The evolving landscape of Harrison County, Ohio illustrates the interaction between increasing coal demand and modern mining technology upon the available resource base, as modified by changing reclamation policies and practices. A subsistance production period (before 1915) and an early commercial period (1916-1940) were followed by the high, but fluctuating, coal demands of the current commer...

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...

A new method to detect coal gangue interface by utilizing vibration signal of coal and gangue is presented for coal and gangue interface detection on fully mechanized mining face. Because of non-stationary characteristics contained in response signals under complicated environment, empirical mode decomposition algorithm was used to decompose the original vibration signal into the intrinsic mode...

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...

The United States National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, through an informal partnership with industry, labor, and the United States Mine Safety and Health Administration, has developed and tested a new instrument known as the Personal Dust Monitor (PDM). The new dust monitor is an integral part of the cap lamp that coal miners normally carry to work and provides continuous info...

Labor productivity in U.S. coal mining increased at an average annual rate of slightly over four percent during the past 45 years. This report examines key factors contributing to that record particularly, technological innovation in both surface and underground mining and concurrent geographic shifts in U.S. coal production. Health, safety, and environmental regulations introduced in the sixti...

The Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 consolidated all federal health and safety regulations of the mining industry-coal as well as noncoal mining-under a single mandate administered by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). Today, the agency is striving to reduce the environmental health risks associated with mining.

a School of Geoscience and Surveying Engineering, China University of Mining & Technology, Beijing 100083, PR China b State Key Laboratory of Coal Resources and Safe Mining, China University of Mining & Technology, Beijing 100083, PR China c School of Chemistry, Physics andMechanical Engineering, Science and Engineering Faculty, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, GPO Box 2434...