2019 Missouri Revised Statutes
Title XVIII - Labor and Industrial Relations
Chapter 293 - Mining Regulations
Section 293.590 Hoisting equipment and operating regulations.

Effective 28 Aug 1967

293.590. Hoisting equipment and operating regulations. — 1. A qualified hoisting engineer shall be on duty continuously when men are underground at noncoal mines where men are transported by hoists. Hoists used for handling men shall be equipped with overspeed, overtravel and automatic stop controls and shall be equipped with brakes capable of stopping and holding the fully loaded unbalanced cage or trip at any point in the shaft or slope. An accurate and reliable indicator, showing the position of the cage or trip, shall be so placed as to be in clear view of the engineer, unless the position of the cage or trip is clearly visible to the engineer at all times.

2. Hoisting ropes on all cages or trips shall be adequate in size to handle the load and have a proper factor of safety as defined in the America Standard Association's Wire Rope Standards and shall be replaced when it shows more than six broken wires in any single pitch length or lay of rope. On conventional drum type hoists only, as distinguished from friction type hoists, the rope shall have at least three full turns on the drum when it is extended to its maximum working length and shall make at least one full turn on the drum shaft or around the spoke of the drum, in case of a free drum, and be fastened securely by means of clamps. A hoisting rope shall be fastened to its load by a zinc-filled socket or by a thimble and clamps. No spliced hoisting rope or cable shall be used.

3. Hoisting equipment shall be inspected daily by a trained inspector and a record made of such inspection. The record book shall be made open for the information of all employees at the mine.

4. Cages or similar devices used for hoisting men shall be of substantial construction with adequate steel bonnets, with enclosed sides, with gates across the ends of the cage when men are being hoisted or lowered, and with sufficient handholds or chains for all men on the cage to maintain their balance. Cage floors shall be constructed so that they will be adequate to support the load, and where only one cable is used such cage shall be furnished with spring catches or such other or different safety device approved by the director, intended and provided, as far as possible, to prevent the consequences of cable breaking or the loosening or disconnecting of the machinery.

5. The director or a mine inspector shall determine the number of men that may be lowered or hoisted at any one time and a notice of the number shall be posted by him in a conspicuous place at the top and bottom of the shaft and at all other landings. In no case shall the total weight of the cage and men, estimated at one hundred sixty pounds per man, exceed one-fifth of the minimum breaking strength of the brakes, ropes, links, and other connections bearing the cage.

6. No person other than an attendant shall be lowered or hoisted in or on any cage or trip or other hoisting apparatus carrying explosives, steel, equipment or material. All small hand tools, lunch containers and small parts shall be adequately secured to the approval of the director.

7. The director of the division of mine inspection shall determine the safe speed of the cage in a shaft or slope where men are being lowered into or hoisted out of a mine when a speed in excess of five hundred feet per minute is requested by the operator. The mine inspector shall make a thorough inspection of the equipment to be used and cause two test runs at full load to be made before any person is permitted to ride on the cage at the increased speed. When major repairs are made or new or used equipment is installed, the same test shall be made by the operator and a record of such test shall be recorded in a book kept for that purpose and such record book shall be made open for the information of all employees at the mine. In no event shall the speed of the cage where men are lowered or hoisted be in excess of one thousand five hundred feet per minute. The mine inspector shall post a notice at the top and bottom landings of the shaft and at all other landings of the safe speed of the cage on which men are permitted to ride.

8. An adequate signaling code shall be adopted, subject to the approval of a mine inspector, in every mine hoisting or lowering men underground.

9. The owner, agent or operator of all mines employing twenty-five or more men, at the beginning and end of a shift, shall cause a competent person to be stationed at the top of the shaft, and a competent person to be stationed at the bottom of the shaft, whose duties shall be to answer all signals for the lowering or hoisting of men in the shaft, and to keep watch over, and control of, such signals while men are being lowered or hoisted in the shaft.

10. The provisions of this section shall not apply to mines employing fewer than sixteen men underground.

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(L. 1959 S.B. 188 § 63, A.L. 1967 p. 407)