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By G. Chahal, L. C. So, S. Faucher, S. Mostaghel, S. -Y. Oh, S. K. Lee

Slag dumping and water granulation are the most commonly used slag treatment methods in the metallurgical industries. In both processes, water is present (by desire for cooling and dispersion or as a result of rain accumulation) and thus equipment and operations are designed to minimize and mitigate the risk of steam explosions resulting from the inappropriate contact of slag with water. Slag handling practices have, therefore, never been inherently safe; even good design, operation, and maintenance are not sufficient to prevent explosions or other related injuries from occurring. For slag handling to become inherently safe, our industry must eliminate the potential contact of water with molten slag. This is today feasible with the advent of dry granulation technologies, a review of which is presented, and it thus falls to us, in the metallurgical sector, to lead the way in their final stages of development and adoption. Furthermore, while slag dumping and water granulation offer some metallurgists the means of valorizing their slag as a by-product, for most, this is not the case. The energy in slag is lost through dumping and water granulation processes, and where slag is sold as a by-product, it is for its chemical content only. Here, dry granulation processes also offer advantages including the production of by-products which hold value in both their chemical content and physical properties and heat recovery. Dry granulation, therefore, augments the methods by which slag may be valorized over traditional processing methods.

Jan 1, 2015

By Daniel W. H. Su

A nearly 305-m- (1,000-ft-) wide sandstone channel was projected to run through the mid panel area of a 457-m- (1,500-ft-) wide longwall panel in a southwestern Pennsylvania coal mine. This sandstone channel was known to cause serious longwallface roof control problems in the mine?s B-panel area in 1998 and 1999; and most recently, it induced many large face cavities and caused a substantial production delay in the preceding panel. For the two B panels mined in 1998 and 1999, hydraulic fracturing of the massive sandstone was conducted to facilitate better caving, thus relieving cantilever compressive stress at the longwall face. Vastly improved longwall face condition was observed and four weeks of mining delay due to bad roof conditions were eliminated. The implementation of the hydraulic fracturing technique, results of underground observation and measurement, and results of numerical modeling were summarized in a paper presented in the 20th International Conference on Ground Control (Su et al., 2001). This article is a summary of the activities that took place during a four-month period (October 2011 through February 2012) at a Consol Energy longwall mine southwestern Pennsylvania to improve face conditions and safety of underground personnel during mining of the 457-m- (1,500-ft-) wide longwall panel. The elevated concern for safety was driven by adverse face conditions encountered while mining the preceding longwall panel. Many of the problems were attributed to a thick and massive sandstone channel. A joint task force consisting of coal operations engineering, Pennsylvania operations engineering and CNX Gas personnel was formed in August 2011, which recommended drilling four hydraulic fracturing holes along the center axis of the sandstone channel to reduce pressure and improve face conditions at the longwall face. To further provide detailed monitoring of the longwall face and to evaluate the effectiveness of the hydraulic fracturing program, the Longwall Visual Analysis (LVA) software (Hoyer, 2011) was installed in early December 2011 to track the face pressure and c

Jun 1, 2013

By P Kirsch, P Jagals, D Viswanathan, J Shandro, R LaBouchardiere

The planning, design and operation of mines must include the development of positive environmental, community and land-use benefits if it is to achieve good corporate social responsibility and minimise detrimental impacts throughout the life of the mine. Life-of-mine (LOM) planning should, therefore, consider conducting mining activities in the best socially, environmentally and economically acceptable manner, from the commencement of exploration to post-closure of the mine. Current knowledge of LOM activities in relation to public health (life-of-community, or LOC) impacts neither fully captures the full suite of human health and well-being impacts, nor comprehensively informs society on these issues. This knowledge gap is becoming more apparent as public antipathy is increasing towards mining activities within Australia, Canada and globally. The purpose of this paper is to present preliminary and informative results of a literature review to gain insight into the extent of available public health and well-being knowledge associated with mining development. LOM development must also benefit the LOC, in that it must aim to minimise detrimental impacts, and maximise beneficial (including health) impacts on all associated communities. Health planning and programing for mitigation of potential adverse health impacts of mining should extend beyond the scope of work-related injury and illness (resulting from chronic exposure to harmful substances, infectious and lifestyle illnesses), to the health and well-being of workersÆ families and extended associated communities. By mapping the available but rather scarce literature on LOC areas to recognised LOM stages, this review found shortcomings and imbalances regarding research reporting on mining and its health-related impacts in the worker-to-community continuum.CITATION:Kirsch, P, Viswanathan, D, LaBouchardiere, R, Shandro, J and Jagals, P, 2012. Health impacts extend from the life of a mine to the life of a community - Knowledge gaps, in Proceedings Life-of-Mine 2012 , pp 161-168 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 10, 2012

By C G. Sweeney

The underground mining industry is seeing unprecedented shortages in skilled labour. Migration to Australia being at an all-time low is a leading concern, with pandemic-induced border closures and lockdowns only exacerbating the skills shortage, not causing it. The skills shortage is forecast to peak in 2023 and remain high beyond 2025. With this skills shortage in mind, mining companies throughout Australia are trying to deal with stricter protocols around Health and Safety (H&S) legislation, as well as more stringent controls on quality assurance, particularly as underground mines are reaching greater depths and extending into ‘unchartered territory’. The cumulation of this is proving to be a major hurdle in ‘effective’ operational geotechnical management. The drive for automation in mining is bringing another level of complexity. However, ‘once automation is up and running, it presents the opportunity to access talent pools that may not normally be available. There is also a change in skillset that will be required to drive automation. ‘The top two emerging roles that will be critical for the future of the mining industry are artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) specialists, and process-automation specialists’ (Writer, 2021). If anything positive has come from the pandemic, it has shown that remote working can be effective and that the drive for automation and critical evaluation of skills required on-site should be given greater priority. UQ acknowledges that the industry is changing, and that digital technology is required to be offered in mining related disciplines. Industry and academia need to do more to promote geotechnical engineering in mining and balance the curriculum to suit the future of mining and make it more enticing. The average cost of a geotechnical failure is about $5 million in coalmines and can be into the hundreds of millions of dollars if production is affected (Cartledge Mining and Geotechnics, 2020). The cost of a good geotechnical design far outweighs the potential losses if a failure were to occur. This alludes to the growing importance of experienced geotechnical consultancies playing a pivotal role in managing mine site geotechnical hazards, while the industry is developing the next generation of geotechnical engineers.

Nov 29, 2022

By G. Asbjörnsson, E. Hulthén, P. Papadopoulou, C. M. Evertsson

Crushing plant managers need to assess, manage, and communicate the environmental impact induced by their crushing plant operations as a step towards the sustainable development of the company. However, performing reliable environmental impact calculations of crushing plants can be challenging when the availability of operational and emission data is low, and when the company’s environmental expertise is not adapted and connected to plant operations (or does not currently exist). To address these challenges, this paper proposes a practical approach where the lifecycle assessment methodology (LCA) is combined with process simulations in a web-based tool. To describe what functionality such a tool should have to be incorporated into a company’s workflow, the system that surrounds a crushing plant is analysed. Further, a case study with a three-stage crushing plant is introduced to showcase how the simulated power draw results produced with the beta version of the tool can be compared to measured sensor data from the crushing plant for one operational day. The results indicate that the simulation tool can provide an adequate estimation of the specific energy for the different material fractions and give an overview of the environmental impact of the process caused by electricity and explosives consumption. Plant managers and operators can use this tool to calculate the environmental impacts of their plant and simulate how different operational strategies influence them. Keywords: LCA, environmental impact, coarse comminution, crushing plant

Jan 1, 2020

By M. Poulton, J. A. Botín, C. Gatica

"The Chilean minerals industry faces a shortage of 27.000 new skilled professional by 2023. Enhancing the integration of women into the workforce is a possible solution. This study analyzes the state of women in the mining workforce over the past decade. Several key indicators are presented: percent in the workforce, salaries, career profiles, presence at management level, and participation in academia are studied. The study also analyzes the strategies used by government, industry, and universities to recruit and retain women for the minerals industry. The main results show that women represent 7.4% of the mining workforce in Chile and less than 1% of senior positions with a salary gap of approximately 30%. Systematically, women prefer professional programs in geology, chemistry, and environmental areas. The Chilean statistics are compared to data from the United States mining industry. INTRODUCTION The Chilean mining industry faces a significant shortage of professionals for the next decade which compromises competitiveness and productivity. The demand for human capital in mining depends on several factors. First, the age structure of workforce, which determines future retirement needs. Second, minerals market considerations, determining the amount and size of mining projects entering production in the coming years. Third, the evolution, positive or negative, of productivity, mainly driven by technology and innovation, and negatively affected by the declining ore grades. Finally, negative trends in lead times to production of mining projects, due to social opposition, changing regulations and other project contingencies, negatively affecting the demand for human capital. Regarding the supply of human capital, the fast increase in the technology level of the minerals industry and hence, the increase of technical qualification requirements of the human capital generates a rise in the time required for trade and university education of mining professionals, which may cause imbalances in the labor market. According to (Consejo Minero, 2014) human capital gap in Chile by 2023 will be around 27.000 workers for extractive, processing and maintenance jobs, which represents 14% of the current workforce (Figure 1)."

Jan 1, 2016

By J. Kretschmann

According to the model of product life cycles, the global coal mining industry is in the stagnation phase. The coal demand of the main consumer, China, has peaked in 2013 and is slowly declining. The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, the world´s largest, has excluded coal-related companies for ethical reasons. Important players like the UN or the EU have already begun to describe pathways towards de-carbonization. Increasing competition between coal mining companies and the mining regions can be expected worldwide if companies want to keep their positions on the global and national coal markets. Companies will focus on the best deposits. European countries like France, Spain or Germany are only forerunners of this development - their centuries of coal production have been finished. The concept of Sustainable Development (SD) is fundamentally based on a model of progress where ecological, economic and social dimensions should be developed equally and positively. But without the idea of competition, the concept of SD is incomplete. Questions arise, such as: How can SD be realized on stagnating or declining markets without guarantees for companies “to live forever”? How can SD be a corporate goal in a phase of decline? How can declining mining regions sustainably progress into a better future? The German hard coal mining industry´s lifecycle has ended in 2018 after 60 years of stagnation and decline. As of 2019, all hard coal consumed in Germany will be imported, especially from Colombia, Russia and South Africa. What has been done in Germany to handle the coal decline in a sustainable way and the lessons learned from this process is described in this paper. It may be useful for mining regions who will face a similar future sooner or later. INTRODUCTION Principally, mining natural resources is a finite business that reaches its limits once the deposits mined are depleted, the resources can no longer be mined in an economically profitable way, or substitutes are pushing the mined products out of the market. An example for the latter is the increasing replacement of coal with natural gas and renewables in power generation in the USA. (Kok 2017) According to the model of the product lifecycle, the global mining hard coal mining industry has reached the stagnation phase. (Kretschmann 2000) Although the coal mining business is more a multi-regional than a global business the trend is obvious. The peak of coal use is behind us, especially because the coal demand of China is slowly decreasing since 2013. (Shell 2018) China´s government has announced investing $360 billion in renewable energy by 2020 and scrap plans to build 85 coal-fired power plants. In March 2018, Chinese authorities reported that the country was already exceeding official targets for energy efficiency, carbon intensity, and the share of clean energy sources. China’s energy regulator, the National Energy Administration, rolled out new measures to reduce the country’s dependence on coal. (Kejun and Woetzel 2017) Coal consumption in the US is facing a 16 % decline in five years from 800 to 670 million short tons between 2015 and 2019 and - according to the EIA – will not rise again. (EIA 2018) The decline is attributed to complex market dynamics from low gas prices because of the “shale gas revolution” (Kok 2017, p. 3) to federal environmental regulation like the Clean Power Plan. The United Nations´ UNEP Finance Initiative is cooperating with the Portfolio Decarbonization Coalition of institutional investors to implement decarbonization strategies across their portfolio. Amongst these investors is the New York State Common Retirement Fund, the third largest public pension plan in the USA. (UNEP 2017) The European Union has already begun to de-scribe pathways to decarbonization. (European Union 2018) The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, the world´s largest, excluded coal-related companies for ethical reasons. The oil giants Total S.A. and Royal Dutch Shell, tradi

Jan 1, 2019

By C. H. Bucknam

Acid neutralization titrations were applied to the characterization of soil and overburden for the control and prediction of acid rock drainage in the coal fields of the eastern United States in the 1970?s (1). These became known as the Sobek methods as a result of the early United States Environmental Protection Agency publication and the methods have been modified (2) to be adapted to many applications in the metal mining sector (3,4,5,6,), and, as a result, there are a large number of acid neutralization potential methods being used that are referred to as Modified Sobek methods. Standardization of neutralization potential methods for metal bearing ores and related materials based on carbonate carbon, rather than titration, commenced in the 1990?s through the American Society of Methods and Materials (ASTM) Committee E01 on Analytical Chemistry for Metal Ores and Related Materials Subcommittee E01.02 on Ores, Concentrates and Related Metallurgical Materials (7). A subcommittee section, E01.02.05 on Environmental Methods, was organized to coordinate the method and material standardization efforts of ASTM and the Acid Drainage Technology Initiative Metal Mining Sector (ADTI-MMS) Prediction Committee (8), which took on the project of standardization of the acid neutralization potential acidity titration method (ANPA) to supplement the carbonate carbon method in E1915 (9) for application to samples which have metal carbonates (10), in particular, which result in overestimation of the neutralization potential using the carbonate carbon methods (11).

Jan 1, 2010

By R. T. Jones

The largest known platinum group metal (PGM) deposit in the world is the Bushveld Complex in South Africa, with the Great Dyke in Zimbabwe also being one of the biggest. It is therefore not surprising that the majority (just over 5 million troy ounces or 156 metric tons per annum) of the world's platinum is produced in Southern Africa. Primary smelting of ore concentrates is carried out in that region by five companies, namely Anglo Platinum, Impala Platinum, Lonmin Platinum, Northam Platinum, all of South Africa, and Makwiro Platinum in Zimbabwe. The only other primary smelter of platinum group metals is Stillwater Mining of Montana, USA, although very significant quantities of PGMs are produced as co-products by Norilsk Nickel of Russia. Smaller (but still significant) quantities of PGMs are produced by Falconbridge and Inco of Canada, also as co-products from nickel sulphide smelting. There are many similarities between PGM smelting and nickel sulphide smelting, and the range of technologies in use includes six-in-line rectangular electric furnaces, three-electrode circular AC furnaces, Peirce-Smith converters, and Anglo's ACP (based on Ausmelt technology). PGMs are also recovered from residue materials using DC arc furnace technology.

Jan 1, 2005

By J. Swanepoel, J. H. van Laar, J. C. Vosloo, W. A. Pelser

Deep-level underground mining costs in South Africa are continuously rising due to the increased depth at which gold is being mined, resulting in a rise in virgin rock temperature and an increase in cooling requirements. Therefore, mines must evaluate various ventilation and cooling optimisation projects required to be implemented throughout their life of mine (LOM). This study develops a method to identify and prioritise large capital expenditure (CAPEX) underground environmental improvement projects, to improve thermal comfort underground. The solution presents a ‘multi-criteria decision-making’ (MCDM) process, incorporating the ‘analytic hierarchy process’ (AHP) and the ‘technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution’ (TOPSIS) into the method to provide for scientific decision-making. These projects are evaluated based on four criteria, namely project risk, the impact on the underground thermal comfort, cost, and implementation time. This study’s solution uses ventilation simulations to determine the impact of the projects on the underground environment. The identification and evaluation of an environmental improvement project to best suit the current economic climate, while improving underground conditions and decreasing the safety risk is an essential aspect of the solution developed in this study. The method was implemented on a mechanised deep-level underground mine and showed that surface refrigeration is the most suitable alternative, which was implemented at the case study mine as validation of the developed solution. The study proves that the MCDM method is an adequate solution to incorporate subjective criteria into the decision-making process, resulting in a scientific and structured approach to making significant and complex decisions.

Feb 17, 2023

By T. Bauerle, G. Poplin, Z. Dugdale

"The issue of mine worker fatigue is as complex as it is understudied. Generally, worker fatigue lies somewhere on a continuum between psychology and physiology, which makes the measurement and management of it difficult with no easy solutions for operators or workers. Answers to even basic questions remain elusive—such as what is fatigue, how is it measured, and how can organizational resources reduce fatigue—and answers seem to present no single, clear path to action for the health and safety of the worker. This manuscript supplements the growing body of interest in the problems of fatigue in the mining industry by reviewing some of what is known about worker fatigue in general and in the mining industry in particular. The material covered here includes basic topics of the hows and whys of worker fatigue; an overview of fatigue models, findings, and evidence-based solutions with a focus on mining; and potential future directions aimed at mitigating miner fatigue. INTRODUCTION “It is recommended that the whole fatigue test problem be stated in a form the nature of which may be indicated by the following suggestions: that the term fatigue be absolutely banished from precise scientific discussion, and consequently that attempts to obtain a fatigue test be abandoned [emphasis added].” – Bernard Muscio, Pioneer Australian Philosopher and Industrial Psychologist, in a 1921 Report to the Cambridge Industrial Fatigue Research Board Fatigue presents several challenges for the mining industry. Depending on the specific occupation, daily work, or operational setup on any given mine site, mining jobs can have a fair amount of labor-intensive tasks mixed with monotonous and repetative duties. Combined with the long working hours and shift-work schedules of mining work, the prevalence of fatigue in mine workers may seem rather unsurprising. On the one hand, mining is certainly not alone in facing the challenge of addressing worker fatigue. Indeed, many of the characteristics above mirror the similarities of fatigue in other industries, such as health care, aviation, and security. To the extent that fatigue in mining acts like fatigue in any other industry, then any fatigue management applications, trainings, or interventions in existence can be borrowed from other industries and applied to mining in a “cookie-cutter” approach. On the other hand, some have argued that mining in particular is especially susceptible to increases in the prevalence of fatigue beyond the characteristics listed above due to the multifaceted combination of factors in mining environments associated with fatigue: dim lighting; limited visual acuity; hot temperatures; loud noise; highly repetitive, sustained, and monotonous tasks; shiftwork; long work hours; early morning awakenings; and generally poor sleep habits (Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, 2012; Legault, 2011). Legault (2011) in particular argues that it is the combination of these factors simultaneously that can make mineworkers particularly susceptible to sleep deprivation and fatigue in comparison to other industries where these factors are often not present alltogether. If fatigue looks and acts different in mining, as others have argued, more research is needed to determine if, how, and why worker fatigue might need to be managed differently in mining."

Jan 1, 2018

Jan 1, 2005

1. Proposals were submitted to the Western Administrative Center of the US Bureau of Mines, Denver, Colorado on 30th December, 1974 and Contract No J 0255003 was awarded, the effective date being 8th May, 1975. Dames and Moore, Denver, are associated with PD-NCB Consultants in regard to environ-mental problems, surface mining practice and legislation in US. BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY 2. Under the threefold pressures of -increased domestic fossil fuel demand -increased value of domestic energy resources -increased demand for environmental protection and safety

Jan 1, 1976

By M Erskine, R Mills

This paper approaches tailings dam risk management from the perspective of how other high hazard industries approach the management of their catastrophic event risks, with the aim to provide recommendations from these learnings for the industry to adopt.

Jul 1, 2021

By Christopher Mark

Colombia is 11th largest coal producing nation in the world, and the world?s fifth largest coal exporter. But while most of Colombia?s coal is mined at large modern surface mines located near the Caribbean coast, there are also underground mines that produce high-grade metallurgical coal. These mines employ traditional hand-loading techniques in a variety of geologic environments, and they have some of the highest accident rates of any Colombian industry. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has been collaborating with POSITIVA, the primary provider of worker?s compensation insurance to the Colombian underground coal industry, to reduce the economic and social cost of rock falls in these mines. The specific goals of the collaboration are to 1) document practices and conditions in Colombian underground coal mines, 2) identify relevant international best practices, and 3) provide recommendations for developing a national campaign to reduce fatalities and injuries associated with roof falls. NIOSH conducted a survey of seven underground coal mines in four separate coalfields. Five of the mines were characterized by steep dips and weak roof and floor rock. The coal was loaded by hand at all seven mines, though two employed partially mechanized longwall techniques. Wood posts were by far the most common ground support. Roof bolts were not observed in use at any of the mines, and they are unlikely to replace timbers any time soon. While long-term entries generally appeared to be adequately supported, the survey found that less attention was paid to the temporary support that is installed right after the coal is removed. This temporary support is critical for protecting the workers from rock falls, however, because with hand-loading mining methods most of the activity takes place between the permanent supports and face. The study concluded that improving the temporary support in the working faces would be the most effective way to reduce the number of rock fall injuries. The key principle should be that every worker is protected by planned roof support at all times. Ground Support Management Plans, consisting of specific rules about when, where, and what roof support is to be installed, should be the focus of the campaign. Each Plan should be tailored to a specific mine based on the geologic conditions and mining methods in use. The Plan provides miners with clear, simple rules that can be easily understood, while management can easily check to see if it is being followed. Ground Support Management Plans will also provide the campaign with a concrete focus for the necessary cultural change.

Jan 1, 2014

By B. F. Giyani, A. Salama

Tanzania is a country with a variety of mineral deposits, including metallic minerals, gemstones, mineral fuels, industrial minerals, and critical minerals. This study provides an overview of mining legal framework, mineral occurrence and production, challenges in the mining sector, and government initiatives. The aim is to demonstrate the development of the mining sector in Tanzania and explore the potential for further mining investment in the country. The mineral production data showed generally increasing trends over the years, for example, gold production increased from 42 tonnes in 2018/2019 to around 50 tonnes in 2023/2024. Despite the growth, the mining sector encounters several challenges, including a lack of detailed geological information on mineral deposits, inadequate infrastructures in some remote mining sites, the existence of informal artisanal miners, and mineral smuggling. The Tanzanian government has introduced several initiatives to address these challenges, including carrying out the highresolution airborne geophysical survey to increase geological information in some areas, the formalisation of artisanal and small-scale mining, establishing mineral markets to combat mineral smuggling, and encouraging mineral value addition within the country.

Oct 24, 2025

By D. Botha, J. F. Cronjé

"SynopsisAlthough women all over the world have been involved in mining activities for centuries, mining has always been considered a very masculine industry due to its heavily male-dominated workforce as well as the physicality of mining work. The mining industry has not been an obvious career choice and preferred place of employment for women; women were mainly employed in administrative and advisory positions. Until 1994, women were legislatively prohibited from being employed in underground operations in South Africa, but the Mines Health and Safety Act, No. 29 of 1996, removed these restrictions. In addition, new mining legislation (the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act, No. 28 of 2002) and the accompanying Mining Charter make specific provisions for the inclusion of women in core mining activities and require 10% of core positions to be filled by women.This article voices perceptions of the physical ability of women employed in core mining positions. Findings are drawn from empirical work undertaken at platinum, phosphate, and copper mines. Quantitative and qualitative research paradigms are used. It is evident that women find it extremely difficult to perform mine work that requires physical strength and stamina. Practical recommendations, informed by the literature review and empirical findings, are made with the objective of contributing to the sustainable deployment of women in the mining industry.IntroductionFor many years, mining has been considered the foundation of the South African economy. Although the mining industry in South Africa is currently under considerable pressure and experiences various challenges, including escalating operational costs, electricity tariff increases, safety-related issues and associated production stoppages, poor productivity, labour unrest, and reduced demand both globally and domestically, it remains a key contributor to the national economy and development of the country (IDC, 2013, p. 9).Until 1994, women were legislatively prohibited from meaningful participation in the mining industry and were denied access to skills and jobs, self-employment, and entrepreneurship. The newly elected democratic government in 1994 initiated substantial socio-political and economic transformation in South Africa. Nearly every sector in the country was transformed and re-shaped, primarily through sector-specific legislation, but also through negotiations between government, industry, and labour unions to create and refine the so-called sector charters, which included the Mining Charter. The vision of the new regime, the African National Congress (ANC), was to ‘transfer power to the people and transform society into a non-racial, non-sexist, united, democratic one, and change the manner in which wealth is shared, in order to benefit all the people’ (ANC, 2007)."

Jan 1, 2015

"The Mine Haul Road Optimization Alliance is an Australian industry-academia collaboration which has been developed to support mine haul road operators by fully integrating mine road design research solutions with industry end-user service providers to design, assess, implement and monitor the various equipment, materials and road management strategies required to optimize the safety, environmental and economic performance of a haul road. Initially, a broad overview of the university-industry collaborative landscape is presented, following which the current situation in the Australian mining sector is reviewed both nationally, and on a country-wide basis, internationally. This insight places realization of a collaboration between Curtin University Western Australian School of Mines Mining Engineering and Metallurgical Engineering (WASM ME2) and the Haul Road Optimization Alliance (HROA) industry members into context of opportunity. Following an overview of the HROA collaborative structure, aims and objectives, it is shown how academia and industry can collaborate to deliver a more robust solution to mine haul road design, performance or management needs, especially where integrated solutions are needed. Critically in this approach, implementation and monitoring data provided by industry and service-providers alike forms the foundation on which to develop research knowledge and innovation that is more responsive to the end-user requirements, typically represented by ‘early goals’ and implementable solutions. The paper concludes with examples of how the alliance collaborations work in practice to deliver improved mine haul road designs and optimized operational performance, together with the mechanisms used to ensure industry needs are met through focused, end-user driven research and integrated solutions implementation."

Jan 1, 2016

By LUKAS FAHLE, Andrew J. Petruska, JURGEN F. BRUNE, Gabriel Walton, Elizabeth A. Holley

Adverse ground behavior events, such as convergence and ground falls, pose critical risks to underground mine safety and productivity. Today, monitoring of such failures is primarily conducted using legacy techniques with low spatial and temporal resolution while exposing workers to hazardous environments. This study assesses the potential of novel simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM)-based light detection and ranging (Lidar) data quality for rapid, digital, and eventually autonomous mine-wide underground geotechnical monitoring. We derive a comprehensive suite of quality metrics based on tests in two underground mines for two state-of-the-art mobile laser scanning (MLS) systems. Our results provide evidence that SLAM-based MLS provides data of the quality required to detect geotechnically relevant changes while being significantly more efficient for large mine layouts when compared to traditional static systems. Additionally, we show that SLAM-specific processing can achieve an order of magnitude better relative accuracy relevant for change detection than quality metrics derived from traditionally deployed tests would suggest while reducing SLAM drift error by up to 90%. In collaboration with an operating block cave mine, we confirm these capabilities in field tests on a mine-wide scale and, for the first time, demonstrate methods of rockfall detection using MLS data. While more work is required to investigate optimal collection, processing, and utilization of MLS data, we demonstrate its potential to become an effective and widely applicable data source for rapid, accurate, and comprehensive geotechnical inspections.

Aug 16, 2022

By Christopher Mark

This proceedings volume contains papers presented at technology transfer seminars sponsored by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) on New Technology for Ground Control in Retreat Mining. The seminars were conducted at five locations: Uniontown, PA (March 26, 1997), Norton, VA (April 8, 1997), Pikeville, KY (April 10, 1997), Charleston, WV (April 17, 1997), and Evansville, IN (April 22, 1997). The papers presented here describe several new, highly practical technologies developed by the NIOSH Pittsburgh and Spokane Research Centers3 to improve safety during pillar retreat operations. Two central issues are addressed: pillar design and mobile roof supports (MRS's). Proper pillar sizing is essential for safe pillar extraction. The Analysis of Retreat Mining Pillar Stability (ARMPS) program and its large data base of actual mining case histories are presented. LAMODEL, a second computer program, can be used for analysis of multiple-seam and other complex mining situations. Other papers address pillar design to avoid massive pillar collapses and the proper role of coal strength testing. MRS's have greatly improved safety where they are used for pillar line support. We studied the application of MRS's at 20 mines throughout the Eastern United States. Conclusions regarding the most effective section layouts, cut sequences, and support placements are reported. Field and laboratory tests of MRS's are also described.

Jan 1, 1997