Abstract

Many mine accidents are caused by rock falls during drilling. Some of these accidents could be prevented if drill operators were better able to identify unstable rock fragments. The researchers investigated the processing of visual information during drilling by ten miners with varying degrees of experience. The nature, frequency, and duration of the miners' visual targets was recorded and related to the type of activity and the position of the lamp beam on the rock wall, used as a proxy measure of visual orientation.

The study results indicated that visual exploration strategies are a function of drilling-related tasks. In some cases, miners track the progress of drilling by sweeping their lamp beams over the rock walls away from the actual drill hole. It was discovered that inexperienced miners adopt an essentially random sweep, whereas experienced miners focus their attention almost exclusively on the junction of the shaft ceiling and the drill face, where rock falls are more likely. Currently, training and prevention programmes in this sector have no ergonomic basis. The results of this study should however facilitate the development of more effective training programmes.