Geotechnical risks in underground coal mines

In this study, a quantitative approach and decision tree were employed in order to assess and manage roof fall risks as only major problem bring about geotechnical issues in Iranian coal mines. For the objectives, risk was assessed due to the determination of likelihoods and cost of consequences (outcomes) by the analysis of assembled roof fall data from 5 different coal regions comprising several underground coal mines in Iran. In addition, the cost of consequences is considered by a relative cost. Then, it was concluded that the annual average accidents in the all investigated mines are high and it is economically admissible to serve the proposed solutions for reducing the accidents. © 2009 Asian Network for Scientific Information.