Rudarski radovi br 4 2011 - Institut za rudarstvo i metalurgiju Bor

sign saying "GOOD LUCK". This is also<br />
the universal greeting of miners around the<br />
world.[1]<br />
2. RISK AND HAZARD TREATMENT<br />
In the area of Bosnia and Herzegovina<br />
and former Yugoslavia, the issue of risk<br />
and hazard in mining was not particularly<br />
studied or treated as such. This issue was<br />
reduced to an indication of certain hazards<br />
and crises that could occur, within the<br />
frame of existing legislation and technical<br />
regulations. Some changes in technical<br />
regulations were adopted prescribing<br />
stricter measures to be undertaken in order<br />
to avoid incidents and crises with fatal consequences<br />
for men and property. It should<br />
be pointed out that the new measures were<br />
often issued as the result of crises that had<br />
happened previously. Unfortunately, such<br />
incidents were quite numerous.<br />
However, other parts of the world, as<br />
the result of different social environment<br />
and property relations, realized that crises<br />
should be foreseen, prevented and eliminated<br />
and all their elements quantified by<br />
complete analysis.<br />
Through history, methods and techniques<br />
of risk assessment in technical systems<br />
were developed relatively late in comparison<br />
to the other fields of engineering.<br />
Lately, in the period of globalization of<br />
markets and economy, the risk management<br />
ideas and practice spread globally. [2]<br />
Today, the same principles are applied<br />
from Asia and Africa to Europe and America.<br />
However, there is still no generally<br />
accepted "standard" and a single set of defined<br />
terms. There are regional standards in<br />
Australia, New Zealand, Canada and more<br />
recently, in Great Britain, as well as the<br />
sub-studies in some other countries. In recent<br />
years, the working group of the International<br />
Standards Organization (ISO) is<br />
faced with the certain difficulties in their<br />
attempts to reach consensus on the common<br />
global definition of risk management.<br />
3. THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL<br />
BASIS OF RISK MANAGEMENT<br />
"Risk management" refers to a set of<br />
actions and processes used to monitor<br />
risks, to assess their tolerability and to<br />
reduce risks identified as intolerable. In<br />
other words, risk management can be defined<br />
as the general management function<br />
aiming to identify risks, assess them and<br />
prepare an organization (company) for<br />
their causes and effects (consequences).<br />
The purpose of risk management is to enable<br />
an organization to realize its goals in<br />
the most direct, efficient and effective<br />
manner.<br />
No activity can be undertaken without<br />
risk i.e. with zero risk. If there is any possibility<br />
for manifestation of hazard, risk<br />
does not equal zero. Therefore, risk is always<br />
present and the risk remaining after<br />
all the measures have been undertaken is<br />
referred to as "residual" or remaining risk.<br />
It is also important to define hazard and<br />
risk.<br />
Hazard is a danger which can represent<br />
"potential harm for humans, property or<br />
environment"; as such, it gives an initial<br />
basis for determination of risk.<br />
According to the international ISO<br />
standard, the definition of hazard is: "potential<br />
source of harm or event that may<br />
result in loss", while risk is defined as a<br />
combination of probability the occurrence<br />
of harm and the severity of that harm. [3]<br />
The aim of risk management is to keep<br />
the level of residual risk below the limit<br />
set by "risk tolerability" criteria. Determination<br />
of acceptable level of risk is a<br />
complex task involving a series of factors,<br />
such as legislation, standards, bylaws,<br />
No 4, 2011. 120<br />
MINING ENGINEERING