Dust Control In Hard Rock Mines

What You Can’t See Can Kill You.

 Dust Control In This Mine Is A
Large Complex Problem
Many items discussed in this presentation
requires problem solving at all levels of an
operation.
It may require engineering, operations, or
maintenance groups to assist to ultimately
solve.
It requires a total team effort from all
underground personnel & other site-wide
groups.
 Dust Control In Any Mine Is A
Large Complex Problem
Dust can cause health related issues whether
it is a short acute related health problem or
a long term systemic problem like silicosis.
Prevention of dust is everyone’s problem. We
all breath the same air, if we don’t take care
of it. In other words: “It can kill you.”
Why Can Dust Get So Bad Here?

 Fact: Major dust compliance problems in hard

rock mines is caused by silica (quartz) in the rock.
Mines high in silica content rock, 8% or more, are
far more likely to have dust problems than those
where there is less silica.
 Fact: On average the rock in this mine is 40%
silica content. Depending where you mine it can
go higher.
 Fact: Exposure to silica dust can cause silicosis.
 Major Source of Dust Generation
 Blasting
 Mucking & Haulage
 Drilling & Bolting
 Ore passes
 Crushers
 Conveyors Systems
 Backfill Process
 Road Headers
 Shotcreting
 Fresh Intake Mine Dust
 Control Measures for Correction
& Reduction in Dust
 Water sprays & Spray Bars
 Ventilation
 Control of drill dust
 Control of conveyor dust
 Control of ore pass dust
 Control of mucking & haulage dust
 Control of blasting dust
 Control of road-header dust
 Control of fresh air intake dust
Control Measures
 Drill Dust Control
 Good Dust Control
 Requires Good Regular &
Consistent Maintenance
Factors that can lead to high
dust levels on drills:
 Lack of Proper Maintenance
 Failure to use water
 Inadequate quantities of
water
 Plugged water holes in drill
steels
 Dull drill bits
 Dry collaring.
 Poor Maintenance on dust
collector systems
Crushers & Rock Breakers

 Water Sprays Systems

 Dust Collector Systems
 Ventilation Systems
All require regular
maintenance &
attention.
Disabling dust control
systems are a bad
practice that can cause
long term health threats.
Conveyor Belt Dust Control
Possible Solutions to Conveyor
System Dust
 Solutions to Conveyor Transfer Box
Dust May Require Installing & Properly
Maintaining Dust Collector Systems
Moving Rock Moves Air.
Maintenance of Water Spray &
Sprinkler Systems
 Solving Ore Pass Dust

 A critical step in dust control is to

prevent it’s escape & dispersal.
 Confinement can be
accomplished by systems of
stoppings & air tight doors,
curtains, spray bars, or isolations
of passes away from travelways.
 Dust can be reduce by wetting
before delivery & adding water at
the tipping site by spraying rock
as it falls into passes.
Mucking & Haulage Dust
Control
Large Strides can be made to
improve dust during this
cycle.
 Improvement to water trucks
sprinklers.
 Installation of mine wide
sprinkler systems.
 Dust surfactants testing &
implementations.
 Wetting down entire muck
area prior to removal of
material.
 Blasting Dust Control

 Thoroughly wetting down area

surrounding the blast (Back, Ribs & Seal)
before a blast will help settle dust from
previous operations from becoming
airborne.
 Blasting Dust Control

 Uniform rock moisture content of only

1% greatly reduces dust compared to dry
rock both before & after a blast.
 Shotcreting Dust Control
Note: Predampening & washing down of
rock surfaces in shotcreting zone will
greatly improve adhesion of product &
eliminates a lot of dust that can be liberated
during pneumatic application of product.
– When dry systems are utilized predampening of
product can reduce dust.
– Also spray bars in close proximity can knock
down goodly amounts of generated dust.
 Road Header Dust Control
Dust Control for machines like roadheaders
usually depend on some degree of dust cloud
confinement.
 Road Header Dust Control
Managed Through Ventilation &
Water Sprays
 Fresh Air Intake Dust
 Dust is liberated from
other sources (i.e. process
facilities, haul roads,
backfill stockpiles.
 Possible solutions:
– Surface application of dust
surfactants around fresh air
intakes.
– Increased water trucks
scheduling.
– Better dust control at
surface crusher facilities.
 Respiratory Protection
Ultimately it is the objective of the safety department
to do away with mandatory respiratory protection
for all underground personnel. This will only be
possible by diligent efforts of all personnel
underground.
There are definitely in roads that need to be made.
Some of it is behavioral. Some of it is
improvement in conditions that create dust
releases. It will require everyone’s help & active
participations to solve.
 Let’s Talk About Near Misses &
Accidents
We all know that accidents & near misses
are when conditions & behaviors run close
enough together to cause an incident the
only way to control them is to separate
conditions away from behaviors. The
farther apart these are the greater margin of
safety.
You say, “What does that have to do with
dust control?
 Conditions Can Drive Behaviors
& Behaviors Can Drive Conditions
What conditions can drive behaviors?
How do we correct them?

What behaviors can drive conditions?

How do we correct them?

The Key to solving this problem is what?

 You
You may not be able to control how your fellow
worker will react.
The Key is being able to control how you react.
Proactive Safety can help solves problems.
Collectively if we all choose to do the most
productive correct solution to this problem,
It won’t belong to until we all have eaten this
elephant.
It starts with the first bite.
 In Summary
 Dust is by product of the mining process.
 It take daily commitment from all personnel
underground to solve this problem every
shift.
 Remember controlling dust every day can
keep the respirator & 02 bottle away.
 Please do your part every day.
Created by Pat Gazewood
A.k.a. Capt. Shotcrete

Thanks to Niosh for source

information used in this
presentations.