Mines and Quarries Act 1954

Provisions for securing safe operation of Winding and Rope Haulage Apparatus and Conveyors

42 Charge of winding and rope haulage apparatus when persons are carried

(1) No mechanically or gravity operated winding apparatus with which a mine shaft or staple-pit is provided and no mechanically or gravity operated rope haulage apparatus at a mine shall be operated on any occasion when persons are carried by means thereof except by a competent male person who has attained the age of twenty-two years appointed by the manager of the mine to operate it on such an occasion ; and accordingly it shall be the duty of the manager of every mine to appoint such number (if any) of competent male persons as may be sufficient to secure compliance with the foregoing provisions of this subsection.

(2) It shall be the duty of the manager of every mine to and from which persons gain ingress and egress by being carried through a shaft or unwalkable outlet by means of mechanically or gravity operated winding or rope haulage apparatus, or in which persons gain access to a part thereof by being carried through a staple-pit by means of mechanically or gravity operated winding apparatus, to make, and to secure the efficient carrying out of, arrangements whereby, so long as any person is below ground in the mine who it is intended should come out through that shaft, outlet or staple-pit, a person appointed under this section is in attendance at the mine for the purpose of operating the apparatus aforesaid provided for carrying persons through that shaft or outlet or, as the case may be, that staple-pit.

(3) An inspector may serve on the manager of a mine a notice requiring him to secure that, at such times as may be specified in the notice, a person who, in pursuance of arrangements made under the last foregoing subsection, is in attendance at the mine is not charged with the duty of operating more than one set of mechanically or gravity operated winding or rope haulage apparatus.

(4) Subject to any exceptions for which provision may be made by regulations, no person appointed under this section shall be employed at a mine of coal, stratified ironstone, shale or fireclay for more than eight hours in any day on which his duties consist of, or include, the operation, when persons are carried by means thereof, of mechanically or gravity operated winding apparatus with which a shaft is provided, and regulations may provide for limiting the number of hours for which any such person may be employed in any week in which his duties consist of, or include, the operation as aforesaid of such apparatus.

43 Charge of winding and rope haulage apparatus when persons are not carried

(1) No mechanically or gravity operated winding apparatus with which a mine shaft or staple-pit is provided shall be operated on an occasion when no persons are carried by means thereof except by, or under the constant supervision of, a competent male person who has attained the age of twenty-one years.

(2) No mechanically or gravity operated rope haulage apparatus at a mine shall be operated on any such occasion as aforesaid except by, or under the constant supervision of, a competent male person who has attained the age of eighteen years.

44 Charge of conveyors at working faces

No conveyor shall be operated along a working face in a mine except by, or under the constant supervision of, a competent male person who has attained the age of eighteen years.

45 Signalling in shafts and outlets

(1) There shall be provided and maintained—

(a) in connection with every mine shaft provided with winding apparatus, being a shaft in the case of which the distance between the highest and lowest entrances thereto for the time being in use exceeds fifty feet, effective means of transmitting audible and visible signals from each entrance to the shaft for the time being in use to the place at which the winding apparatus is operated;

(b) in connection with every unwalkable outlet at a mine, being an outlet which is provided with rope haulage apparatus and in the case of which the distance between the terminal surface entrance thereto and the terminal underground entrance thereto exceeds fifty feet, effective means of transmitting audible and visible signals from each entrance to the outlet for the time being in use to the place at which the haulage apparatus is operated;

and provision may be made by regulations for requiring the provision and maintenance, in connection with mine shafts and unwalkable outlets at mines, of means of transmitting signals between the entrances thereto.

(2) Provision may be made by regulations—

(a) for requiring that the prescribed signals shall not be transmitted by means, provided in pursuance of, or of regulations having effect by virtue of, the foregoing subsection otherwise than in the prescribed code;

(b) for requiring the manager of a mine to secure the attendance thereat, at such times as may be prescribed, of persons for the purpose of transmitting signals by those means and receiving signals transmitted thereby.

(3) For the purposes of this section—

(a) so much of any superstructure provided at the top of a mine shaft as forms an extension thereof shall be deemed to form part of the shaft, and so much of a line of rails running through an outlet as lies between the point at which the outlet reaches the surface and the surface terminus of the line shall be deemed to form part of the outlet;

(b) the expression " entrance ", in relation to an outlet, includes any place at which vehicles stop for the purpose of loading or unloading; and

(c) the expressions " terminal surface entrance " and " terminal underground entrance ", in relation to an outlet, mean, respectively', the surface entrance thereto or, if there is more than one, that one for the time being in use which is furthest from the point at which the outlet reaches the surface and the underground entrance thereto for the time being in use which is furthest from that point.

46 Signalling in roads

Where rope haulage apparatus or a conveyor is installed in a road in a mine or is so installed at a mine as to permit of Its operation in a road therein, then, if the length of the part of that road through which vehicles can move as part of that apparatus or, as the case may be, through which loads can be carried by means of that conveyor, exceeds ninety feet, there shall be provided and maintained effective means of transmitting signals from every point throughout that part of that road, to' the place at which the apparatus or, as the case may be, the conveyor is operated.

47 Power to exclude or modify five preceding sections in case of remotely controlled or automatic apparatus

Regulations may provide for excluding or modifying the application of all or any of the provisions of the five last foregoing sections in the case of winding or rope haulage apparatus installed at mines or conveyors so installed, being apparatus or conveyors whose operation is remotely controlled or wholly or partly automatic.