West Virginia Code of State Rules › Agency 36 - Coal Mine Health And Safety › Title 36 - LEGISLATIVE EXEMPT RULE BOARD OF COAL MINE HEALTH AND SAFETY › Series 36-01 - Rules And Regulations Governing Approvals And Permits, Explosives And Ventilation For The Construction Of Shaft And/or Slope Operations In The State Of West Virginia › Section 36-1-3 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. XLI, No. 28, July 12, 2024
3.1. The words used
				in this rule shall have the meanings defined in this Section unless the content
				or context indicates a different meaning. All other terms used in this rule,
				not defined herein, shall have the meanings set forth in W. Va. Code §
									22A-1-2.
3.1.1. Office. -- The term "office" shall
				mean the West Virginia Office of Miners' Health, Safety and Training provided
				for in W. Va. Code §§
										22A-1-2(b)(4).
3.1.2. Director. -- The term "Director" shall
				mean the Director of the Office of Miners' Health, Safety and Training provided
				for in W. Va. Code §
										22A-1-3
et seq
.
3.1.3.
				Mine Inspectors' Examining Board. -- The term "Mine Inspectors' Examining
				Board" shall mean the Mine Inspectors' Examining Board provided for in W. Va.
				Code §§
										22A-9-1
et seq
.
3.1.4.
				Board of Appeals. -- The term "Board of Appeals" shall mean as provided for in
				W.Va. Code §
										22A-5-1
et seq
.
3.1.5.
				MSHA. -- The term "MSHA" shall mean the United States Mine Safety and Health
				Administration.
3.1.6. Mine
				Inspector. -- The term "mine inspector" shall mean a state mine inspector
				provided for in W.Va. Code §
										22A-1-8.
3.1.7. Interested Persons. -- The term
				"interested persons" shall include the operator, members
3.1.8. Agent. -- The term "agent" shall mean
				the person charged with the responsibility for the operation of all or a part
				of a shaft and/or slope or the supervision of the miners in a shaft and/or
				slope.
3.1.9. Operator. -- The term
				"operator" shall mean any firm, corporation, partnership or individual engaged
				in the construction of shafts and/or slopes and the associated facilities
				thereof.
3.1.10. Superintendent. --
				The term "superintendent" shall mean the certified person whom the operator
				shall place in charge of a shaft and/or slope or associated facilities
				thereof.
3.1.11. Shaft-Slope Miner.
				-- The term "shaft and/or slope miner" shall mean any individual working in a
				shaft and/or slope or associated facilities thereof.
3.1.12. Supervisor. -- The term "supervisor"
				shall mean a superintendent-examiner-foreman or examiner-foreman designated by
				the superintendent to supervise work or employees and who is action pursuant to
				such specific designation and instructions.
3.1.13. Certified Person. -- The term
				"certified person," when used to designate the kind of person to whom the
				performance of a duty in connection with the operation of a shaft and/or slope
				shall be assigned, shall mean a person who is qualified under the provisions of
				this rule to perform such duty.
3.1.14. Certified Electrician. -- The term
				"certified electrician" shall mean any person who is qualified as a mine
				electrician and who has passed an examination given by the Office of Miners'
				Health, Safety and Training, or has at least three (3) years of experience in
				performing electrical work underground in a coal mine, in the surface work
				areas of an underground coal mine, in a surface coal mine, in a non-coal mine,
				in the mine equipment manufacturing industry, or in any other industry using or
				manufacturing similar equipment, and has satisfactorily completed an electrical
				training program approved by the Office of Miner's Health, Safety and
				Training.
3.1.15. Mine. -- The term
				"mine" includes the shafts, slopes, drafts or inclines connected with, or
				intended in the future to be connected with, excavations penetrating coal seams
				or strata, which excavations are ventilated by one (1) general air current or
				divisions thereof, and connected by one (1) general system of mine haulage over
				which coal may be delivered to one (1) or more points outside the mine, and the
				surface structures or equipment connected or associated therewith which
				contribute directly or indirectly to the mining preparation or handling of
				coal, or construction thereof.
3.1.16. Shaft. -- The term "shaft" shall mean
				a vertical opening through the strata that is or may be used for the purpose of
				ventilation, drainage, and the hoisting and transportation of personnel and
				material in connection with the mining of coal.
3.1.17. Slope. -- The term "slope" shall mean
				a plane or incline roadway, usually driven to a coal seam from the surface and
				used for the same purposes as a shaft.
3.1.18. Drift. -- The term "drift" shall mean
				a horizontal or approximately horizontal opening through any natural strata or
				in a coal seam and used for the same purposes as a shaft.
3.1.19. Excavations and Workings. -- The term
				"excavations and workings" shall mean any or all parts of a mine excavated or
				being excavated, including shaft, slopes, drifts, tunnels, entries, rooms and
				working places, either abandoned or in use.
3.1.20. Active Working. --The term "Active
				Working" shall mean all places in a shaft and/or slope that are vertilated and
				inspected regularly.
3.1.21.
				Working Place. -- The term "working place" shall mean the area of a shaft and
				or slope in by the surface collar.
3.1.22. Working Face. -- The term "working
				face" shall mean any place in a shaft and or slope in which work of extracting
				material from its natural deposit in the earth is being performed.
3.1.23. Attendance. -- The term "attendance"
				shall mean a distance not to exceed the radius of four hundred (400) feet from
				the collar of a shaft and/or slope and within sight or sound.
3.1.24. Working Unit. -- The term "working
				unit" shall mean an area of a shaft and/or slope in which natural deposits are
				mined with a set of production equipment; a conventional mining unit by a
				single loading machine; or continuous mining unit by a single continuous
				machine.
3.1.25. Return Air. -- The
				term "return air" shall mean a volume of air that has passed through and
				ventilated the working face in a shaft and or slope.
3.1.26. Imminent Danger. -- The term
				"imminent danger" means the existence of any condition or practice in a shaft
				and/or slope where all the potentials are present that could constitute or
				cause a serious injury to any person before corrections can be made or while
				the corrections are being made.
3.1.27. Accident. -- The term "accident"
				shall mean any explosion, ignition, fire, or inundation, or injury to, or death
				of, any person in a shaft and/or slope.
3.1.28. Approved. -- The term "approved"
				shall mean in strict compliance with the mining law or, in the absence of law,
				accepted by a recognized standardizing body or organization whose approval is
				generally recognized as authoritative on the subject.
3.1.29. Permissible. -- The term
				"permissible" shall mean any equipment, device or explosive that has been
				approved as permissible by MSHA and meets all requirements, restrictions,
				exceptions, limitations and conditions attached to such
				classification.
3.1.30. Armored
				Cable. -- The term "armored cable" shall mean a cable provided with a wrapping
				of metal, usually steel wires or tapes, primarily for the purpose of mechanical
				protection.
3.1.31. Bore hold
				Cable. -- The term "bore hold cable" shall mean a cable designed for vertical
				suspension in a bore hold or shaft and used for power circuits in the
				mine.
3.1.32. Cable. -- The term
				"cable" shall mean a standard conductor (single conductor cable) or a
				combination of conductors insulated from one another (multiple conductor
				cable).
3.1.33. Flame-Resistant
				Cable, Portable. -- The term "flame-resistant cable, portable" shall mean a
				portable flame-resistant cable that has passed the flame tests of MSHA.
3.1.34. Portable (Trailing) Cable.
				-- The term "portable (trailing) cable" shall mean a flexible cable or cord
				used for connecting mobile, portable or stationary equipment to an external
				source of electric energy where permanent mine wiring is prohibited or is
				impracticable.
3.1.35. Branch
				Circuit. -- The term "branch circuit" shall mean any circuit, alternating
				current, or direct current connected to and leading from the main power
				lines.
3.1.36. Circuit Breaker. --
				The term "circuit breaker" shall mean a device for interrupting a circuit
				between separable contacts under normal or abnormal conditions.
3.1.37. Zig-Zag Transformer (Grounding
				Transformer). -- The term "zig-zag transformer (grounding transformer)" shall
				mean a transformer intended primarily to provide a neutral point for grounding
				purposes.
3.1.38. Neutral Point. --
				The term "neutral point" shall mean the connection point of transformer or
				generator windings from which the voltage to ground is nominally zero (0), and
				is the point generally used for system groundings in wye-connected A.C. power
				system.
3.1.39. Neutral (Derived).
				-- The term "neutral (derived)" shall mean a neutral point or connection
				established by the addition of a zig-zag or grounding transformer to a normally
				ungrounded power system.
3.1.40.
				Effectively Grounded. -- The term "effectively grounded" shall mean grounded
				through a grounding connection of sufficiently low impedance (inherent or
				intentionally added or both) so that fault grounds which may occur cannot build
				up voltages in excess of limits established for apparatus, circuits or systems
				so grounded.
3.1.41. Grounded
				(Earthed). -- The term "grounded (earthed)" shall mean that the system,
				circuit, or apparatus referred to is provided with a ground.
3.1.42. Ground or Grounding Conductor
				(Mining). -- The term "ground or grounding conductor (mining)", also referred
				to as a safety ground conductor, safety ground and frame ground, shall mean a
				metallic conductor used to connect the metal frame or enclosure of any
				equipment, mine track device or wiring system to an effective grounding
				medium.
3.1.43. Delta Connected. --
				The term "delta connected" shall mean a power system in which the windings or
				transformers or A.C. generators are connected to form a triangular phase
				relationship, and with phase conductors connected to each point of the
				triangle.
3.1.44. Wye-connected. --
				The term "wye-connected" shall mean a power system connection in which one (1)
				end of each phase windings or transformers or A.C. generators are connected
				together to form a neutral point, and a neutral conductor may or may not be
				connected to the neutral point, and the neutral point may or may not be
				grounded.
3.1.45. High Voltage. --
				The term "high voltage" shall mean voltages of more than one thousand (1000)
				volts.
3.1.46. Medium Voltage. --
				The term "medium voltage" shall mean voltages from six hundred sixty-one (661)
				to one thousand (1000) volts.
3.1.47. Low Voltage. -- The term "low voltage" shall mean up to
				and including six hundred sixty (660) volts.
3.1.48. Lightning Arrester. -- The term
				"lightning arrester" shall mean a protective device for limiting surge voltage
				on equipment by discharging or bypassing surge current to ground, and is
				capable of repeating these functions as specified.
3.1.49. Power Center or Distribution Center.
				-- The term "power center or distribution center" shall mean a combined
				transformer or distribution unit, complete within a metal enclosure from which
				one (1) or more power circuits are taken.
3.1.50. Deadman Control. -- The term "deadman
				control" shall mean a hand-or foot-operated device which must be moved to a
				certain position before the hoist will function and when released will stop the
				hoist independent of the over-speed or over-wind controls.
3.1.51. Indicator. -- The term "indicator"
				shall mean a dial or column with a hand or pointer attached which is operated
				by a chain or gear drive from the drum shaft which shows the position of the
				bucket in the shaft.