What to Wear When You're Working in a Mine

Wondering what kind of clothing should be worn in a mine? The potential hazards of a mine work environment make it essential to pick up the proper personal protective equipment and mining safety apparel, including hi-vis workwear from head to toe, hard hats, hard hat liners, and more. Learning what to wear when you’re working in a mine helps create safer working conditions and side-step common mining dangers that can lead to issues as minor as discomfort all the way to serious injury and fatalities.

From brightly-colored hi-vis vests and bib overalls to cold-weather hard hat liners and pants made with FR clothing fabrics that feature reflective stripes, we’ll show you what to wear when you’re working in a mine and provide examples of workwear options that fit the bill. First, we’ll take a look at the required personal protective equipment for mining work and cover clothing essentials for hazardous mining working environments.

Miners need special personal protective equipment, or PPE, to safely work in mining environments. PPE ranges from specialized FR apparel like utility pants and vests to hard hats, safety glasses, respirators, and earplugs.

• Flame-resistant clothing, or FR clothing, is a key component of mining workwear because of the risk of flash fires with combustible dust in enclosed mines. Flame-resistant clothing won't continue to burn once the ignition source is removed.
• Hard hats, sometimes in conjunction with hard hat liners in cold weather and headlamps for improved visibility, are used to protect your head from injury from falling rocks or objects, and accidental head strikes on hard surfaces, and provide extra protection from burns and shocks.
• Respirators help protect you from dust, mists, fumes, diesel particulate matter, and diesel gaseous contaminants that create a hazardous working environment in mines and can lead to respiratory distress or conditions like black lung.
• Safety glasses are required to protect your eyes from dust and airborne fragments that can put eyes at risk in mining environments with drilling, lathing, fabrication equipment, or chemical production.
• Earplugs provide eardrum protection in noisy mining environments, where decibel levels can reach 120 dB and cause hearing damage or pain in the ears over time.

Mining safety apparel is a big part of mining PPE, so what clothes do miners wear and what type of equipment is used in mines? Miners rely on hi-vis clothing in easily seen, bright colors like fluorescent orange with reflective white, yellow, or silver striping. Hi-vis components should be in all protective apparel, from pants and shirts to vests and hard hat liners, due to the dark or dimly-lit conditions in mining environments.

Here’s a look at mining safety apparel options from MWG that can keep you safe and in compliance above and underground:

• Long-sleeve shirt: Long sleeves protect your arms, while hi-vis color schemes with reflective tape like the MWG EVOLUTION™ Men's FR Long-Sleeve and MWG TRANSMISSION™ Men's FR Crewneck make it easy to stay safe on the job.
• Utility pant: Pants with reflective stripes keep you easily seen in dimly-lit mining environments, while durable ripstop fabric, like the MWG RIPGUARD™ Men's FR Utility Pant, lasts longer.
• FR outerwear: Hi-vis coveralls in fluorescent orange with reflective stripes, like the MWG RIPGUARD™ Men's FR Mining Coverall and MWG BLOCKER™ Men's FR Full-Zip Hoodie, provide reliable CAT 2-3 protection.
• Hard hat liner: Cold working conditions above and underground make a hard hat alone unsuitable for the job, so liners like the MWG BLOCKER™ FR Hard Hat Liner and FR Insulated Hard Hat Liner are key pieces of workwear when temperatures drop.

The list of essential mining safety apparel is short but important. You don’t want to be without the protection and gear you need to do your job safely. From hi-vis long-sleeve shirts to durable, flame-resistant outerwear and hard hat liners, you’ll be able to work more efficiently and confidently if you know you’re covered when it comes to safety on the job!