Mining and mineral exploration play important roles in the global economy. In mining operations, communication systems play vital roles in ensuring personnel safety, enhancing operational efficiency and process optimization. Over the period 1920-2012, this article surveys the evolution of wireless communications in underground mines, the developments of the underlying technology, and progress i...

The presence of ground subsidence near abandoned coal mine areas can be hazardous to people and property because of its tendency to happen without warning. The prognostication has recently become a serious social problem in Korea, since almost all underground coal mines have been abandoned, and few remain since 1989. However, the effort of scientifically assessment of susceptible ground subside...

Many coal mine companies have established underground safety monitor and control systems. However, the safety management information can only be displayed on the 2D maps or as reports. In this paper, a new method that combines the VR technologies with underground mine safety monitoring technologies was explored. A desktop virtual reality program for underground coal mine, called VRLane, was dev...

The drive toward increased safety for coal miners has led to the development of computerassisted methods of underground coal mining. The development of control architectures for the control of the movement of continuous mining machines (tramming control) is an important part of this overall effort. The tramming control algorithm design described is in concert with hierarchical architecture desi...

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...

Implementation of clean mining technology at coal mines is crucial to protect the environment and maintain balance among energy resources, consumption, and ecology. After reviewing present coal clean mining technology, we introduce the technology principles and technological process of paste backfill mining in coal mines and discuss the components and features of backfill materials, the constit...

As mining operations in the United States (US) have become more productive, con­ trolling the dust exposure of mine workers has become more challenging. In response, US mining operations are applying basic controls at elevated levels and are looking to emerging control tech­ nologies in an effort to better control airborne respirable dust levels. The Pittsburgh Research Laboratory (PRL) of the ...

Surface coal mining has become the ideal method for extracting coal from the Appalachia Mountains. However, surface coal mining generates large amounts of waste which may decrease the water quality in central Appalachia. This research is an attempt to determine whether surface coal mining negatively impacts water quality. This research consists of a literature review in addition to an analysis ...