Explosives Engineering Commons^™

Mining And Sustainable Development In Sierra Leone: The Role Of Institutional Quality, Ibrahim Massaquoi

Journal of Sustainable Mining

While mining can drive economic growth, create jobs, and promote infrastructural development, it also poses risks to the environment, human health, and social well-being. Therefore, to achieve sustainable development, responsible mining is crucial. This study empirically examines the role of institutional quality in the mining-sustainable development nexus in Sierra Leone. With the use of the planetary pressures-adjusted human development index (PHDI) as a comprehensive measure of sustainable development, the study is able to integrate economic, social, and environmental dimensions. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model confirms the existence of both short-run and long-run dynamics. The results of the study show …

The Impact Of Natural Cavities On Mining Feasibility In Brazil: Dilemma Between The Sustainability Of Mining Operations And The Environment, Tiago Leite, Felipe Souza, Mariana Silva, Iuri Brandi, Hernani De Lima

Journal of Sustainable Mining

Due to the legislation on natural underground cavities in Brazil, mineral reserves have been blocked, causing a great dilemma between the sustainability of the mineral activity and the preservation of cavities. This study presented an analysis of the evolution of the federal cave legislation, pointing out the main gains and contribution to the theme, in which the importance in the Brazilian scenario of the publication in 2017 of Normative Instruction N° 01, which updated the procedures for the definition of these “other forms of compensation” to the irreversible negative impact on cavities with a high degree of relevance. In this …

The Suitability Of Advanced Geospatial Technologies In Monitoring Mine Surface Displacement, Long Quoc Nguyen, Tuyet Minh Dang, Lipecki Tomasz

Journal of Sustainable Mining

This study conducts a thorough review of the current scientific literature on the application of geospatial methods in the assessment of mining-induced displacement. The scope of research included technologies for determining deformation, subsidence, and landslide in mining areas. Global Navigation Satellite Systems, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Terrestrial Laser Scanners, Remote Sensing, and fusion methods are approaches used to solve the research objectives. Additionally, the paper also mentions some advantages, disadvantages, and scope of application of these methods. The investigation revealed that the displacement detection method most commonly used at the moment is satellite radar interferometry.

Exploring The Interactions Between Mining And Climate Change: A Bibliometric Analysis, Artatrana Mishra, Sarat Chandra Sahu, Manish Yadav, Nitin Kumar Singh

Journal of Sustainable Mining

The increasing demand for minerals has placed huge pressure on the mining industry to increase production, which consequently affects the environment, and, thus, contributes to climate change. Coal extraction has been reported to be a major contributor to global CO₂ emissions, mainly due to the burning of fossil fuels. As a consequence, the frequency and severity of extreme climatic events have also increased throughout the world. Mining is essential for the development of society but contributes to climate change. On the contrary, extreme weather events and rising temperatures associated with climate change affect the overall productivity of mining companies. …

Spatiotemporal Variation Of Vegetation Cover In Mining Areas Of Ysr Kadapa District, Andhra Pradesh Using Remote Sensing And Gis, Vinod Kumar Yarlanki, Prudhvi Raj Muppala, Prem Kumar Yasam, Balaji Gollapudi, Sumanth Moddu, Appanna Besta

Journal of Sustainable Mining

The spatiotemporal variation of vegetation cover in the mining areas of YSR Kadapa district, Andhra Pradesh, using Remote Sensing and GIS techniques. By focusing on the years 2014, 2018, and 2023, the analysis provides insights into changes observed in water bodies, bare soil, sparse vegetation, moderate vegetation, and dense vegetation. The results reveal dynamic trends in land cover categories, highlighting the environmental impact of mining activities in the region. A significant decline in water bodies is observed, with the area reducing from 3.48 km² in 2014 to 1.91km² in 2023. This decrease raises concerns about the potential degradation …

Assessing The Perception Gap: Mining Impacts From Community And Company Perspectives In Nigeria, Ikechukwu Mbachu

Journal of Sustainable Mining

The study intends to evaluate how mining companies and their host communities perceive the impacts of mining operations and to ascertain if there are significant differences in how both parties perceive the impacts of mining in Nigeria. The study was carried out in twelve states in Nigeria and covered the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria. Data was collected through a questionnaire and interviews carried out separately with community members and company representatives. The study investigated ten categories of mining impacts such as socioeconomic, environmental, health, physical and so on. To gauge the perceptions of the respondents on the different impact …

Underground Blast Fragmentation Modeling For Use In The Mine-To-Mill Strategy, Lauren Shields

Theses and Dissertations--Mining Engineering

More than 40 years ago, the mine-to-mill concept was introduced in the mining industry by establishing a relationship or link between processing and mining activities. To date, many successful case studies have documented the evident benefits of the mine-to-mill approach. In most cases, the basis of the mine-to-mill approach is to tailor the details of a blast design and its proper execution in order to satisfy specific mineral processing requirements downstream. Most of the available literature and case studies deal with surface mine operations. Due to the relative simplicity of surface mining, the relationship between the powder factor, defined as …

Compressibility Behavior Of Conditioned Sandy Clay Considering The Physical Degradation Of Foam: Tunneling Issue, Mœz Selmi, Yahya Alassaf, Mariem Kacem, Mehrez Jamei

Journal of Sustainable Mining

Surfactants in the form of liquid foam are commonly used for ensuring the fluidity of conditioned soil during shield tunneling in mining zone. The compressibility can be significantly affected, depending on the percentage of fine soil. Thus, this paper investigates the compressibility of foam-conditioned fine soil. Oedometric tests as a function of the percentage of foam have been performed. Foam’s stability was analyzed, considering a laboratory soil made from 40% kaolinite and 60% of sand and mixed with a foaming agent based on an anionic surfactant. Experimental results showed that the foam stability was manifested through a reduction of the …

Geophysical Imprint Of Mining-Induced Rock Mass Deformation In The Area Of Construction Disaster In Bytom (Poland), Andrzej Kotyrba, Łukasz Kortas

Journal of Sustainable Mining

The paper presents the analysis of the results of geophysical surveys conducted in the mining area located in Bytom – Karb (USCB, Poland) in the aspect of identifying the causes of significant damage to the complex of inhabited tenement houses which occurred in 2011. The surveys were carried out by microgravimetric and GPR methods. The construction disaster was caused by the exploitation of one of the hard coal seams at a depth of about 800 m along the mining longwall running underneath the settlement. The terrain deformation parameters exceeded the forecasted values, and in several places discontinuities took linear forms …

Prospects For Thiourea As A Leaching Agent In Colombian Gold Small-Scale Mining: A Comprehensive Review, Johana Borda, Robinson Torres

Journal of Sustainable Mining

Thiourea, as an alternative medium, is one of the most promising leaching agents for gold recovery by its commercial benefits and research challenges associated with performance and environmental impacts. This review article describes the operational conditions for the use of Thiourea vs cyanide, its chemistry, limitations, toxicity factors, environment, and recovery processes. Although thiourea gold extraction processes have not been applied on a large scale due to the instability of the reagent, its potential to overcome the limitations of cyanide is attractive to the process; with pH, potential, oxidant dosage, and temperature control, solubilized gold thiourea species are achieved. These …

Analysis Of The Application Of Methane-Bearing Capacity Test Methods In The Conditions Of Polish Mining, Marcin Karbownik

Journal of Sustainable Mining

The methane hazard is one of the natural hazards occurring in hard coal mining. The content of natural methane in hard coal seams, the so-called methane-bearing capacity, is one of the key parameters that allow for proper assessment of the methane hazard and the state of the threat of gas and rock outbursts. For safety purposes, there is a constant need to improve the methods for the determination of this parameter. In the conditions of Polish mining, the method used for methane-bearing capacity determination is the direct drill cuttings method. This paper contains a comparative study presenting three different methods …

Gravity Field Changes During Deep Exploitation Of The Coal Longwall And Their Relation To Stress Distribution And Seismic Activity, Łukasz Kortas

Journal of Sustainable Mining

Mining operations cause volumetric deformations within the rock mass and changes in its density, to which the gravimetric method is sensitive. These changes are particularly well seen in periodic measurements of the local gravity field. The paper analyses the relationship between the movement of a longwall in a coal seam and the change in the distribution of the gravity field in time and space observed on the ground surface. Relative gravimetric measurements were carried out in six series between 2018 and 2020; before the start of coal extraction, with the progress of the longwall and after the cessation of mining. …

The Mechanics Of Precision Presplitting, Anthony Joseph Konya

Doctoral Dissertations

"Precision Presplitting is a widely used method of presplit blasting for the mining and construction industries. In recent years considerable effort has gone into the development of empirical equations based on field data to be able to better design the Precision Presplit for various rock types and structural environments. However, the most widely discussed theory about the mechanics of the presplit formation, that of shockwave collisions, does not appear to be applicable for this method of presplitting.

This research has disproven this theory based on insufficient magnitude of the shockwave from modeling with basic wave mechanics. Other authors have suggested …