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 36-03 - Rules And Regulations Governing The Certification And Statutory Duties Of Shaft And/or Slope Superintendent-Examiner-Foreman And Examiner-Foreman › Section 36-3-13 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. XLI, No. 28, July 12, 2024
Unless the context in which used clearly requires a
				  different meaning, the following definitions shall apply to these rules and
				  regulations:
13.1. Mine: The term
				"Mine" includes the shafts, slopes, drifts 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.
13.2. 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 men and material,
				in connection with the mining of coal.
13.3. 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.
13.4. 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.
13.5. Department: The term "Department" shall
				mean the State Department of Energy provided for in section 2 of Chapter 22A,
				Article 1A-1 of the Code.
13.6.
				Director of the Department of Energy: The term "Director of the Department of
				Energy" shall mean the Director of the Department of Energy provided for in
				section 3 of Chapter 22A, Article 1A-1, of the Code, and is synonymous with the
				term "Chief of the Department of Mines."
13.7. Mine inspector: The term "Mine
				Inspector" shall mean a state mine inspector provided for in Section 7 of
				Chapter 22A Article 1A-1 of the Code.
13.8. Board of appeals: The term "Board of
				Appeals" shall mean as provided for in section 31 of chapter 22A, article 1A-1,
				of the Code.
13.9. Mine inspectors'
				examining board: The term "Mine Inspectors' Examining Board" shall mean the
				mine inspectors' examining board provided for in section 12 of chapter 22,
				article 1 of the Code.
13.10.
				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.
13.11. Active workings: The
				term "Active Workings" shall mean all places in a shaft and/or slope that are
				ventilated and inspected regularly.
13.12. Working Place: The term "Working
				Place" shall mean the area of a shaft and/or slope in by the surface
				collar.
13.13. 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.
13.14. 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.
13.15. 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.
13.16. 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.
13.17. 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.
13.18.
				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.
13.19. Interested persons:
				The term "Interested Persons" shall include the operator, members of any mine
				safety committee at the mine affected and other duly authorized representative
				of the mine workers and department of mines.
13.20. Agent: The term "Agent" means 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.
13.21. 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.
13.22. 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.
13.23. 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.
13.24. 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 acting pursuant to
				such specific designation and instructions.
13.25. 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 these
				rules and regulations to perform such duty.
13.26. 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 department of mines,
				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 noncoal 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 Department of Energy.
13.27. 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.
13.28. Permissible: The term "Permissible"
				shall mean any equipment, device or explosive that has been approved as
				permissible by the United States Bureau of Mines and meets all requirements,
				restrictions, exceptions, limitations and conditions attached to such
				classification by the bureau.
13.29. Armored cable: The term "Armored
				Cable" shall mean a fabricated assembly of insulated conductors and a flexible
				metallic covering.
13.30. Borehole
				cable: The term "Borehole Cable" shall mean a cable designed for vertical
				suspension in a borehole or shaft and used for power circuits in the
				mine.
13.31. Cable: The term
				"Cable" shall mean a standard conductor (single conductor cable) or a
				combination of conductors insulated from one another (multiple conductor
				cable).
13.32. Flame-resistant
				cable, portable: The term "Flame-Resistant Cable, Portable" shall mean a
				portable flame-resistant cable that has passed the flame tests of the federal
				bureau of mines.
13.33. 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.
13.34. Branch
				circuit: The term "Branch Circuit" shall mean any circuit, alternating current
				or direct current, connected to and leading from the main power
				lines.
13.35. Circuit breaker: The
				term "Circuit Breaker" shall mean a device for interrupting a circuit between
				separable contacts under normal or abnormal conditions.
13.36. 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.
13.37. 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.
13.38. 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 underground power system.
13.39. Effectively Grounded: The term
				"Effectively Grounded" is an expression which means grounded through a
				grounding connection of sufficiently low impedence (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.
13.40. Grounded
				(earthed): The term "Grounded (Earthed)" shall mean that the system, circuit,
				or apparatus referred to is provided with a ground.
13.41. 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, device or wiring system to an effective grounding medium.
13.42. 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.
13.43. 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.
13.44. High voltage: The term "High Voltage"
				shall mean voltages of more than one thousand (1000) volts.
13.45. Medium voltage: The term "Medium
				Voltage" shall mean voltages from six hundred sixty-one (661) to one thousand
				(1000) volts.
13.46. Low voltage:
				The term "Low Voltage" shall mean up to and including six hundred sixty (660)
				volts.
13.47. Lightning arrestor:
				The term "Lightning Arrestor" shall mean a protective device for limiting surge
				voltage on equipment by discharging or by passing surge current to ground and
				is capable of repeating these functions as specified.
13.48. 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 low-voltage power circuits are taken.
13.49. 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 overspeed or overwind controls.
13.50. 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.