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By Jürgen Kretschmann

The Islamic Republic of Iran is a very important producer of raw materials in the world. The country holds 68 types of minerals, including salt, sand and gravel, chrome, lead, zinc, copper, coal, gold, and iron-ore. With more than 37 billion tons of measured and indicated reserves and 55 billion tons of total mineral resources, Iran is ranked among the 15 major mineral-rich countries. Sangan iron-ore mines (SIOM) is one of the biggest iron ore mining complexes in Iran, located in a remote, but strategically important area near the Afghanistan border. The Iranian government has planned several mining projects in this region for a stepwise development over the next 5 years to satisfy the growing demand of the Iranian steel industry. In cooperation with private companies, these projects shall be realized as sustainable as possible. This paper introduces SIOM and describes socially responsible activities undertaken during the initial development of this mining complex. The effects of these activities will be demonstrated. Unique attributes of the Sangan area have a significant impact on the acceptance of SIOM by regional stakeholders. The government has made several social investments that benefit workers´ families and the community. They are attempts to build social capital for the mining operations and demonstrate a commitment for socially responsible mining to the communities and the local population. They aim to create a balance between the local and regional expectations and requirements and the necessity to secure the corporate profitability at a reasonable and sustainable level. Investment in socially responsible activities is not a choice but a necessity to improve the relations between mining companies and stakeholders in the communities. It is recommended that social investments should be carefully planned and implemented from the early stages of mining activities, and should proceed throughout the life cycle of the mines.

Aug 1, 2013

By Magdy Ibrahim

This paper presents experimental design and development of a low-cost remote sensing hardware designed to support automated site data acquisition for near real-time progress reporting of construction operations. The developed hardware utilizes open source microcontroller equipped with multiple sensors that include 3D accelerometer, GPS, Data logger and Bluetooth. The use of open source microcontroller makes the developed design cost effective; freeing it from the need for costly license fees. Its platform configuration is flexible; enabling the addition of temperature, weight and other sensors, Wi-Fi and Xbee capabilities to suit individual field applications. Pilot tests have been carried out in laboratory and outdoor environments. The results prove effectiveness and robustness of the developed configuration. The paper provides description of the individual components used in the development of this prototype hardware. It also describes the technical characteristics, capabilities and limitations of the developed hardware. The findings of comparison with alternative technologies used for outdoor tracking of construction operations are presented. The comparison is carried out with respect to range, cost and suitability for outdoor environment. The developed hardware is expected to support a wide range of applications including tracking of earthmoving operations, highway construction and onsite resources. As well, it is expected to enhance safety on construction jobsites.

Aug 1, 2013

By S. Kapusniak

Specialist Machine Developments (SMD) is a design and manufacturing company involved in the design of Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV?s), ploughs, trenchers and mining machines for use in submerged environments. Established in 1971, the company has made over 500 vehicles for subsea use. These range in size from small remotely operated swimming vehicles with a weight of less than a tonne to heavy duty seabed crawling machines with a weight of up to 310 tonnes (in air). Primarily, these machines have been designed for offshore vessel-based applications, but the machines are equally suited to other submerged mining applications onshore. Many onshore deposits can technically and theoretically be mined using currently available submerged mining ROV technology. Similar equipment to that in use subsea could easily be fast-tracked into use to extend the life of opencast mines facing severe hydrological problems. It could also easily be used to mine vertical ore-bodies where the stripping ratio has become uneconomical due to increasing depth. In some cases mining ROVs could even be suitable for use as the primary extraction method for a new mine. Exploration and extraction techniques used in oil and gas gradually developed and moved from land to offshore in the middle of the last century. Are we about to witness a similar shift with other minerals? This paper describes the design concepts of submerged mining equipment, targetted subsea mineral deposits, the suitability of submerged mining ROVs for onshore deposits, limits to their application and parallel research and development activities which will help to accelerate the use of such equipment in the emerging submerged mining sector.

Aug 1, 2013

By D. Holz

In this work we present a novel level set-based model for the real-time simulation of soil deformations. A level set defined by a signed distance function and sampled in a regular 3D grid represents and tracks the soil volume under deformation. Moving away from classical 2.5D heightfield representations of soil to a full 3D volume representation allows for improved tracking of cutting tool operations and the simulation of near-vertical or vertical soil faces. The proposed level set representation furthermore provides a versatile mathematical platform for modeling additional effects such as soil slip, and does not suffer from the sampling limitations of commonly used heightfields. Cutting forces applied to the tool are simulated via a formulation based on the Fundamental Equation of Earthmoving, modified to support inclined soil surfaces and transient states of tool motion. Discretisation of this 2D cutting force model with respect to the tool surface allows capturing the effects of irregular 3D terrain shapes on blades and buckets. The surcharge created during cutting operations is tracked in the form of particles and included in the soil failure force computation. We make use of an adaptive, hybrid level set-based and particle-based soil deformation scheme, which allows the soil deformation to be simulated in real-time.

Aug 1, 2013

By Mohamad Kharseh

There is general acceptance that climate change, which is the most important challenge facing humanity, is anthropogenic and attributed to fossil fuel consumption. Therefore, improving the performance of our existing energy systems and deploy more renewable energy resources is an urgent issue to be addressed. Geothermal refers to existing of heat energy in deep rock and sedimentary basins. This energy can be used to drive a power turbine to generate electricity. Traditionally, geothermal has been exploited in places with the plentiful hot water at relatively shallow depth. In the light of fact that ground temperature increases with the depth everywhere on the Earth, engineered geothermal systems (EGS) can be installed in any place to exploit the geothermal in generating energy. Unfortunately, the high exploration and drilling costs of boreholes is the main barrier to commerciality of EGS worldwide. In addition, there are technical problems associated with drilling big depth. In oil producing countries such problems can be addressed by utilizing whether active or abandoned oil or gas wells and, consequently, EGS can produce power at profit. The current study presents an analysis of a binary geothermal power generation system for commercial electricity generation in Qatar. For this purpose, two binary cycles are assumed the main difference between them is that the first one is air cooled while the other will be water cooled. The performance of the two cycles and the possibility of improvement has been shown. Economic analysis the power plant shows that the levelized costs of electricity is 3.6US¢/kWh and the pay-back time is less than 8 years.

Aug 1, 2013

By J. Palarski

Hard coal, mined in Silesia Region as well as in the eastern part of Poland, is a key national resource. In Polish underground coal industry, modern mining technologies have been successfully tested and used in the last 50 years. More than 98% of the coal produced underground is extracted by longwall mining method. Current underground coal mining expands into increasing depths. The use of conventional coal extraction methods ? room and pillar and longwall with caving - is becoming increasingly difficult. The coal mining is modifying existing methods and is testing innovative technologies. Backfill is an important component of modern underground mining operations. In Polish underground mines, backfill is recognized as an integral component for extraction of coal from greater depths in a densely populated environment. The modifying and innovative methods require the use of backfill or grouting of caving to provide structural support in underground excavations and to ensure that the mining operations are safe. Depending on the geological structure, mining conditions and environmental requirements there are several variations of longwall methods used in underground coal mining in Poland, in particular: longwall with caving, longwall with backfill, longwall with grouting of caving area. This paper will discuss the different components of an effective longwall production and filling process of caving area. The paper will give a overview of the current application of backfill technology, focusing on Polish coal mining operations. This paper will also briefly describe how backfill contributes to an innovative method ? underground coal gasification. The paper discusses specific requirements for fill materials and the technology of backfilling for underground coal gasification (UCG) operations and problems of implementation and correlation of backfill parameters with other processes that occur during thermal processing of coal.

Aug 1, 2013

By Ji Wang

Reflective in-seam wave detection has the advantages of a far detection range and wide applicability. It has been successfully used in detection of many abnormal geological structures in work-faces, such as faults and collapse columns. However, a reflective in-seam wave is a dispersion wave. It has weak energy and is always covered by the direct in-seam wave. In the past, underground seismic explorations were not able to image the opposite roadway using reflective in-seam waves. To solve this problem, we propose a new method of reflective in-seam wave imaging based on adaptive dispersion filtering. This method processes the reflective in-seam wave using a filter with the parameter of transmission distance. The degree of similarity of the filtered and the explosion signal is used to estimate the transmission distance and image the reflective objects. We test and verify this method using real underground seismic data. This research is helpful for the detection of coal mine goafs and abandoned roadways in work-faces or in front of tunneling ends.

Aug 1, 2013

By Kazem Oraee

Implementing stable final pit walls in open pit mines during the open pit design phase and mine exploitation has become one of the most important concerns of mining engineers in recent years. Failure of mine walls can potentially cause loss of life, roads blocks, and damage to mining machinery, temporarily or permanently halt production at the face and in the worst case scenario, close the mine. Thus, the role of creating stable mine walls is crucial to safety and general operations of mines and any effort to optimize this process has great economic value for mine operators. This paper aims to illustrate the technical aspects of use of the successful presplit blasting method in metal open pit mines. It also shows that using this approach not only increases safety in mines through wall stabilization, but also will boost economic profits by savings in stripping ratio. In this regard, appropriate practical concepts for designing the drilling and blasting patterns and the role of selecting the correct drilling rigs are elaborated in detail through conducting a case study in Chador Malu iron ore mine in Iran.

Aug 1, 2013

By Lachezar Tsotsorkov

Being a mining company, Assarel-Medet has a significant impact upon the environmental components. In order to meet the legal requirements and the requirements stipulated by the effective permits as well as to reduce the environmental imprint throughout the years, the policy of the company to implement a number of projects to improve the environmental components quality and the environmental state in the company?s region. The projects associated with atmospheric air quality management and reduction of the impact exercised by Assarel-Medet JSC by implementing various measures to eliminate the potential sources of the impact, preventive and rehabilitation initiatives as well as organizational and administrative activities are among the most important ones. A stable improvement of atmospheric air quality in the region and minimization of the company impact upon the ground air state in the region was observed in the period from 2005 to 2012 due to the applied measures. This project is a contribution to the environmental protection, in particular to atmospheric air protection, by applying integral monitoring and modeling methods to identify the negative impact by the mining companies and plan measures to reduce and restrict it as well as to improve the quality of the environment and living area of people working and living in the impact range as an element of sustainable development.

Aug 1, 2013

By Leslie McHattie

?Intelligent mine? conjures up a futuristic image of unmanned extractors and loaders working in harsh conditions in a remote lunar landscape. The promise of increasing mine fleet productivity and solving the problem labor shortages in mining regions can certainly be achieved today through remote controlled extraction and automated hauling. The technology is available and it doesn?t seem to be so much science fiction when Google?s self-driving cars hurtle down the freeway. ?Intelligent mining,? on the other hand, implies the application of information technology at every phase of the mining value chain, from exploration and geological modeling to equipment, operations and maintenance, and logistics and transportation. These are really industry-specific, enterprise-class software solutions focused on using information technology to support the business processes of mining and make them more efficient and effective. Overlaying the physical world with the digital or virtual world enables us to model and simulate our assets, giving us the ability to effectively design, build, and ultimately optimize the performance and reliability of our assets throughout the lifecycle. The digital asset, often a 3D model, is created initially during the engineering and construction phase, and is handed over to the operator before the mine goes into operation. Combined with geospatial or geographic information systems, the operator has a complete digital representation of the physical world, which forms the foundation for risk and performance management, along with compliance and regulatory reporting. Laser scanning and positioning technology can be used to create point clouds ? information models consisting of millions of data points ? which enable the visualization and representation of the ?as-operated? reality. But consider that once the mine is in operation, it throws off an endless stream of data in the form of performance and condition data from sensors and monitoring devices on fixed and mobile assets through networks, servers, and services. This ?big data? can be processed and analyzed to spot trends, help predict events, and formulate reliability strategies as early as the design stage (e.g., reliability-centered design). ?Intelligent mining? implies that massive amounts of data augment the reality of the physical mine, plant, and equipment. This embedded intelligence can be used to optimize operational efficiency, increase asset availability and utilization, improve safety and environmental integrity, and maximize return on investment. Lastly, the sweet spot for intelligent mining is seen in the convergence of consumerization and industrialization. The application of ?consumer? technologies that we use every day on our iPhones and Android devices, such as cameras, motion sensors, and positioning in an industrial context, are producing ?immersive? experiences. Overlaying the digital world on the physical world and connecting them accurately through intelligent positioning results in ?intelligent infrastructure,? which is safer and more sustainable. Bentley Systems works with many mining companies and engineering, procurement and construction companies involved in all aspects of mining infrastructure development. In fact, 10 of the top 20 mining companies ranked by market capitalization are users of Bentley software, including all of the top five. In addition, Bentley provides software solutions to the world?s leading engineering, procurement, and construction companies, as well as owner-operators, who design, build and operate the world?s infrastructure. Bentley?s solutions for mining and resource extraction industries help increase the efficiency of capital projects associated with the design, procurement, and construction of mines and processing plants, as well as the operation and maintenance of mining fleet and equipment.

Aug 1, 2013

By Hao Zhang

Site inspection is an important component of safety management system. In current practices, the inspectors evaluate the safety condition on a construction site with the assistance of a standardised checklist. However, the checklist emphasizes on evaluating the implementation of safety management system, but provides limited task-specific check items for assessing whether the individual construction tasks are conducted under safe condition and in a safe manner. To address this issue, the research presented in this paper aims to provide safety practitioners with comprehensive and taskspecific safety information to promote effective risk identification and facilitate strategic risk control during site inspection. Specifically, this research first builds a project-specific safety information database, which stores potential risks and control measures for each construction task. The research team then develops a mobile decision support tool to retrieve information from the database and support safer decision-making on site. The tool supports users in two ways: one is to provide daily risk checklists and risk control strategies to guide step-by-step inspection alongside the project schedule; the other is to let users input any safety-related keywords during the safety inspection process and the tool returns relevant safety information by applying text mining algorithms. It is ongoing research. This paper presents an overall research framework and discusses the progress in developing safety database and data retrieval concepts. The outcome of the project will help enhance safety management practices and reduce possible risky working conditions on a construction site.

Aug 1, 2013

By K. Iturralde

The topic of this article is the automation and robotization in refurbishment processes of industrial buildings. The need to mold these production spaces is quite universal. Particularly in the regions with a high industrial development and with a lack of buildable land, there is a need to convert this kind of spaces into an improved production system. The latest developments can be a useful tool for achieving a more efficient way of reforming this type of construction. On the one hand we have the digital or computerized 3D Laser Scanning (Computer Aided Measurement) that allows an accurate 3D modeling of the entire building. On the other hand, the project management using BIM (Building Information Modeling) could provide an easy design of each of the elements of the refurbishment. Finally, through the production of construction elements using robotics as jig or for CNC (Computer Numerical Control) we achieve a neat production of each element. How can be all those technologies applied in the refurbishment or expansion of industrial buildings? The research takes a first approach and analyzes industrial buildings that can be called generic or not specialized. To narrow the field of refurbishment, three major factors are defined. The first is to minimize the bill of the energy consumption of the buildings. This could be done either insulating the envelope, reducing the waste-volume to be conditioned climatically or creating facilities for energy production. The second is that the refurbishment or expansion of industrial buildings should try not to interfere on the production process that takes place in the building. In other words, the assembly of the elements in the construction site should be quick and easy, causing the least of disturbance at the workplace. Finally, the research makes an approach towards a robot integrated industrial or productive building .

Aug 1, 2013

By Katsutoshi Saibara

Network communication note is a cloud system for an earthwork project. It enables backhoe operators and dump truck drivers to monitor their own works in progress currently and performed up to the present, and to have opportunity to reflect on their own bearings in the earthwork operations, and then could increase their situational awareness to the actual work conditions. First, this paper presents problems and purpose. Secondly, the configuration of the network communication note is reported. Thirdly, examples of communications enhanced by the network communication note are shown. Finally, remarks are described.

Aug 1, 2013

By J. Seo

We propose a dynamic biomechanical simulation method that uses motion capture to evaluate the risk of Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WMSDs). Statistics show that WMSDs accounted for 33% of all non-fatal occupational injuries and illness in construction in 2009, and were a leading cause of temporary and permanent disability. Present methods rely largely on self-reports from workers, observational techniques, and direct measurements of motion and muscle activity to assess awkward postures, physical loads, repetitiveness, and the duration of exposure. While these methods have helped to prevent WMSDs in construction work, they may not be suitable for estimating the internal tissue loads associated with WMSDs. We propose a dynamic biomechanical simulation method to estimate internal forces and moments at each body joint of construction workers with motion capture data. Particularly, we explore the biomechanical loads by simulating active 3D musculoskeletal models based on measured postures and movements. To demonstrate the feasibility of this approach, we studied a ladder climbing task using a portable ladder under controlled laboratory conditions. Postures and motions were determined with a commercial motion capture system (e.g., VICON). The results were analyzed to investigate the feasibility of identifying risk factors based on biomechanical simulation. The results show that the proposed approach allows us to determine the biomechanical basis for WMSDs, and to identify postures and movements associated with excessive physical demands on each body joint. When combined with marker-less motion capture which is our ongoing work, the proposed approach has the potential to assess an individual?s motions and to provide personalized feedback for the purpose of reducing biomechanical loads and WMSD risk in real workplaces.

Aug 1, 2013

By A. A. Goss

We investigate the relationship between corporate financial performance (CFP) and environmental and social performance (CSP) in a sample (n=165) of large, publicly traded U.S. mining and oil and gas firms. Using optimally scaled principal components analysis to generate aggregate measures of CSP strengths and concerns, we find higher concerns are related to higher volatility of unexpected earnings and discount rates. Furthermore, these earnings shocks are more likely to be negative as concerns increase. Decomposing this relationship shows that negative environmental performance dominates proactive environmental management as a driver of unexpected earnings, but proactive community efforts increase the magnitude of earnings shocks. We document some evidence of the strategic use of CSR, with those firms that have greater risk investing more proactively in CSR.

Aug 1, 2013

By Zou Lisheng

The culture of safety is very important to coal mining production. About 90% of mine accidents are caused by human error. This paper analyzes the status of China?s coal mining accidents, and accident cause. This paper explains the concept of safety culture, the value of safety culture, as well as the relationships between safety culture and safety behavior, and between safety culture and science and technology. The paper proposes the model of safety culture and the ways to enhance safety culture of coal enterprises. Safety culture and safety production is closely related and are significant to the improvement of mine safety situation in China.

Aug 1, 2013

By Stephen G. Mlot

The evaluation of mineral projects involves the identification, mitigation and management of significant uncertainty. Benchmarking is an essential and effective way of increasing confidence and reducing uncertainty associated with input parameters and assumptions. Comprehensive and detailed benchmarking will ensure ?best practice? technologies, methods and systems have been considered and that the appropriate practices can be identified and incorporated into the project. In conjunction with the involvement of experienced industry practitioners, benchmarking is best employed throughout project evaluation to enable early identification of ?errors?, producing more accurate and predictable outcomes. Considerable time and effort is required to gather data and information, which should be benchmarked by the project evaluation team. There is a history of mining projects underperforming, on production, on costs and on return to the investors. The quality of mine plans and feasibility studies, and the quality of the input data is being questioned in many ways. Benchmarking assists sound project evaluation practices, by providing a database of actual results, to validate project inputs and outcomes, ensuring they are realistic and achievable. Benchmarking also provides unbiased, statistical support as the basis for sound investment decision making and ensures well considered decisions are made resulting in a more efficient study process. The evaluation of the quality of projects which are the subject of transactions also benefits from the use of real data obtained from a benchmarking database. Vendors are quick to highlight the benefits of their projects, and conceal the flaws, inflating the value. Buyers will want to quantify the potential of a project through the due diligence process relying on actual results from benchmarking. For the reasons broadly outlined above, benchmarking should be considered as an essential component of effective Project Evaluation.

Aug 1, 2013

By R. Heikkilä

Today road construction sites utilize more and more information modeling in design phases as well as model based 3-D machine control systems in site operations. For main contractor, the management and control of all the site operations is a demanding task including also many challenges created by continuously developing new technology. In the paper, the main requirements for successful dynamic site management are introduced. The dynamic management means real-time possibilities for information acquiring, transfer and further utilization of the information in the management. An integration model to expand the current way of management and the utilization of present 3-D machine control systems is introduced. Different practical test results using two new different dynamic management systems are presented and evaluated. The first experiments and the results have been provided using the prototype system developed in a research project called DigiINFRA by the University of Oulu and Technical Research Center of Finland. Also, there have been tested a new commercial management system developed recently in Finland. In the conclusion, an expectation for the next generation for more dynamic road construction management methods is concluded.

Aug 1, 2013

By G. P. Kundargi

India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. The role of the Iron & Steel industry is very important for the development of the country. Iron and steel are among the most important components required for the infrastructure development of the country. This is one of the fastest growing sectors. The demand drivers for the Indian Iron & Steel industry are increase in the activities of the manufacturing industry and infrastructure development. Indian Iron & Steel industry with its strong forward and backward linkages contributes significantly to overall growth and development of the economy. The industry today directly contributes 2% of India?s Gross Domestic Product and its weightage in the official Index of Industrial Production (IIP) is 6.2%. Manganese is a main ingredient for production of steel. Almost 90% manganese is being utilized by the steel industry worldwide. Globally, there is no substitute for manganese as on date. There is huge gap between demand and production of manganese ore in the country. To meet this demand gap and to support for growth of national economy, MOIL Limited (formerly Manganese Ore India Limited), a Government Enterprises, producing annually around 1.1 million tonnes (mt) of manganese ore and value added products, has geared up with various infrastructural activities to increase the present production capacity of 1.1?1.5 mt in 2016?2017 and 2.2 mt in 2020?2021. The paper deals with the technological improvements and infrastructural development activities of MOIL; this will help MOIL to become the market leader in manganese ore production globally in the coming years.

Aug 1, 2013

By J. Dubinski

This paper describes the key circumstances of the underground coal gasification (UCG) process, which is planned to be carried out in the Polish hard coal mine ?Wieczorek?. The construction and field tests of a UCG pilot plant have key issues that need to be addressed to realize the research project goal: the elaboration of a highly effective technology of fuel and electricity production. The project will conduct several monthly tests of gasification in the pilot geo-reactor, which will be constructed based on the results of laboratory tests. The realization of the process requires numerous appropriately prepared actions adjusted to natural conditions in the hard coal deposit. Based on scientific principles, it is necessary to elaborate the procedures related to the location of the UCG installation (including its legal and safety aspects), and to perform a technical risk analysis. In addition, it is necessary to determine the required mining, geological, technical, economic and organizational circumstances, while at the same time considering the real but constantly changing process conditions.

Aug 1, 2013