Abstract

Background Every year, many mining accidents occur in underground mines all over the world resulting in the death and maiming of many miners and heavy financial losses to mining companies. Underground mining accounts for an increasing share of these events due to their special circumstances and the risks of working therein. Thus, the optimal location of emergency stations within the network of an underground mine in order to provide medical first aid and transport injured people at the right time, plays an essential role in reducing deaths and disabilities caused by accidents

Objective The main objective of this study is to determine the location of emergency stations (ES) within the network of an underground coal mine in order to minimize the outreach time for the injured.

Methods A three-objective mathematical model is presented for placement of ES facility location selection and allocation of facilities to the injured in various stopes.

Results Taking into account the radius of influence for each ES, the proposed model is capable to reduce the maximum time for provision of emergency services in the event of accident for each stope. In addition, the coverage or lack of coverage of each stope by any of the emergency facility is determined by means of Floyd-Warshall algorithm and graph. To solve the problem, a global criterion method using GAMS software is used to evaluate the accuracy and efficiency of the model.

Conclusions 7 locations were selected from among 46 candidates for the establishment of emergency facilities in Tabas underground coal mine.