1 Department of Construction and Manufacture Engineering, Polytechnic School of Mieres, University of Oviedo, Mieres, 33600 Asturias, Spain 2Department of Exploitation and Prospecting Mines, Mining Engineering School, University of Oviedo, Oviedo, 33004 Asturias, Spain 3 Department of Exploitation Mines, Polytechnic University of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain 4Department of Exploitation and Prosp...

The use of high pressure waterjets is becoming increasingly common in industrial operations as a means of improving productivity. Although waterjets were initially developed as a mining tool, they have found only a limited use to the present time. Recent developments in the technology, however, promise the creation of relatively small light-weight equipment for use in mines. It is important in ...

Gamma ray, density, sonic and core logs obtained from two boreholes drilled over a longwall panel in Southwestern (SW) Pennsylvania were analyzed for formation boundaries, log-derived porosities and densities and for rock elastic properties from sonic transit times. Gamma ray (GR) and density logs (DL) were analyzed using univariate statistical techniques and fractal statistics for similarity a...

The availability of renewable energy does not meet the demands of consumption. Hence, fossil fuels will continue to be an important energy source, and coal promises to cover the requirements for the coming decades. Because of its high energy content, deep lying bituminous coal and anthracite are important for energy generation. One trend in the future of coal mining is thin seam mining, because...

In this study, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling was conducted to optimize gas sampling locations for the early detection of spontaneous heating in longwall gob areas. Initial simulations were carried out to predict carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations at various regulators in the gob using a bleeder ventilation system. Measured CO concentration values at these regulators were then use...

The longwall mining method is one of the most applied methods in extracting low-inclined to high-inclined coal seams. Selection of the most suitable extraction equipment is very important in the economical, safety, and productivity aspects of mining operations. There are a lot of parameters affecting the selection of an extraction equipment in mechanized longwall mining in steeply inclined coal...

In coal mining, longwall mining is a preferred method to maximize production by extracting large blocks of coal that have been outlined with a set of development entries. In U.S. mines, longwall panels are typically 305 m (1,000ft) wide (with a continual trend towards even wider panels), and usually over 3,050 m (10,000ft) in length. The increasing size of longwall panels, while helping to incr...

Narrabri Coal Operations is longwall mining coal directly below a 15 to 20 m thick conglom‐ erate sequence expected to be capable of producing a windblast upon first caving at longwall startup and producing periodic weighting during regular mining. Site characterisation and field trials were undertaken to evaluate hydraulic fracturing as a method to precondition the conglomerate strata sufficie...