Kiirunavaara (Kiruna) iron ore mine owned by LKAB (Sweden) is one of the largest underground mines. Mining started in 1898 as an open pit mine. In mid-1950, the mine started a transition to underground mining and passed to only underground mining in 1962. More substantial problems with seismicity started in 2007-2008 when the deepest mining level was 907 m (ca. 670 m below surface). By 2016, th...

The exposure of mine workers to diesel particulate matter (DPM) and gases is an issue of great concern to the underground mining community in the United States. Approximately 30,000 underground miners are potentially exposed to high concentrations of DPM. In January of 2001, the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) promulgated rules setting compliance standards for both underground...

It is well recognized that software tools for strategic underground mine planning are lacking, and that the demand for these tools will increase as deeper deposits amenable to underground mining continue to grow in value. While a number of optimization techniques have been developed for stope layout design and progress continues to be made in the area of production scheduling, both of these min...