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Queensland?s underground coal industry, as a whole, has arguably the best gas monitoring systems in the world. Each mine utilizes real time, tube bundle and onsite ultra fast gas chromatograph systems. Queensland?s mining legislation has specific requirements for mine gas monitoring but there is no requirement for all three techniques. Industry has however identified the need for all three and adopted this as a standard, resulting in over sixty thousand gas results collected each day. Automated monitoring systems are programmed to alarm for gas concentrations, gas ratios and explosibility. These alarms are then used to initiate predetermined actions to take control of the situation and prevent the compromise of safety to workers and the loss of resources. Dedicated software packages have been developed to assist in the interpretation of the large volume of results generated. The real time systems are used for real time warning, essential for incidents such as belt fires. Tube bundle systems suit long term trending used for identification of the onset of spontaneous combustion or for the determination of explosibility during the routine sealing of worked areas. Gas chromatograph analysis is used to provide a complete analysis and provides results for hydrogen and ethylene, key gases used in the assessment of spontaneous combustion. It is also crucial during significant spontaneous combustion events and coal fires to use gas chromatography to determine the explosibility status of the underground atmosphere otherwise the severity of the situation is likely to be under estimated. This paper outlines the need for all three techniques for assessing the underground status and outlines advantages and disadvantages of each.

Jan 1, 2009

By H. Verakis, M. J. Sapko

The Pittsburgh Research Laboratory (PRL)1 of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in collaboration with the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) Technical Support Center has devised a prototype hand-held instrument which can provide a direct assessment of the potential explosibility of a coal and rock dust mixture. Current Federal regulations require that rock dust be applied in all underground areas of a coal mine to mitigate the propagation of a coal dust explosion. To determine compliance with the Federal regulation, mine inspectors collect dust samples from sections of underground coal mines for an MSHA laboratory analysis of incombustible content. However, the laboratory analysis may not be completed for more than a week or two, during which time the mine area from which samples are taken may be inadequately protected. The operation of the Coal Dust Explosibility Meter (CDEM) is based on the difference in optical reflectance between light rock dust and dark coal dust. For a given coal volatility, the optical reflectance of such mixtures is relatively constant at the limit of explosibility, independent of the coal dust particle size. The CDEM is not intended to replace the current MSHA laboratory analysis of coal mine dust samples for incombustible content, but to serve as a supplemental device for enhancing mine safety through improved rock dusting practices.

Jan 1, 2006

By Jaidev Sankar

The dream of constructing the new Second Avenue Subway in New York has finally become reality as the first construction contract package is currently underway. This first contract requires the construction a TBM Launch Box in the middle of Second Avenue from which a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) will bore two tunnels south to 63rd Street. This paper will discuss the design of this contract and how construction has progressed including preparation, site constraints, utility construction and com-munity impacts while highlighting the challenges of working in an urban environment. It will also discuss moving forward on this major project outlining the remaining contract packages including their scope and status.

By K. Nielsen

The paper presents a brief overview of the mineral industry in Norway, followed by a description of the mineral policy and relevant legislation including the roles of the Norwegian Directorate of Mining and Geological Survey of Norway in this context. The discussion then proceeds to describe the land use planning framework on a national, regional and local level, the interaction between land use planning and the Directorate of Mining and the Geological Survey respectively, and how this impacts on the mineral industry and the exploitation of mineral resources. Some recent Norwegian examples of land use planning conflicts are also presented.

Jan 1, 2005

By D. Bour, C. Nyikos, R. Curtice

Fire in a coal mine can be disastrous on many levels. In most cases, when a fire is detected, mining operations cease and all personnel are evacuated. Underground coal-mine fires are difficult to extinguish, can burn for a long time, and often result in an extended period of lost production. In a worst-case scenario, the mine is permanently sealed and abandoned, resulting in lost jobs, lost natural resources, and possible devastation of the local economy. In some cases, seals placed within the mine to isolate the fire could eliminate the need for sealing the entire mine and the subsequent extended delay in returning the mine to full operation. Previous attempts to place remote seals to extinguish mine fires in active mines have been largely unsuccessful. The West Elk mine experienced an underground fire in early 2000. The fire could not be accessed and extinguished from the active mine workings. A method of constructing seals remotely by drilling boreholes into the affected area was needed to help isolate and extinguish the fire. This paper describes the process by which remote seals were constructed that successfully isolated the fire and provided a means of extinguishing the fire by flooding the area with water. The period of lost production in the West Elk mine was considerably shorter than is typical in similar situations.

Jan 1, 2002

By Michael Stanwood

Project feasibility no longer involves just technical and economic viability-today's feasibility study must include environmental, regulatory, and political considerations as well. While the US now appears at least somewhat committed to developing synthetic fuels, including oil shale, it is the environmental issues, rules, regulations, and guidelines that will play the major role in determining the timing, magnitude, and overall scope of synfuel development in the coming years. The key environmental obstacle affecting oil shale development is uncertainty. Although oil shale may be the most environmentally studied "new" technology in the world, little is known with much degree of certainty about potential environmental consequences of one full-scale commercial facility, or the effects of a massive development effort in a relatively pristine and sparsely populated area. Other primary environmental uncertainties include: • Environmental compliance costs and their effects on investment decisions; • The reliability and acceptability of anticipated pollution control technologies; and • The confusing, time-consuming environmental regulatory framework, which requires more than 100 permits, clearances, and reviews before development occurs. This discussion will focus on the latter uncertainty, and will describe he current status of potential constraints to oil shale industry development in five areas: water availability; water quality degradation; air quality degradation; reclamation and spent shale disposal; and community impacts.

Jan 1, 1981

Because of complex geological environments, a number of coal reserves occur in inclined or dipping coal seams in certain parts of the world. Longwall top coal caving using split-level a singleentry panel system (SSPS) has been widely used for extracting such coal seams with large thicknesses (greater than 6 m) in China because SSPS can reduce or mitigate problems of coal outbursts, gate road deformations, overturning of shields, downhill sliding of shearer and armored face conveyor (AFC), and so forth, during mining of inclined coal seams. Depth of yield is the range of yield coal from the rib of the pillar to the boundaries where yield ends. It plays a significant role in maintaining the gate pillar stability. This paper presents a study on the stability of an unconventional water-obstruction gate pillar (UWGP) formed by SSPS to prevent water inrush in mining of an inclined thick coal seam in a coal mine in China. As the shape of this pillar is non-cuboidal, nonparallelepiped, a conventional empirical or analytical method is not applicable for studying its stability.

Jan 7, 2020

By L. C. Stone, J. C. Parr, T. N. Anderson, D. Metcalf

An increase in the importance of low-grade materials as sources of gold and silver has led to the need for improved analytical methods on leach solutions, ores and various effluents, residues, and in-process streams. These are required by plant operators as guides to process control and for accounting pldrposes. Atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS) and AAS preceded by pre- concentration have been applied successfully to resolve many such problems. However, AAS is no panacea and imprecision or loss of accuracy can result if adequate precautions are not taken to prevent losses and eliminate interferences. The recent methods are discussed together with methods for overcoming difficulties. Comparisons with more classical analytical techniques are also given.

Jan 1, 1981

By R. Pothina

The objective of this research was to develop a mathematical model for gyratory crushers to help in the prediction of energy consumption and to analyze dominant parameters that affect this energy consumption. The development of a gyratory crusher model was achieved in the following three main stages: mathematical representation and coding of the crushing process; building an amperage constant model to derive an energy-scaling formula; and modifying the amperage constant model to represent a full-scale model. Due to their significant influence on feed-size distributions, two blasting parameters, i.e., burden and spacing, were considered. The crusher parameters that affect energy consumption were also identified. A case study of an operating dolomite mine was performed. The results indicated that by changing the burden, spacing and crusher closed-side setting, the overall (blasting and crushing) costs could be reduced by 4.7% to 7.9% annually. It can also be concluded that burden and spacing values have a linear positive relationship with the crusher energy consumption, while closed-side setting values have an inverse linear relationship with the energy consumption.

Jan 1, 2007

By H. Lawson

The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) issued Program Information Bulletin P09-03in April of 2008, providing formal guidance on using programs that model the redistribution of stress during underground mining of coal. A key part of this guidance is visual observation and mapping of ground conditions. If a correlation between ground conditions and model output can be established, the model is considered to be verified, and can be used to guide mine design in similar ground. A simple scale is recommended for ranking observed roof, rib, and floor conditions. This paper discusses optimization and implementation of a ground condition rating scheme in the gateroads of a deep underground longwall coal mine. Roughly 80% of each gateroad length deteriorated in a fairly uniform manner. However, this manner varied between gateroads, as did pillar size. The implementation of a ground condition mapping program, similar to that recommended in PIB 09-03, was successful in characterizing the ground response to mining in gateroads of a longwall coal mine.

Jan 1, 2012

By Steve Kral

Amax Coal Industries Inc.'s Delta Mine is a medium-sized. high-sulfur coal producer that has lived up to the challenges posed by nearly six decades of a highly competitive domestic coal market. The mine now faces one of its biggest challenges - the same one staring at the dozens of other high-sulfur producers in the Midwest - the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. The 59-year-old mine, located in the coal fields of southern Illinois, has remained one of the state's oldest continuously operating mines by rolling with the ups and downs of the coal market and by incorporating new technologies and innovative productivity improvements into its operation.

Jan 1, 1993

By Faruk Oksuz, Cary Hirner, William A. Rochford

Grouting is a frequently utilized remedy in the planning and implementation of ground improvement and tunnel rehabilitation practice. The state-of-art grouting application used for Chicago’s McCook Reservoir project offers a unique alternative to the tunneling industry for pre-excavation grouting as well as tunnel rehabilitation, rescue and post-excavation ground improvements. The McCook Reservoir project included a computerized grouting control and data collection system for a precise and highly effective groundwater cutoff in fractured dolomites. By using balanced and stabilized grout mixes, the effective permeability of the rock mass was reduced over two orders of magnitude to less than 0.1 Lugeon by installing a double line grout curtain. The stable grout mix designs allowed high pressure and effective grouting at depths up to 125 m (410 ft).

Jan 1, 2005

By Tony Peglas, Harry Asche, Eva Wood

The North-South Bypass Tunnel is a new $AUD1.5 billion underground traffic route in Queensland, Australia, a project of the Brisbane City Council. The tunnel is approximately 5.2 km long, bypassing the Central Business District, and is adjacent to and below major buildings and services. Road tunnel alignment issues include the complex southern connections to the Pacific Motorway and the design of ramps to the east and the north. A review of road tunnel alignment criteria and accident data for Australian and overseas tunnels, similar to the proposed NSBT, are discussed. The key findings of this review lead to a rationalization of the traditional tunnel cross sectional width allocation. The road alignment design elements adopted for the NSBT are also discussed. The NSBT route crosses beneath the Brisbane River. Geotechnical investigations and hydrogeological modelling are described. The crossing has a fundamental impact on the alignment and the tunnelling methods. The tunnelling methods to be adopted and the tunnel support are described. The geotechnical investigations and hydrogeology analysis culminate in the selection of a single shielded TBM for the reference design. These outcomes are related to complex issues of hydrogeology and contaminated groundwater. These are discussed in detail.

Jan 1, 2005

By James A. Madonna

Information gathered while studying geological parameters that govern fine gold deposition in the a1luvial environment can be applied to the technological development and selection of fine gold recovery systems. It is recognized that substantial gold losses occur in the minus 1.5 mn (minus 12 mesh) fraction using conventional sluicing systems. Within the past two decades much attention has been given the design and efficiency of these thick bed concentrators. Studies and comparisons drew information from several foreign and domestic placer operations. These studies concentrated on: 1) the physical and chemical properties of alluvial gold 2) the parameters that control fine gold deposition 3) the geometrical form, components and general working structure of conventional sluicing systems 4) the physical properties which contribute to the overall efficiency of a sluice system 5) the comparison of three major styles of conventional sluicing systems. A dramatic improvement regarding fine gold recovery and water quality was observed when using modern multiple-channel sluicing systems in place of conventional single-channel sluicing systems.

Jan 1, 1988

By Michael B. Gilbert

The Woodbury L-73 Tunnel involved the design and construction of a 96-inch tunnel driven through 8,080 lf of very difficult ground conditions. Anticipated ground and groundwater conditions consisted of potentially flowing silty sand with cobbles and boulders, mixed face of sand and sandstone and full face of the St. Peter Sandstone. Actual conditions were similar, although the quantities did change from bid quantities. This paper presents the approach used for development of the GBR regarding risk management. The means of arriving at a fair compensation for variances from the baseline values to address the actual encountered tunneling behavior of the soil, boulder count and its effect on production rates are presented.

Jan 1, 2008

By Christopher Snee

??care has to be taken that the design is driven by sound geological reasoning and rigorous engineering logic rather than by the very attractive images that appear on the computer screen.??Hoek 1999 Design of a cavern is inextricably linked to the engineering geology of the site. The importance of sound geological reasoning will be illustrated by transportation projects in New York City where there are proposals for at least 11 caverns. These caverns have been the subject of advanced exploration techniques and geological interpretation but even so the raw data falls short of the sophistication of modern numerical methods. This paper will give geological explanations for the engineering characteristics of the rock in New York City which will provide guidance for practitioners when approaching cavern design in New York and elsewhere.

Jan 1, 2008

By David Baughman, Steven Axen, Ray V. Huff, Donald H. Davidson

Introduction In situ leaching (ISL) is an alternative method of mining uranium from deposits that are low-grade, deeplying, and water-saturated. ISL recovers uranium by transporting fluids through rock rather than by moving rock, a concept the Chinese developed over 2000 years ago for water production. This technique eventually evolved into production systems for oil, gas, sulfur, and salt. More recently, in situ methods have been developed to produce shale oil, gasified coal, geothermal energy, uranium, and copper. ISL uranium operations began in the early 1960s with Sabine Production Co. in south Texas. About the same time, Utah Construction and Mining Co. (Anderson and Richie, 1968) started similar operations in Wyoming's Shirley Basin. During the 1970s, six commercial operations were started in south Texas, (USBM, 1978) and a number of pilot operations were in various stages of development in Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico. This paper reviews some of the technical and economic aspects of the ISL process and briefly discusses key subsurface engineering functions as¬sociated with well pattern design and operation. While flow characteristics of a deposit are of prime importance, the following information is also needed: Depth, ore grade, total contained metal, ore thickness, flow conductivity (permeability), void space in rock (porosity), mineral type and distribution, natural groundwater flow, and structural features. Solvent selection, which is important to the economic success of the operation, takes these factors into account: Composition, rate of metal solubilization, interaction with gangue minerals, impact on rock permeability, impact on materials of construction, trace metal solubilization, cost, availability, and handling problems. Overview of ISL An ISL operation consists of these functions (Fig. 1): 1. Chemicals to dissolve and maintain uranium in solution are prepared at the surface extraction facility. 2. A set of injection wells forces the solvent into rock pores of fractures using pressure in excess of the deposit's hydrostatic pressure. 3. Solvent travels through the rock and reacts with uranium minerals to dissolve them. The solvent usually consists of an oxidant and a complexing agent in an acidic or alkaline medium. 4. A set of production wells creates a low-pressure sump where metal-enriched solution is collected for transport to the surface. 5. The enriched solution is processed to recover uranium and to separate the leaching solution for recycling through the system. The economic performance of an in situ operation may be estimated by integrating these related factors: (1) the flow rate of solution processed through the system, (2) rates of fluid injection and production from wells, (3) the rate of mineral solubilization in the liquid phase, and (4) the volume of rock swept by the fluid. As these factors reveal, ISL involves the technical disciplines of petroleum engineering, ore deposit geology, and hydrometallurgical processing. Wellfield Design Just as mineral engineers use drillhole information to plan a conventional mine, in situ engineers use similar information to design a well field. A thorough knowledge of deposit geology and reservoir properties is required. Early application of pressure transient testing, such as

Jan 2, 1980

By James J. Gusek

Passive-treatment systems that mitigate acid-rock drainage (ARD) from coal mines have operating since the mid-1980s. Large systems at metal mines are being contemplated. A 95L/sec (1500-gpm) capacity system is planned this year at an underground lead mine in Missouri. Mine, process and environmental managers need to understand how and why passive-treatment systems work. They must understand what operational limitations to expect, as well as the economics of construction and operation compared to the alternatives, like lime precipitation. Wetlands have been recognized as nature's method of improving water quality. Contaminant reductions can occur through the precipitation of metal hydroxides, sulfides and carbonates and pH adjustments. Local conditions, oxidation state and water and soil chemistries dictate whether these natural reactions will occur under oxidizing (aerobic) or reducing (anaerobic) conditions.

Jan 1, 1995

By M. Fan

Froth flotation is the most widely-used method of separating fine coal, especially coal with coking properties. However, froth flotation is not efficient for treating ultrafine coal and coarse coal particles. Our previous fundamental test results demonstrated that cavitation-generated nanobubbles can significantly improve coal and phosphate flotation performance over a wide particle size range. In this study, the effect of nanobubble on the flotation performances of different particle size fractions of coal was investigated using a bank of 10-liter flotation cells, a specially designed 50 mm inside diameter column and a 152 mm inside diameter column. It was found that nanobubbles that were either directly formed on or subsequently attached to the surface of coal particles during coal froth flotation process improved flotation efficiency. The use of nanobubble in a bank of mechanical cells flotation and column flotation significantly increased the flotation recovery at a given product grade. Nanobubbles increased the flotation rate constants of different coal particle sizes. The presence of nanobubbles in flotation slurry could extend the lower and the upper particle size limits for effective coal flotation.

Jan 1, 2012

By F. M. Jenkins

Improvements in miners? safety and health, as reflected by injury and illness statistics, have reached a plateau and even been reversed. Research into miners' OSH is a necessary adjunct to regulatory enforcement. Under the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) mining experts have come together to draft a national agenda for this research. The Mining Sector Council, one of ten NORA Sector Councils, has produced a draft national research agenda to guide all mining research entities: academia, government, and industry. The agenda has seven major objectives, each of which has a sequence of sub-objectives: Reduce the likelihood of disasters in mines; Improve mine disaster response; Improve the health of miners; Improve atmospheric control (ventilation) in mines; Improve health and safety through behavioral research; Improve mine design, systems operations, and management performance to enhance mine health and safety; Apply ergonomics, human factor engineering, to increase health and safety. Long-term maintenance of the Mining Research Agenda requires input from the public, both here and abroad, monitoring of the impact of research results using OSH data, and partners who will translate the research to practice.

Jan 1, 2012