General Mining Regulation (as amended by 2017)

Country / jurisdiction: Germany · Year: 1995 · Status: In force · Level: National · Type: Voluntary

This ordinance regulates safety, health, and environmental protection from prospecting, extraction, and processing of mineral resources, underground storage, and research activities in mining.

To ensure the safety and health of employees, the employer must take necessary occupational health and safety measures. These measures must include workplaces that are planned, built, equipped, and operated and maintained in a way that does not endanger the safety and health of its workers, supervision by a responsible person, adequate first aid facilities, and necessary safety exercises carried out at regular intervals. Further, the measures must consider the state of technology and hazard prevention. For example, safety devices and systems must be able to be remotely controlled.

When exploring and extracting natural gas, oil, and geothermal heat, the operator must use state of the art technology, ensure the integrity of the borehole, regularly monitor production, and take state-of-the-art measures to collect data on methane releases and other emissions in all phases of recovery and disposal of reservoir water and reflux.

In the event that health-endangering substances might accumulate in the atmosphere, the operator must take suitable measures to eliminate the substances at the point of origin. If this is not possible, accumulations should be diluted to an acceptable level.

Official source: https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/abbergv/BJNR146600995.html