Underground Mining Excellence – Safety First
Underground mining is widely regarded as the more challenging and demanding of the two options within the industry (unless you work in open cut…). With the easily accessible resources running low, mines are becoming deeper and therefore more dangerous and less profitable in most cases. Therefore any companies looking to develop underground mines are having to look into many different options in methods to determine which will be the best fit for purpose for their individual mine’s needs.
However, inarguably underground mining does have challenges that are unique: tunnel design; shaft design; the risk of roof collapse; trapped gases; extreme heat and many more. Longwall mining, block caving, highwall – just some of the underground mining methods used around the world, where underground mining dominates at least the coal mining world, with over 60% of all coal mines globally being mined underground.
The main connecting factor across all underground mines however is always the safety considerations. This drives a lot of other production and operations decisions, as safety must come first in the highly dangerous underground mining environment.
Many underground mines are turning to automation to help tackle the issue of safety. Obviously if you can remove truck drivers, or drill operators, or mining engineers, there are fewer people for you to need to worry about underground. Driverless trucks, automated drills, automatic longwall shearers and ground control vibration tools are just some of the options if you wish to have fewer workers underground. Of course many of these automated processes or technologies can come with their own issues, and the second generation of technologies connected to these are in full flow, such as collision avoidance, a critical function in an underground mine where a collision between automated vehicles can have very dire outcomes.
The issue of gases, heat and diesel particulate matter is an ever growing one for underground mines. With the confirmation last year that DPM is a carcinogenic substance, it’s only a matter of time before legislation comes in regarding the monitoring and management of DPM levels underground. With mines becoming deeper, the heat increase is inevitable too, meaning both machinery and employees are at a higher risk of overheating, so increased refrigeration is a must.
With profit margins becoming tougher in the current market economy, many miners are turning to their business improvement and operational excellence teams to find potential cost savings. Dave McGowan from Barrick Gold will be sharing with the audience at Mining IQ’s upcoming Underground Mining Excellence in November how they’ve employed shift time management and asset utilisation to improve theirs.
If you know of any exciting innovations being introduced at underground mines around the world, get in touch – we’d love to know your story! Megan.edwards@iqpc.com.au
However, inarguably underground mining does have challenges that are unique: tunnel design; shaft design; the risk of roof collapse; trapped gases; extreme heat and many more. Longwall mining, block caving, highwall – just some of the underground mining methods used around the world, where underground mining dominates at least the coal mining world, with over 60% of all coal mines globally being mined underground.
The main connecting factor across all underground mines however is always the safety considerations. This drives a lot of other production and operations decisions, as safety must come first in the highly dangerous underground mining environment.
Many underground mines are turning to automation to help tackle the issue of safety. Obviously if you can remove truck drivers, or drill operators, or mining engineers, there are fewer people for you to need to worry about underground. Driverless trucks, automated drills, automatic longwall shearers and ground control vibration tools are just some of the options if you wish to have fewer workers underground. Of course many of these automated processes or technologies can come with their own issues, and the second generation of technologies connected to these are in full flow, such as collision avoidance, a critical function in an underground mine where a collision between automated vehicles can have very dire outcomes.
The issue of gases, heat and diesel particulate matter is an ever growing one for underground mines. With the confirmation last year that DPM is a carcinogenic substance, it’s only a matter of time before legislation comes in regarding the monitoring and management of DPM levels underground. With mines becoming deeper, the heat increase is inevitable too, meaning both machinery and employees are at a higher risk of overheating, so increased refrigeration is a must.
With profit margins becoming tougher in the current market economy, many miners are turning to their business improvement and operational excellence teams to find potential cost savings. Dave McGowan from Barrick Gold will be sharing with the audience at Mining IQ’s upcoming Underground Mining Excellence in November how they’ve employed shift time management and asset utilisation to improve theirs.
If you know of any exciting innovations being introduced at underground mines around the world, get in touch – we’d love to know your story! Megan.edwards@iqpc.com.au
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