ISO 19434:2017 establishes a classification of mine accidents by their origin or causes, by the type of accident, and by their results or consequences. The latter includes only the accidents resulting into consequences on people, not equipment or machinery.
Different categories of causes, types and consequences of mine accidents are briefly defined, and a 3-digit code is assigned to each category. These can be combined to ultimately allocate a unique 15-digit code to each type of mine accident. This code can then be used in statistical analysis. Similarly, an allocated code clearly shows to which categories of causes, type of accident and resulting consequences the mine accident belongs to.
ISO 19434:2017 is applicable to all surface and underground mines.
NOTE: Accidents can be classified in terms of other items than those given in ISO 19434:2017, especially in researches and in other classification schemes. These can be, e.g. classifications based on the level of financial damages; gender, age, professional skills, terms of service and academic degree of the personnel; days of week, month, year, hour of accident; area of site, etc. While these classifications can be useful to enable certain decisions to be taken by the health and safety executives, they are not considered in ISO 19434:2017.