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One of the most effective ways to interpret the geological setting of a deposit is building its 3D model. Presenting data in form of a 3D model enables quick and convenient access to relevant information, facilitates taking decisions associated with deposit management and helps plan mining operations. With a model of the geological setting of a deposit it is possible to prepare different variants of a coal mine model as well as type of mining technology, to tackle work-related safety issues and to achieve optimal ...

Optimization plays a key role in various fields of science specially engineering to simplify the decision making process. Long-term production scheduling (LTPS) of open pit mines is a large-scale optimization problem to determine the block extraction sequence to maximize the net present value considering technical, economic constraints. For many optimization problems, finding the best solution is intricate and time-consuming. In such cases, a combination of mathematical methods and meta-heuristic techniques provid...

Long-term production scheduling (LTPS) is an important and vital part of the planning process of open pit mines. It defines an extraction sequence of the mineralized material that produces maximum possible net present value (NPV) while satisfying a physical and operational constraints. LTPS of open pit mines is a large scale and intricate optimization problem that has been widely discussed in the technical literature since 1960s. Production scheduling problems are NP-hard and there is a need to improve the plannin...

Transport and environment rank among current global problems as the transport and the environment are closely interconnected. The environmental impact of all types of transport is manifested in various forms, such as noise, environmental pollution by harmful substances, soil demand, etc. These issues are rather complex, and the solution thereof is even more complicated. The current situation in the transport of materials is characterised by increased performance of means of transport and the reduction of their neg...

Geographic Information System (GIS) is a computer system build to capture, store, manipulate, analyse, manage and display all kinds of spatial or geographical data. GIS can also be used in the mining sector, to manage various mineral resources or to manage the exploitation of different minerals. This enables us to have in disposition all data, to all ore deposits and exploitation places, at one location and at the same time, enabling viewing, reading and printing those data that interest us. Having the data of dif...

Among different types of hazards associated with underground mining in Polish copper mines, one of the most dangerous is rock burst hazard. Having in mind that the depth of exploitation is getting deeper, this problem will likely get worse in the near future. This kind of hazard is connected inherently with seismic events. Controlled group blasting within a potentially unstable roof stratum is considered as an active method of rock burst prevention. A number of recorded seismic events can be clearly and directly e...

Any industrial company ? either mining raw materials or making an industrial product ? needs employees. Qualified and satisfied employees do their work well; they keep working with their company for a long time and strive for improving and innovations in production. The competence of employees arises from many factors ? one of them is a financial rating. This rating consists of wages and other benefits provided by employers. In the Usti nad Labem region (the Czech Republic), there is a problem to find and retain e...

Simulation of breathing processes in training complexes to improve the realism and efficiency of training is of great practical and scientific importance. This paper examines the process of computer modeling of the mixing process of the gas mixture in the simulator of the device in the flow stream of the gas cooling coil in the respiratory tracts. According to the results of the calculations, it is concluded that the simulator can smooth the fluctuations in the input concentration of the target component, ensuring...

Given their wide spectrum of utilizations, the interest for mapping new reserves and prospective areas of useful rocks becomes crucial. On the Romanian territory the natural occurrence of useful rocks is widely spread on the foreland zone, and on the Carpathian structures. These rocks have multiple uses in constructions and various other civil/industrial sectors. Besides being used as raw material in buildings, roads and a variety of miscellaneous engineering works, depending on their petrographic type, these usef...

This paper presents a two-level stochastic scheduling tool. The proposed tool determines the optimal location and size of different schedules through a long-term scheduling as well as the optimal operation strategy for schedules through a short-term scheduling. The proposed scheduling tool considers distributed resources, physical and operational constraints, and blocks as candidates for the extraction. One of the key characteristics of the introduced scheduling is its ability to tackle the two schedules through s...

ABSTRACT The specialized software packages dedicated to mine planning and design activity developed greatly in the past years. In order to take advantage of this software evolution, the available geospatial data, the information about the geology of the deposits, the surface morphology and the open pit models which are accessible in classic format, on printed paper, all the information must be converted in digital format for fitting in dedicated digital databases. The paper presents the steps taken in this digitiz...

The expense of restoring of excavators cutting bodies is increasing these days in the Most Basin area, primarily the replacement of tooth because of abrasion expense. The main reason is the complicated geological situation of overburden rocks, first of all the occurrence of sands and hard structures in the overburden cuts rocks in the deep horizons of open pit mines. The main target of this article is the brief description of realised research. It is design of the optimum methodology of bucket tooth cutting body h...

Application of rubber at higher temperatures requires sufficient heat resistance. The experimental research was carried out with the rubber intended for use at higher operating temperatures as gaskets for caps in mining. The intakes during the operation of the rubber gasket are accompanied with physical as well as chemical changes that lead to thermal degradation of the material. The mechanical properties (tensile strength, elongation, Shore hardness, and abrasion resistance) of the examined type of rubber were de...

The article describes the principles of construction of training complexes designed to practice the skills of using individual respiratory protection. Design, optimization and implementation of training complexes requires analysis and formalization of their structure, development of methodological and algorithmic support. In order to solve the problem of developing a virtual training complex, the article proposes a methodology for building software systems that model the structure of physical objects and algorithm...

The diagnostics of residual service life of key industrial products is essential in real technical operations. The diagnostics facilitates reliable monitoring of real-time state of the equipment and thus ensures its safety. Steel structures in heavy machinery are used for brown coal mining and require high purchase investments. That is why the diagnostics of these structures is so important. Each equipment failure represents a considerably high loss of mined volumes and thus also the financial loss. It is therefor...

Conveyor belts are used for conveying both loose and lump materials in surface mines. During their transport, especially in the places of pouring these materials, where the material is crushed due to a large impact height, a large amount of dust is generated. This makes problems in the actual operation due to fire or explosion hazards, and also by fouling up the vicinity of conveyor belts and transfer points. The resulting dust also poses a threat to the health of operators. Most of the resulting dust accumulates ...

A prerequisite for reliable and efficient mining planning is the presence of reliable information on the spatial placement of geological indicators of the deposit area planned for mining. The integral estimation of this information is finally shown as geological study of deposit area, which directly or indirectly affects the indicators of mining and processing of mined mineral raw materials. In this article, in order to estimate the geological study of a deposit area planned for mining, its geological and economic...

Mining operations performed within the northern part of of deep copper Polish mines are associated with a relatively thick (up to 200 m) and broadly extended salt rock stratum. Since in the above area of planned copper ore exploitation large salt chambers exist and new ones will be mined-out, their safe dimensions have had to be found. The understanding of the mechanism of interaction between the workings? elements such as pillars and immediate roof strata excavated within the salt-rock body, required developing a...

Schemes of cleaning-up deep iron ore deposits using open pit mining method from mining-capital operations and land saving perspective are analyzed. It was established that the cleaning-up of border reserves with a pit side separation is expedient in the operation of shallow open pit mines. Cleaning-up of open pit mines with an increase in the resulting angle of slope of the side at the partial abandonment of transport communications is expedient at the transition stage from the auto truck-rail transport to the aut...

Drilling and blasting operations are one of the most important mining processes in open pit mines which encompass the crucial part of mining costs. Today, despite the development of mechanized drilling in surface mining, blasting operation has remained as an inseparable part of mining operations in most open pit mines. This paper tries to develop a mathematical model for finding an optimal length and width of the blast block for minimizing drilling and blasting costs in open pit mines. With the approach, the most ...

In the mining industry, open pit mining is accompanied by the most significant disturbances in the landscape and hydrological conditions of the development area and disturbed or complete loss of soil cover over large areas. With the existing technology of stripping works, reclamation of disturbed lands is carried out separately and requires additional costs for its implementation, and in most cases is not carried out, which has led to a tendency of accumulation of disturbed lands. Currently, reclamation of disturb...

In open pit mining operations, production scheduling is a hierarchical process for optimization of extraction capacities, resource allocations and types of ore dispatches. Production scheduling deals with equipment capacities, time periods, reserve constraints, wall slope restrictions, ore grade averages and feed controls to mill over a reasonable long-term schedule. Its results then form the inputs of short-term functions more detailed such as scheduling and to control at a lower level which usually has more accu...

A dynamic method has been developed for optimizing reload horizon of a cyclic and continuous technology complex (CCTC) with a combined road-conveyor-rail type of transport for round open pit fields, providing a rational depth of rail transport installation together with economically viable horizons for the location of the concentration horizon and reload from steeply inclined conveyors into the inner mine railway transport. Mining in border and deep zones of open pit mines is conducted in constrained conditions. C...

Horizon control in underground coal mining is still largely based on the knowledge and experience of a human operator, while many other operations run fully automated in mines nowadays. Several control strategies have been developed for automatic horizon control in underground coal mines, but none of them worked satisfactorily for a long distance up to now, even if the used sensors execute their intended task already and were improved continuously. However, the behaviour of the mining system itself, especially the...

Risk assessment is a concept introduced for analysing the safety level in workplaces in order to assess if enough and proper precautions have been taken or if their number and quality should be improved so that to prevent hazardous situations. The underground coal mining industry is very hazardous, facing serious fatalities related to work, workplaces and workers as a consequence of the high-risk processes carried out underground and of the hazardous toxic and explosive atmosphere. The use of electrical equipment ...

At national and world wide level, raw materials consumption is steadily increasing due to industrial development and population growth. In this context, production of basic raw materials, and in particular of fossil fuels, natural gas and coal, is constantly increasing. For underground coal mining are used a complex network of horizontal, vertical and inclined mine workings with the purpose of extraction, transportation and evacuation of coal. Associated with the system of mine workings, there is a ventilation net...

Peat belongs to renewable energy sources; therefore, research into the state of reserves, use and development of peat extraction and processing technology is of great relevance, especially in areas with harsh climatic conditions. On the other hand, other sources of energy, such as coal and hydrocarbons, are exhausted and depletable. Against this background, the development of innovative technologies for peat extraction in harsh natural and climatic conditions is of great interest and prospects. One of such regions...

Phosphates are one of strategic mineral resources that provide the food safety of any country. The specific feature of the raw-material base in the Kola region is the endogenic type of apatite deposits. All industrial reserves and resources of apatite-nepheline ores (ANO) are confined to PZ alkaline-ultrabasic carbonatite complexes and, mainly, to the Khibiny massif (KM). 15 unique apatite-nepheline deposits and occurrences are located here. Some of them are the world-class scale. ANO of the KM are highly eco-frie...

The tensile properties of conveyor belts significantly affect their use in practice. Research is focused on the determination of the influence of sampling direction on the tensile strength and the elongation of 3 types of fabric conveyor belts. The carcass material determines the tensile properties of the conveyor belt. The carcass of a fabric conveyor belt is formed by several layers of textile plies. The textile plies are created by crossing the system of warp and weft fibres. The warp represents a set of fibres...

Intervention and rescue activity in special conditions can be conducted under special requirements only by trained and authorized personnel using personal protective breathing equipment. The decisive factor for the success of an intervention and rescue operation in toxic or chemically aggressive environments lies, among others, in optimum and efficient design of rescue personnel?s training process, in connection with their testing in environments with high temperature and humidity. Heat is normally generated as a ...

The paper approaches a series of researches that concern the finding of a solution for modernizing the cutting wheels of the extraction tower of Slanic Prahova salt mine. With this in view and starting from the observation that the former solution is worn out, a new variant has been conceived and designed in order that it might be applied to the structure of the extraction tower without important changes. Specialized software has been used for the assisted analysis and designing, which is able to provide the corre...

Restructuring of the exploitation of the coal deposit in the carboniferous area of the Jiu Valley in Romania is part of a quarter-century closure program and the use of minerals has been reduced by 10 times compare with the production achieved at the level 1989. In the last 10 years, the use of the coal in the steel production was abandoned, the production being processed only for electric and thermal energy needs. At present, 4 production units (Lonea, Livezeni, Vulcan and Lupeni) are operating in this area, out ...

The efficiency of drilling and blasting works can be assessed in many ways, depending on the desired effect. The evaluation can be performed on the basis of the quality of the explosives used for rock extraction. On the other hand, the correct assessment should include the results of drilling and blasting works. One of the parameters that are commonly used in the quality evaluation of explosives is the in situ velocity of detonation measurement, which is a direct indicator of the efficiency of the utilised explosi...

The solving of the project of the Czech Republic Technology Agency TACR dedicated to microbial methane genesis in geological conditions of the Czech coal basins is under way from 2018. The target of the project is clean methodology of coal. The main attention of the 2018 research was devoted to the geological research of the brown and hard coal basins and to the selection of the optimum localities for sampling. This paper briefly summarises the geological situation of coal basins, stratigraphy of different coal se...

In the study, heavy metal concentrations were determined from the Certej creek, basin in surface waters by using inductively coupled plasma emission spectrometry as an analytical method (ICP-OES). In order to assess the toxicity effects, the toxicity of various elements such as ( As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Ni, Zn etc.) were studied, these elements having an increased toxicity even at low concentrations. The purpose of this work is to determine their concentrations by the inductively coupled plasma emission spectrometry m...

Reducing CO2 emissions results in decarbonisation and in consequence ? mine closure. There is a need to find innovative solutions for economical managing of abandoned sites, while ensuring risks to public and the environmental safety. This new approach to repurposing mine sites, which was presented in the article may take advantage of existing mine infrastructure and contribute to the local community, environmental and economy after the mine has been closed down. The aim of this study is to present potential benef...

The underground mining development in Low Tatras focused primarily on gold, silver and partly iron ore exploitation began in the Middle Ages. At the end of the 16th century, manually created mining underground spaces (vertical shafts and horizontal galleries) were already 100 m deep and several hundred meters long. The mines were situated also at the top of the mountain range at an altitude of approximately 1400 meters above sea level. During the 16th century silver mine called St. Michal was created on the ridge ...

This paper reports on a study of the sorption of toluene vapours on three medium-volatile bituminous coals from the Vaclavovice, Paskov and Trojanovice mines in the Upper Silesian Basin in the Czech Republic. The coal samples were characterized using various petrographic, chemical and porous texture analysis methods. Toluene sorption and desorption isotherms were measured on powdered coal samples at temperatures of 30°C and 50°C and at pressures ranging up to saturation, using a gravimetric sorption analyzer. The ...