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MINES ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1969 - SECT 105

105.(1) For the purpose of enabling inspections to be carried out at a mine on
behalf of the persons employed thereat, a panel of persons each of whom has
had not less than five years practical experience of mining operations may be
appointed for that mine

(a)in a case where there is an association or body representative of a
majority of the total number of persons employed at the mine, by that
association or body;

(b)in any other case, jointly by associations or bodies which are together
representative of such a majority.

(2) The owner of a mine shall be under an obligation to permit such
inspections to be carried out thereat by members of the panel appointed
therefor under subsection (1) as will enable every part of the mine and the
equipment thereof to be inspected once at least in every month by two of those
members together (of whom one at least is employed at the mine).

(3) Where there occurs at a mine an accident or other occurrence (being in
either case one of which notice is required by this Act to be given), any two
members of the panel appointed for the mine under subsection (1) (of whom one
at least is employed at the mine) may together inspect the place where the
accident or other occurrence occurred and, so far as necessary for the purpose
of ascertaining its cause, any other part of the mine and any machinery,
apparatus or other thing thereat, and may take samples of the atmosphere at
that place and of any dust or water thereat.

(4) Nothing in subsection (2) or (3) shall be construed as precluding the
making, as respects a mine, of an agreement between the owner thereof and the
association or body (or, as the case may be, associations or bodies) by whom a
panel therefor is appointed under subsection (1) with respect to the carrying
out, by members of that panel, of inspections at the mine, so, however, that
no such agreement shall operate so as in any way to abridge the rights
conferred by subsections (2) and (3).

(5) On any occasion on which members of a panel appointed for a mine under
subsection (1) carry out, by virtue of subsection (2) or (3) or of any such
agreement as is mentioned in subsection (4), an inspection at the mine, they

(a)shall be entitled to inspect any documents which by or by virtue of
this Act are required to be kept at the office at the mine or at such other
place as may be approved by the Ministry;

(b)shall be entitled to be accompanied by advisers of theirs, but shall not be
entitled to preclude

(i)the owner of the mine or any person nominated by him, or

(ii)the manager of the mine or any person nominated by him, or

<(iii)any under-manager of the mine,


(b)from accompanying them.

(6) On any occasion on which members of a panel appointed under subsection (1)
for a mine are, by virtue of subsection (2) or (3) or of any such agreement as
is mentioned in subsection (4), carrying out an inspection at the mine, it
shall be the duty of all persons employed thereat to afford to those members
such facilities and assistance with respect to matters or things to which the
respective responsibilities of those persons extend as are requisite for the
purpose of carrying out the inspection, and where the inspection is carried
out by virtue of subsection (2) or of any such agreement as is mentioned in
subsection (4), it shall be the duty of the manager of the mine, if requested
so to do by the said members, to furnish to them any information in his
possession which relates to the nature or extent of any workings proposed to
be carried on in the mine.

(7) Forthwith after members of a panel appointed under subsection (1) for a
mine have, on any occasion, completed an inspection carried out thereat by
virtue of subsection (2) or (3) or of any such agreement as is mentioned in
subsection (4), they shall make, in a book to be provided for that purpose by
the owner of the mine, a full and accurate report of the matters ascertained
as a result of the inspection and shall subscribe their signatures thereto.

(8) Forthwith after a report has, in pursuance of subsection (7), been made of
matters ascertained as a result of an inspection carried out at a mine, a true
copy thereof shall be sent by the manager of the mine to the Ministry and
another such copy shall be posted by him in some conspicuous position at the
mine and kept posted there for a period of twenty-four hours.

Prohibition of employment below ground in certain cases.

© 1969 Crown Copyright

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