Dust Control – Soil Stabilization – Erosion Control

Archive for the ‘mining’ Category

FANQUIP’S Mining Division provides mines and quarries with total conceptual planning and custom design, heavy duty products, installation of ventilation and air control systems.

Company specialists can advise on strategic air control at the development stage or integrate into plants which have been in operation for some length of time. Fanquip’s Mining Division focuses on temperature control, ventilation, management of confined space environments, dust control  both in suppression and collection, and management of toxic gases and emissions.

RAIPUR: India’s largest private sector steel maker, Tata Steel, will invest Rs.2,000 crore on environment conservation at its Rs.19,500-crore plant coming up in Chhattisgarh’s militancy-hit Bastar district.

"Tata Steel officials made a presentation at a public hearing on Monday for environmental clearance and committed to invest Rs.2,000 crore on environment conservation," Bastar district collector M.S. Paraste, who presided over the meeting, told IANS.

Describing the hearing as "quite successful", Paraste said 2,044 hectares of land would be handed over to Tata Steel, probably by December.

District authorities have so far acquired about 80 percent of land across 10 villages in Lohandiguda block, some 340 km south of state capital Raipur, for the integrated plant that will produce 5.5 million tonnes of steel annually.

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Haul Road Dust Control  is a fundamental element to the efficient venture of a mining company. Not only with regards to security but as well to the employees wellbeing.  Surface mining operations use huge off-road haul trucks extensively to move material at mining properties. Historical research, using the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) emissions factors for unpaved haul roads, has revealed that haul trucks produce the bulk of dust emissions from surface mining sites, accounting for approximately 78%-97% of total dust emissions. This is even greater with a low value haul road dust control  program.

Observations of dust emissions from haul trucks prove that if the dust emissions are unrestrained, they can be a safety danger by means of impairing the operator’s visibility. This increases the likelihood for haul truck accidents. Yet, the greatest long-term health risk of dust generated from hauling operations is due to breathing of the respirable dust [median diameter <4 micrometers (μm)] and thoracic dust, which is equivalent to the EPA’s definition of PM10 [particulate matter with a median diameter <10 μm]. Exposure to respirable dust has always been considered a health hazard on surface mining operations, particularly if silica dust is there.

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But Al Gore Lied and the data was manipulated…

Climate change represents a greater threat to mining operations than many realize, and most fail to plan or implement any preventative measures, according to Jason Prno, president of the North Bay-based Trailhead Consulting.

"Most mining infrastructure is not designed for a changing climate," says Prno, who researched the threat the weather could pose to the industry in a study for the David Suzuki Foundation.

"The subject often takes a backseat to economic issues, legislation and as such, there tends to be little adaptive planning in place."
Speaking to attendees of the 2009 Sudbury Restoration Workshop held at Laurentian University on Oct. 28, Prno outlined how the expected temperature increases have already begun to impact the mining industry.

As an example, he points to the Rio Tinto/Harry Winson Diavik diamond mine in the Northwest Territories, where 2006 stood as the warmest winter on record. The elevated temperatures reduced the availability of the ice road from roughly 70 days to 42, forcing officials to fly in much more freight than usual. This resulted in additional costs of $11.3 million just for fuel transportation, presenting "a real wake-up call" for the industry, says Prno.
Similarly costly scenarios are being projected for other parts of the country.

Ontario can expect to see elevated temperatures that could lead to drier summers, affecting a mine’s water intake, and potentially exposing raw tailings to the elements. The scarcity of water could also affect activities such as dust suppression  and the composition of mine drainage.

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New rules to reduce miners’ exposure to coal dust will be proposed within a couple of weeks, according to the nation’s top mine supervisory body.

Joseph Main, the new head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Organization, said he has long thought there is “a need to lower the intensity of unhealthy dust in mines,” and he indicated that a new, wearable dust control monitor that can continuously measure miners’ contact to coal dust may be part of the new rules.

“A mechanism has been built, it has been tested, I’ve worn it myself. It works,” Main told the media in a meeting call Friday. “It’s a tool we can now utilize to help fix this dilemma of unhealthy coal mine dust that has plagued miners.”

That dust can cause deadly black lung, which has killed more than 21,000 miners from Kentucky and other coal-producing states since the mid-1980s.

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The design of the latest Cat mining trucks exceeds its predecessors and offers the ultimate in productivity, durability and low cost of operation even in the most challenging mining operations.

97F Cat® Mining Truck
The 797F, with 4,000-horsepower (2983 kW) and rated payload capacities to 363 tonnes, combines the strengths of its predecessors with a new engine, redesigned operator station and custom body systems to deliver even lower costs per tonne – with less environmental impact.

The 797F also offers easier maintenance and enhanced safety provisions. Ground level service points ease access, and 1,000-hour hydraulic filter service intervals reduce required maintenance. Safety enhancements include wider walkways, a rear access ladder and a bumper-mounted, three-way, lock-out tag-out box.

The 20-cylinder, 4,000-gross-horsepower Cat C175-20 ACERT engine has a single engine block and is the heart of the new truck. The engine has accumulated more than a quarter-million hours of field testing in mining trucks and power-generating systems. The C175 displaces 5.3 litres (323 in³) per cylinder – for a total displacement of 106 litres (6,458 in³). The 797F develops 450 horsepower more than its predecessor, the 797B, which used a 24-cylinder Cat 3524B engine displacing 117 litres (7,143 in³).

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A month ago, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords told a Green Valley newspaper that she’s not “anti-mining.” Late last week, she proved it. At a three-hour tour of Freeport McMoran’s Sierrita complex north of Green Valley, at a site where copper has been mined for a century, Giffords was as effusively friendly as she has been critical of the proposed Rosemont Mine in the Santa Rita Mountains across the valley.

She had many reasons, but they boiled down to differences between living with an existing mine in a long-compromised area and bringing a new one into a more pristine site — and to differences in trust between neighbors of Freeport and of Rosemont.

Freeport’s mine — where mining has occurred for a century — employs 1,000 people and sprawls 1.5 by 2 miles in its open pit. A peek inside the 1,500 foot deep pit shows about 25 mine benches, each about 50 feet tall, heading toward the bottom. To the pit’s west lies the rocky Sierrita Mountains.

The mine processes 160,000 to 170,000 tons of ore daily, down in this recessionary area from 220,000 a year ago. Rock is blasted five days a week, three to five times daily. Electric shovels cost $25 million and stand 64 feet high. Each of 18 haul trucks can carry 162 tons for crushing. A mill building stands five stories tall.

Finally, the company’s 3,500 acre tailings impoundment stands as a testimony to past dust complaints from residents but also offers promise for future groundwater cleanups and newer dust control equipment, since the company is proposing to do a massive, very expensive cleanup of tainted groundwater lying underneath and spreading from the tailings.

At one point, Giffords marveled to company officials: “You’ve got quite a piece of land. How did it get like this?”

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A DUMP truck driver found his workmate crushed to death in a horrific mining haul road accident.

Tam Frame was the first man on the scene after dad-of-two Jim Griffin was crushed between two 35 tonne haul road trucks at Pennyvenie open cast mine.

He relived his experience at a fatal accident inquiry into Jim’s death this week.

The 40-year-old Drongan man suffered massive chest and internal injuries in January last year.

At Ayr Sheriff Court, Mr Frame said he arrived at the scene after another colleague, Jim Harvey, gave Jim a jump start.

Mr Frame, 66, also of Drongan, said: “Jim Harvey was sitting in his truck at that time and I stopped the haul road truck.

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