Frontiers of Surface Mining Research

A special issue of Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2016) | Viewed by 31235

Special Issue Editor

Department of Mining and Nuclear Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology, 1870 Miner Cir, Rolla, MO 65409, USA
Interests: mine automation and intelligent mining systems; formation excavation engineering; synthetic and renewable energy; machine dynamics and fatigue modeling and safety; health and hazards engineering
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Surface mining methods are currently being used globally to achieve bulk production capacities. Large excavators and continuous and cyclic haulage systems are being applied to achieve economies of scale. Associated with these surface mining systems are design, production, environmental, and management challenges that must be addressed through fundamental and applied research initiatives. This Special Issue will focus on frontiers of surface mining research currently being pursued in order to address these challenges. The frontiers topics include surface mine planning and design, surface mining methods and production engineering, optimization of surface mining systems, intelligent surface mining systems, automation and robotics, augmented visualization, economic evaluation and investment analysis, equipment-formation interactions, equipment maintenance and machine health monitoring, formation excavation, heavy mining machinery, information systems and data warehousing, rock slope engineering, surface mine health, safety and hazards, and sustainable development.

Prof. Dr. Samuel Frimpong
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Minerals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.


Keywords

  • surface mining
  • planning and design
  • production engineering
  • systems optimization
  • robotics
  • intelligent systems
  • excavation
  • visualization
  • machine health
  • mining machinery
  • rock slope
  • health and safety
  • information systems
  • economics and management
  • sustainable development
  • automation

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

1282 KiB  
Article
Multibody Dynamic Stress Simulation of Rigid-Flexible Shovel Crawler Shoes
by Samuel Frimpong and Magesh Thiruvengadam
Minerals 2016, 6(3), 61; https://doi.org/10.3390/min6030061 - 25 Jun 2016
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 6926
Abstract
Electric shovels are used in surface mining operations to achieve economic production capacities. The capital investments and operating costs associated with the shovels deployed in the Athabasca oil sands formation are high due to the abrasive conditions. The shovel crawler shoes interact with [...] Read more.
Electric shovels are used in surface mining operations to achieve economic production capacities. The capital investments and operating costs associated with the shovels deployed in the Athabasca oil sands formation are high due to the abrasive conditions. The shovel crawler shoes interact with sharp and abrasive sand particles, and, thus, are subjected to high transient dynamic stresses. These high stresses cause wear and tear leading to crack initiation, propagation and premature fatigue failure. The objective of this paper is to develop a model to characterize the crawler stresses and deformation for the P&H 4100C BOSS during propel and loading using rigid-flexible multi-body dynamic theory. A 3-D virtual prototype model of the rigid-flexible crawler track assembly and its interactions with oil sand formation is simulated to capture the model dynamics within multibody dynamics software MSC ADAMS. The modal and stress shapes and modal loads due to machine weight for each flexible crawler shoes are generated from finite element analysis (FEA). The modal coordinates from the simulation are combined with mode and stress shapes using modal superposition method to calculate real-time stresses and deformation of flexible crawler shoes. The results show a maximum von Mises stress value of 170 MPa occurring in the driving crawler shoe during the propel motion. This study provides a foundation for the subsequent fatigue life analysis of crawler shoes for extending crawler service life. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Frontiers of Surface Mining Research)
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2006 KiB  
Article
Preventive Replacement Decisions for Dragline Components Using Reliability Analysis
by Nuray Demirel and Onur Gölbaşı
Minerals 2016, 6(2), 51; https://doi.org/10.3390/min6020051 - 30 May 2016
Cited by 24 | Viewed by 6596
Abstract
Reliability-based maintenance policies allow qualitative and quantitative evaluation of system downtimes via revealing main causes of breakdowns and discussing required preventive activities against failures. Application of preventive maintenance is especially important for mining machineries since production is highly affected from machinery breakdowns. Overburden [...] Read more.
Reliability-based maintenance policies allow qualitative and quantitative evaluation of system downtimes via revealing main causes of breakdowns and discussing required preventive activities against failures. Application of preventive maintenance is especially important for mining machineries since production is highly affected from machinery breakdowns. Overburden stripping operations are one of the integral parts in surface coal mine productions. Draglines are extensively utilized in overburden stripping operations and they achieve earthmoving activities with bucket capacities up to 168 m3. The massive structure and operational severity of these machines increase the importance of performance awareness for individual working components. Research on draglines is rarely observed in the literature and maintenance studies for these earthmovers have been generally ignored. On this basis, this paper offered a comprehensive reliability assessment for two draglines currently operating in the Tunçbilek coal mine and discussed preventive replacement for wear-out components of the draglines considering cost factors. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Frontiers of Surface Mining Research)
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3255 KiB  
Article
A Study of Digging Productivity of an Electric Rope Shovel for Different Operators
by Mohammad Babaei Khorzoughi and Robert Hall
Minerals 2016, 6(2), 48; https://doi.org/10.3390/min6020048 - 25 May 2016
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 6591
Abstract
A performance monitoring study of an electric rope shovel operating in an open pit coal mine was conducted. As the mining industry moves toward higher productivity, profitability and predictability, the need for more reliable, productive and efficient mining shovels increases. Consequently, it is [...] Read more.
A performance monitoring study of an electric rope shovel operating in an open pit coal mine was conducted. As the mining industry moves toward higher productivity, profitability and predictability, the need for more reliable, productive and efficient mining shovels increases. Consequently, it is critical to study the productivity of these machines and to understand the effect of different operational parameters on that. In this paper a clustering analysis is performed to classify shovel digging effort and behaviour based on digging energy, dig time and payload per pass. Then the influence of the operator on the digging efficiency and productivity of the machine is analyzed with a focus on operator technique during digging. A statistical analysis is conducted on different cycle time components (dig time, swing time, return time) for different operators. In addition to time components, swing and return angles as well as loading rate and mucking rate are observed and analyzed. The results of this study help to understand the effect of different operators on the digging productivity of the shovel and then to set the best operator practice. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Frontiers of Surface Mining Research)
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956 KiB  
Article
Identifying the Presence of AMD-Derived Soil CO2 in Field Investigations Using Isotope Ratios
by Kwame Awuah-Offei, Moagabo Mathiba and Fred J. Baldassare
Minerals 2016, 6(1), 18; https://doi.org/10.3390/min6010018 - 03 Mar 2016
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3390
Abstract
Recent incidents of hazardous accumulations of CO2 in homes on or adjacent to reclaimed mine land have been shown to be linked to neutralization reactions between acidic mine drainage and carbonate material. An efficient and economic method is necessary to identify the [...] Read more.
Recent incidents of hazardous accumulations of CO2 in homes on or adjacent to reclaimed mine land have been shown to be linked to neutralization reactions between acidic mine drainage and carbonate material. An efficient and economic method is necessary to identify the presence of acid mine drainage- (AMD-) derived CO2 on reclaimed mine land, prior to construction. One approach to identify the presence of AMD-derived CO2 is to characterize stable carbon isotope ratios of soil CO2. To do so, a viable method is necessary to acquire soil gas samples for isotope ratio analysis. This paper presents preliminary investigations of the effectiveness of two methods of acquiring gas samples (sampling during soil flux measurements and using slam bar) for isotope analysis. The results indicate that direct soil gas sampling is cheaper and provides better results. Neither method is adequate without accounting for temporal effects due to changing gas transport mechanisms. These results have significant implications for safe post-mining land uses and future investigations of leakages from geologic carbon sequestration sites. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Frontiers of Surface Mining Research)
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4626 KiB  
Article
Porosity and Permeability of Round Top Mountain Rhyolite (Texas, USA) Favor Coarse Crush Size for Rare Earth Element Heap Leach
by Lorraine Negron, Nicholas Pingitore and Daniel Gorski
Minerals 2016, 6(1), 16; https://doi.org/10.3390/min6010016 - 24 Feb 2016
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 6863
Abstract
Water-saturation porosity and dye-penetration permeability measurements of Round Top Mountain rhyolite confirm that a ½-inch (13-mm) crush size would permit efficient acid heap leaching of yttrium and heavy rare earth elements (YHREEs) hosted in yttrofluorite, a YHREE-substituted variety of fluorite. Laboratory acid leaching [...] Read more.
Water-saturation porosity and dye-penetration permeability measurements of Round Top Mountain rhyolite confirm that a ½-inch (13-mm) crush size would permit efficient acid heap leaching of yttrium and heavy rare earth elements (YHREEs) hosted in yttrofluorite, a YHREE-substituted variety of fluorite. Laboratory acid leaching has extracted up to 90% of the YHREEs. The bulk insoluble gangue mineralogy of the rhyolite, 90% to 95% quartz and feldspars, assures low acid consumption. Different crush sizes were weighed, soaked in water, and reweighed over time to determine water-penetration estimated porosity. Typical porosities were 1% to 2% for gray and 3% to 8% for pink varieties of Round Top rhyolite. The same samples were re-tested after soaking in dilute sulfuric to simulate heap leaching effects. Post-leach porosity favorably increased 15% in pink and 50% in gray varieties, due to internal mineral dissolution. Next, drops of water-based writing ink were placed on rhyolite slabs up to ~10 mm thick, and monitored over time for visual dye breakthrough to the lower side. Ink penetration through 0.5 to 2.5-mm-thick slabs was rapid, with breakthrough in minutes to a few hours. Pink rhyolite breakthrough was faster than gray. Thicker slabs, 4 to 10 mm, took hours to three days for breakthrough. Porosity and permeability of the Round Top rhyolite and acid solubility of the yttrofluorite host should permit liberation of YHREEs from the bulk rock by inexpensive heap leaching at a coarse and inexpensive nominal ½-inch (13-mm) crush size. The rate-limiting step in heap leach extraction would be diffusion of acid into, and back-diffusion of dissolution products out of, the crushed particles. The exceptional porosity and permeability that we document at Round Top suggest that there may be other crystalline rock deposits that economically can be exploited by a coarse-crush bulk heap leach approach. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Frontiers of Surface Mining Research)
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