ACCIDENT PREVENTION IN SEVESO FACILITIES: EXAMPLE OF THE COPPER FLOTATION PLANT IN BOR

Abstract

In the near future, sustainable development of mining will inevitably be included in the raising of ecological awareness. When Serbia joins the EU, the mining industry will have to abide by European ecological standards and legislation, with which it is currently in the process of harmonization. This will primarily protect the population living in mining areas from large-scale accidents, as well as from the existing pollution sources.

Pollution of the town of Bor began more than a century ago when industrialist Đorđe Vajfert was granted the excavation concession, as he hoped he would find gold there. Instead, he found copper, which was first extracted by the French. Since then, the development and survival of the town have depended on copper mining, which necessarily degraded the environment.

For the purpose of harmonizing the environmental legal regulation of current copper production and, above all, reducing the risk of large-scale accidents, the Centre for Occupational and Environmental Risk Management of the Faculty of Occupational Safety in Niš has prepared the Report on the Safety of Flotation Plant Bor at the request of Copper Mine Bor, a subsidy of RTB Bor (Mining and Smelting Complex Bor). The Report is essentially a study defining the operation objectives and principles of Seveso facility operators for risk control against chemical accidents.

The purpose of this study was to improve the implementation of accident prevention principles at the Flotation Plant Bor.

This paper presents the parts of the study that pertain to prescribed preventive procedures and measures against accidents due to hazardous materials that are present during flotation. It covers the following aspects: facilities; equipment; piping; machinery; tools; repositories; flotation tailings pond; analysis and assessment of the effectiveness of the system of occupational safety and fire and explosion safety; assessment of impact on employees, the surrounding population, and buildings, and the possible harmful environmental impact; assessment of unwanted event incidence; and calculations of vulnerable zones.