:57). A group of miners in hard hats load Don into an ambulance (4:21). A foreman takes photos of the accident scene with a Polaroid Land camera (4:45). A safety engineer visits Don in the hospital (5:15); Don says he did not look at the loader’s pressure gauge. The safety engineer talks before supervisory officials about the need for equipment re-evaluation, using a miniature model of a Slinger B.E. front loader (6:03) and pointing to its parts on a diagram. The film shows a drilling accident where a pipe wrench is placed on a drill’s rotary head to replace it, but too much tension is released, causing backlash and injuring a miner, Larry Kerr (7:00). Modifications are shown to reduce such accidents. Kerr and Bud Wilper, a blasting foreman, meet in the hospital (8:14). Wilper’s accident is shown: he was preparing explosive charges but was caught by mud-capped boulders detonating early (9:53). Modifications to prevent such accidents, including discontinuing mud capping, are shown. The film shows other safety precautions: adequately sloping high walls, inspecting walls for cracks (11:30). Men run from a boulder tumbling down an unsafe wall (11:45). Accidents are often caused by moving machinery; a worker is knocked off and his hard hat is crushed when he goes to lubricate a part while the machine is moving (12:43). Materials transport also has risks; trucks go over an embankment because berm is not provided (13:43). Other hazards are shown including inadequate lighting, speeding (14:16), a worker trying to fix a belt conveyor system while it is moving (14:52), a man riding on the side of a railroad car (15:27). A worker steps out of equipment marked “191-M S-10” (16:10). The film ends by emphasizing the need for safety in open pit mining.
The Bureau of Mines was established in 1910 to deal with mine disasters, and then expanded to oversee U.S. mineral resources. It was abolished in 1996.
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