I work in an Iron Ore Mine that is situated in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. I graduated from college with an electrical engineering tech diploma and have spent my past three years in an industrial electrician apprenticeship program. I certainly don't know everything, at times it feels like I know nothing. I have had a serious problem with the mine where I work. They have no cable handling procedures, the mine's equipment runs on electricity. That is, all the shovels and drills require 'trailing cables' to provide power at a voltage of 4160 volts(3 phase). My problem is I can't seem to find anything in the mining code about handling these live trailing cables. Non-electrical personnel continually move these cables with nothing to protect them other than their normal leather gloves!! These cables have multiple cold shrink splices throughout, and are routinely handled by heavy equipment - dragged across rocks, tugged on with excessive force, on and on the violations go. I myself continuously tell these people they shouldn't be handling the live cables, however it still continues because miraclously no one has been hurt or killed to date (40 years of operation). Is this legal? I don't think so, but can someone show me this on paper??!! Help!!
