ANALYSIS OF METHANE AND DUST EXPLOSIONS IN MODERN COAL MINES IN RUSSIA

The authors conducted a detailed analysis of accidents circumstances associated with explosions of gas and dust during the period from 1991 to the present day. The assessment results of emergency situations causes carried out by statistical methods and methods of technical analysis are provided. The conducted researches showed that currently there is a steady trend towards stabilization of accidents number, despite the high technical equipment of the enterprises and enhancement of the main direction of methane control - ventilation and draining-out of gases - widely used in mining enterprises. The reason for this, in the opinion of the authors, is the fact that the factors affecting the gas situation within the excavation site can be classified as manageable and difficult-to-control. The signs making it possible to attribute factors to manageable ones, provided by the technology of works performance have been proposed. It is shown that the affect on the controllable factors with strict occupational health and safety and technology of works compliance minimizes the risk to the magnitude of the acceptable risk. The factors affecting the stability of the process of ventilation and having a natural or mixed natural and anthropogenic character are advised to qualify as the difficult-to-control ones. In the process of investigation, the additional accounting and classification of difficult-to-controlfactors in combination with other causes will allow you to evaluate more completely, the places, circumstances and structure of their interrelationships, the ways of development and nature of accidents, identify the maximum number of violations in case of accidents. The probability of complete detection increases when investigating the accidents across spatial and temporal chain of causes. The improving safety management in mining practice is only possible at the differentiated approach to the role of each factor that may affect the accident emergence and development.