MECHANISED COAL EXPLOITATION IN THE "BREZJE" PIT OF THE "DJURDJEVIK" BROWN COAL MINE

Abstract

In addition to the coal and electricity market and changing geopolitical circumstances, there are other sufficiently rational reasons for opening new underground mining facilities and modernizing existing mining methods.Significant limiting factors and influences, in complex mining-geological conditions, most significantly affect the possibilities of the mechanized way of mining brown coal. The "Brezje" pit is a part of the deposit where the mining-geological factors are complex and determined by the natural conditions of the deposit's genesis. Excavation methods and technologies in complex deposit conditions must be based on great flexibility and adaptability.The complexity of the tectonic structure in the "Đurđevik" pit justified the application of chamber excavation methods with borehole blasting, in various technical modifications and solutions. In all previous solutions, the degree of mechanization of the method was not significantly improved and all modifications of the chamber method were non-mechanized or semi- mechanized with a large participation of manual work, technology based on drilling and blasting, high risk of injuries, low utilization of deposits, unjustified economic effects of work. The aim of this paper is to give an adequate answer to the hypothesis "in the block structure of the deposit with pronounced tectonics, it is possible to reduce the unfavorable influence of the complex mining-geological factors of the deposit on the excavation method by choosing modern mechanization for underground exploitation". The mechanized chamber method of excavation is a conceptual solution for the possible application in complex conditions of the proposed flexible mechanization for work in the "Brezje" pit. The advantage of modern multifunctional mining machines is a high degree of adaptability to the elements of the coal layer with the use of different working mechanisms (tools) that can be changed in a very short time depending on the working phase of the process. Key words: Pit, complexity, factors, chamber method, flexible, multifunctional machine