Parameters of Transition from Deepening Longitudinal to Continuous Lateral Surface Mining Methods to Decrease Environmental Damage in Coal Clusters

Sergey Zhironkin,Magerram Gasanov,Alexey Selyukov

doi:10.3390/en13133305

Abstract

The present paper deals with an original way to reduce the environmental damage caused to land and air resources by surface coal mines with external dumping, due to the transition to internal dumping with filling the worked out space of the surface mine with overburden. The basic principle of the proposed idea is the transition from the deepening longitudinal mining method for the development of inclined and steep coal seam strata to lateral ones. This article substantiates the choice of technology for a block-and-layer continuous lateral mining method, including the construction of a first-stage pit, the use of a combined transport and direct dumping technology for moving overburden to an internal dump when mining blocks using draglines. The advantage of the presented technology, along with filling the internal capacity of the surface mine field with overburden, is the possibility of leveling the relief within the boundaries of the pit allotment and the implementation of reclamation as the mining front moves forward, without waiting for the dump to be completely filled in the boundary contours. Attention is also paid to the economic benefits of block-layer technology and the continuous lateral mining method, in the transition to which the overburden transporting costs can be significantly reduced, while the limitations of the proposed method’s implementation concern specific coal deposits that make up a small part of the fields being developed today by surface mining.

Highlights

Coal mining is important globally for the development of modern industry and the information society [1], since it provides a cheap, highly efficient, and low-cost energy resource, transported to anywhere in the world [2]
The results obtained make it possible to compare the impact of the application of deepening longitudinal and continuous lateral surface mining methods on the environment, by calculating the area of land occupied by the external dump, its height and dust emission for every method
When developing promising coal deposits in Kuzbass, tendencies were observed in increasing the share participation of the block order for mining surface mine fields, based on the use of a high-cost transport method of rock moving—both when preparing a container for an internal dump, and when working out a surface mine field with overburden storage in the worked out space

Summary

Introduction

Coal mining is important globally for the development of modern industry and the information society [1], since it provides a cheap, highly efficient, and low-cost energy resource, transported to anywhere in the world [2]. The reduction in environmental damage in coal clusters with a predominance of surface mining is possible when expanding the use of the lateral surface mining method, for both low-dipping and inclined (as well as steep) dipping strata. For this method, it is typical to place the overburden in the Energies 2020, 13, 3305; doi:10.3390/en13133305 www.mdpi.com/journal/energies. Beutner et al, Rodenberg et al associated the lateral surface mining method with cross-pit spreaders or cross-pit conveyors, moving the overburden to external (for inclined dipping strata) or internal (for low-dipping strata) dumps [6,7,8]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion