Comparison of International Standards and Korean National Standards in the Area of Mining

Within the system of International Classification of Standards (ICS), the specific standard ICS 73 encompasses the domains of mining and minerals.Mining, in turn, falls under the purview of Technical Committee (TC) 82.Specifically, international standards covering the areas of mining, mine reclamation, and mining automation are developed and operated by TC 82, TC 82/sub-committee (SC) 7, and TC 82/SC 8, respectively.Herein, the activities of this TC and its SCs, as well as those related to mining under the purview of the Korean Standards (KS) were analyzed.In particular, the similarities and possible conformities between the standards of TC 82 and KS were reviewed.Among the standards published after the reactivation of TC 82 in 2014, those related to safety management should be applied to KS; furthermore, the standards under KS for mineral analysis need to conform to the international standards.A standard for mine closure management was published recently, which could be utilized as a guideline for closing coal mines operated by the Korea Coal Corporation.