The potential of coal mine dust to cause disabling pneumoconiosis has long been recognised, but research now suggests that pneumoconiosis is not the only respiratory hazard of coal mining.Over the last 30 years evidence has accumulated that miners also experience an excess of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and this has led the British Government to classify chronic bronchitis and...

In 1991 the Mine Safety and Health Administration conducted a special program to assess occupational exposures to respirable coal mine dust in underground coal mines. Priority was given to longwall mining operations, mines with a history ofhaving a problem controlling dust to the applicable standard, and a representative number of all other mines. Measurements were obtained on approximately 720...

Room-and-pillar mining with pillar recovery has historically been associated with more than 25% of all ground fall fatalities in underground coal mines in the United States. The risk of ground falls during pillar recovery increases in multiple-seam mining conditions. The hazards associated with pillar recovery in multiple-seam mining include roof cutters, roof falls, rib rolls, coal outbursts, ...

BACKGROUND The objective of this evaluation is to understand the human health impacts of mountaintop removal (MTR) mining, the major method of coal mining in and around Central Appalachia. MTR mining impacts the air, water, and soil and raises concerns about potential adverse health effects in neighboring communities; exposures associated with MTR mining include particulate matter (PM), polycyc...

The outcomes achieved at the completion of a major industry-funded project undertaken by the CSIRO Mining Technology Group to advance the automation capability of continuous mining equipment in underground coal mining operations are reported. The details of a practical steering and guidance solution for autonomous Continuous Miner operation employing novel inertial navigation aiding techniques ...

Original scientific paper Evaluating the deterioration of ecological environment and vegetation of coalfields caused by China’s large-scale coal mining activities is important because of the fragile ecological environment and low temperature in cold and arid areas. This study takes the open coal pits of Haizhou, Gulianhe, and Huolinhe as examples and proposes a method for evaluating their ecolo...

Based on the understanding that charges generated during coal cracking are due to coal particle friction, a microstructure model was developed by considering four different variation laws of friction coefficient. Firstly, the frictional energy release of coal sample during uniaxial compressive tests was investigated and discussed. Then electromagnetic radiation method was used to predict the po...

This paper describes the development of a new ground penetrating radar system for measuring coal thickness in underground mining operations. Although subsurface radar exhibits significant potential for depth measurement, the raw signals are complicated and cannot be readily interpreted by mining personnel. We show how real-time digital signal processing plays a key role in transforming the raw ...

Data mining methodologies have been widely adopted in various business domains, such as database marketing, credit scoring, fraud detection, to name only a few of the areas where data mining has become an indispensable tool for business success. Increasingly data mining methods are also being applied to industrial process optimization and control. While the general approach is similar regardles...