The aim of the present study was to investigate if underground miners exposed to dust and diesel exhaust in an iron ore mine would show signs of airway inflammation as reflected in induced sputum. In total, 22 miners were studied, once after a holiday of at least 2 weeks and the second time after 3 months of regular work. Control subjects were 21 "white-collar" workers. All subjects completed a...

Although Dahongshan Copper Mine, a subsidiary of Chinalco Co., Ltd., has large production scale, it is still non-ferrous metal underground mine with low mechanization and labor efficiency due to its early production. In recent years, mines have carried out number beneficial scientific explorations practices on safety management. According their own actuality, they combined They done meticulousl...

Underground railway stations are known to have elevated particulate matter (PM) loads compared to ambient air. As these particles are derived from metal-rich sources and transition metals may pose a risk to health by virtue of their ability to catalyze generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), their potential enrichment in underground environments is a source of concern. Compared to coarse (...

The particle size distribution of fragmented rock in mines significantly affects operational performance of loading equipment, materials handling and crushing systems. A number of methods to measure rock fragmentation exist at present, however these systems have a number of shortcomings in an underground environment. This paper outlines the first implementation of high resolution 3D laser scann...

This paper focuses on the issues pertaining to the introduction of mechanization in an underground narrow reef hard rock mine typified by, but not solely restricted to, platinum mining in South Africa. In the context of this paper, mechanization refers to any machine, process or activity that reduces the human effort required to break or move rock or material in a mine. The following mechanizat...

Studies conducted on surface coal mining equipment have identified whole-body vibration as a significant hazard. Operators of underground mobile equipment, particularly shuttle cars and transport vehicles, are likely to be exposed to significant levels of whole-body vibration. To date, measuring whole-body vibration from underground mining mobile equipment has been difficult due to the strict g...

One of the main concerns of an underground coal mining engineer is the safety and stability of the mine. One way that the safety and stability can be ensured is to know and understand the coal mine geology and how it reacts to the mining process. One technique that has shown a lot of success in the coal mining industry for geologic technical evaluation purposes is the coal mine roof rating (CMR...

This paper describes two robotic systems developed for acquiring accurate volumetric maps of underground mines. One system is based on a cart instrumented by laser range finders, pushed through a mine by people. Another is a remotely controlled mobile robot equipped with laser range finders. To build consistent maps of large mines with many cycles, we describe an algorithm for estimating global...

Coal-mine owners are required to measure miner exposures to respirable dust so that compliance with Federal health regulations can be monitored. This study analyzes the problem of possible underreporting of dust exposures. Using two statistical approaches, data for three mining occupations in 54 large underground coal mines during 1976-1978 are examined for evidence of underreporting. First, re...

Shuttle cars form a part of the standard equipment employed by the mining Industry In the transportation of coal when using the room-and-plller method for extracting coal from underground seams. These cars are subject to frequent failure, so the problem of assigning shuttle cars to sections of the mine is considered in this paper, with the objective of maximizing expected output. A particularly...