Abstract
Particulate matter is a major air pollutant in open cast mining areas. The activities of Subbarayanahalli iron ore mine contribute to air pollution in and around the mine areas. The ambient air quality monitoring was conducted for suspended particulate matter (< 10 micron) and respirable suspended particulate matter (< 2.5 micron) at 8 locations considering various activities in the core zone and haul roads of villages in the buffer zone during summer, rainy and winter of 2014. The results showed that SPM varied from 23 µg/m 3 to 113 µg/m 3 and RSPM varied from 13 µg/m 3 to 56 µg/m 3 with maximum at haul road followed by crushing and weighing bridge locations. In summer the values are very high and low in the rainy season due to the variations in rainfall, humidity, temperature, wind velocity and direction. Compared with meteorological conditions it is observed that humidity levels higher than 65% in mining region maintain safe air quality conditions. The various mining activities such as loading and unloading, drilling, crushing, blasting and unpaved haul roads are the major sources of particulate matter. The particle sizes 02.5 µm were found in the range of 45.65% to 63.41% in the core zone and 34.11% to 56.52% in the buffer zone of the total SPM.
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