Mine Road Research Articles

Operational Dynamic Load Testing for Repair Recommendations Case Study of Access Road to Vehicle Weight in Motion

The indication of inaccuracies in vehicle weight measurement using Weight in Motion (WIM) technology on mining roads has been identified due to the non-fulfillment of the design criteria required by the WIM manufacturer. This study aims to identify the gap between the actual pavement conditions and the design criteria and to design improvements to eliminate this gap. The method employed involves dynamic load testing, followed by processing the test data with operational modal analysis (OMA) to obtain dynamic parameters that will serve as a reference for calculating the pavement capacity. From OMA, a natural structural frequency of 26.342 Hz was obtained, while the theoretical calculation based on the design criteria was 29.481 Hz. This frequency decrease indicates structural damage of 10.65% and a capacity reduction of 26.8% from the design criteria. This finding is reinforced by a critical damping ratio of 5.25%, which is higher than the damping for intact concrete, ranging between 2%-5%. This indicates energy dissipation through concrete cracks. It is recommended to inject the cracks in the existing pavement with a cement base and perform a 130 mm overlay with mortar grout (fc’= 50 MPa) with one layer of M12 wire mesh. The connection with the old pavement will use concrete bonding and D13-600/600 chemical anchors. With this improvement, the structural capacity will become 104% of the design criteria.

Study of Weathering and Rock Mass Quality using the Geological Strength Index (GSI) method on the Tuntun mine road Banggai Regency Central Sulawesi Province

Abstract The mining road in the Tuntun area of Banggai Regency, Central Sulawesi Province has experienced a landslide. The mining road mitigation engineering is a concern for the sustainability of road use. The study area is composed of peridotite rocks which are included in the Ophiolite (Ku) rock formation, where these rocks undergo a very strong deformation process by showing the fractured rock conditions. The Study of Weathering and Rock Mass Quality Using the Geological Strength Index (GSI) Method on this mine road is the focus of this research. The Geological Strength Index (GSI) is a rock mass classification system developed to assist the inaccurate Rock Mass Rating System (RMR) in determining the quality of rock masses that have very poor conditions or have undergone very strong rock deformation. using the GSI value by using two quantitative parameters, namely the condition of the discontinuity plane and the density of the discontinuity plane. The value of the Geological Strength Index (GSI) at location points 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 is 32,17,12,2, 33.4 and 23. The rock mass value indicates that the rock mass quality in the study area has poor rock mass quality. to very bad. The results of this investigation become a reference in the method of handling slopes on mining roads.

Ungulates conservation in the face of human development: Mining and roads' influences on habitat and connectivity in Iran's central plateau

Anthropogenic activities such as mining and road construction pose significant threats to ungulate species in the central Iranian plateau. We conducted a comprehensive study focusing on three key ungulates: wild goat (Capra aegagrus), urial (Ovis vignei), and jebeer gazelle (Gazella bennetti). These species rely heavily on migration corridors for functional connectivity, making them vulnerable to the habitat fragmentation caused by human development. Our research integrates ensemble habitat suitability modelling and connectivity analysis to assess the impacts of mining and road construction on the core habitats of these ungulates and their habitat connectivity. Ensemble models predicted large suitable habitats for all three species; however, a considerable portion of these habitats was compromised by the development of mining roads, highlighting the urgency of conservation actions. We found that wild goat habitats were patchy and fragmented, whereas urial and jebeer habitats were more expansive and better connected. Analysis of core habitats identified critical areas for the species survival. For instance, an important core area for wild goats was located in the central part of the landscape, whereas the core habitat for urials was situated in the eastern part. Multiple core areas were identified for jebeer gazelles, highlighting the diverse habitat preferences of the species. We found extensive overlap between the core habitats of the three species and conservation areas (approximately 80%). Connectivity simulations revealed strong conservation network coverage (between 81 and 91%), emphasizing the importance of conservation areas. Our findings underscore the immediate need for conservation interventions to mitigate the impacts of road development on ungulate habitats and migration corridors in central Iran. This research contributes vital information for informed decision-making in conservation planning and sustainable development in the region.

Tetradactyl footprints and plant material from the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary, Tarapaca Region, Northern Chile

We report new ichnites corresponding to a trackway composed of three tetradactyl pedal footprints and plant remains near Southeastern Guatacondo, Tarapacá Region, within the transition of Majala and Chacarilla Formations (Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous). The fossils were found in the context of a Copper Mining road construction at the PK23 site, Quebrada Blanca Phase 2 project, by the Teck Mining Company Quebrada Blanca S.A.We performed stratigraphical, paleobotanical, and paleoichnological studies, along with the footprint characterization and comparisons by Principal Component Analysis, and Discriminant Analysis of I-II, II-III and III-IV interdigital angles, using a large tetradactyl footprint morphological database of potential producers (dinosaurs, crocodiles, lepidosaurs, and pterosaurs). Additionally, we performed 3D pedal computer modeling kinematic analysis of the Chilesaurus diegosuarezi's 3D tetradactyl foot under two different sedimentary conditions (i.e. hard soil with superficial impression, and soft sediment with a penetrative impression), to test it as a potential trackmaker.The stratigraphic section reveals an association of siliciclastic facies, formed by the intercalation of fine-grained sandstones and wackes, with ripple marks, cross and horizontal lamination, evidencing intermittent moderate to low sedimentation energy.Among the plant material, several organs of the family Cheirolepidiaceae were identified such as, leaves and leafy branches of Brachyphyllum type, Classostrobus pollen cone, ovuliferous scales, and wood fragments related to Cupressinoxylon. The monodominance of Cheirolepidiaceae among the preserved macroflora allows inferring the characteristics of the environment in which the plants lived, highlighting halophytic, and temporarily arid conditions. Evidence as a whole, permits to interpret the depositional environment as an arid deltaic-littoral plain, temporarily covered with an ephemeral water layer associated with a stunted woody vegetation, in which terrestrial vertebrates walked by.Despite the low predictive power of the multivariate analysis, due to the various sources of morphological variability inherent to footprint formation, the PK23 footprints seem to better correspond to Dinosauria or Avialae as the most likely producers, rather than to Lepidosauria or Crocodylia, discarding the dinosaur Chilesaurus due to very low interdigital mediolateral rotation capabilities.

Research on chlorine salt antifreeze road dust suppressants for open-pit coal mines

In addressing the significant challenge of trucking road dust emanating from open-cast coal mines, the prevalent method of conventional water sprinkling for dust removal on transport roads has proven suboptimal. This inadequacy is attributed to the pronounced mobility of truck transport roads, substantial dust loads, and extensive open dust sources. Particularly in cold mining regions, the use of water in winter exacerbates the issue by causing icy road surfaces, thereby increasing the risk of truck skidding and overturning, posing a severe hazard to both mine safety and the well-being of truck drivers. A pragmatic imperative exists to devise a solution that effectively addresses both anti-freezing and dust suppression in open-pit coal mine roads, while minimizing corrosive impact. Against the backdrop of Hebei Open-pit Coal Mine in Huolin, Inner Mongolia, this study focuses on the development of a chloride salt antifreeze-type road dust inhibitor tailored for open-pit transportation roads. The proprietary anti-freezing dust suppressant achieves a freezing point as low as −36.4 °C, exhibiting corrosion efficiency merely at 56.5% of that of water. Notably, the effective dust suppression duration surpasses that of water by a factor of 150, resulting in a 53% reduction in dust suppression costs. This innovation is specifically applicable to high-cold and arid surface coal mines in northern regions and similar mining contexts. It offers technical support for the establishment of environmentally sustainable practices in surface coal mines, representing a pivotal step toward the realization of green mining initiatives.

Анализ устойчивости откосов горной дороги месторождения Camarioca Este компании Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara

In the framework of the study, numerical modelling has been conducted to calculate the slope stability of the mining road of the Camarioca Este deposit developed by the Empresa Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara Company. A geotechnical analysis of the deposit area has been carried out, as well as geological surveys to detect the areas prone to stability degradation. A geotechnical model including soil layers, properties of materials, and loading conditions was developed by using software. In order to assess the mining road slope stability, the limit equilibrium methods, in particular, the Morgenstern-Price method have been applied. This method is based on the limit equilibrium principle and the rock shear strength theory. Using the Slide software, the reserve factor has been calculated for different conditions. Modelling and calculation of the reserve factor have been conducted for two conditions: not considering factors reducing stability and considering such factors, namely the seismic level impact and rainfall effects. To determine the parameters of seismic acceleration in the region, the Cuban standard NC 46—2017 of the National Center of Seismological Research of Cuba has been applied. Three sectors with the potential level of stability reduction corresponding to stations with marks 0+250.00 m — 0+306.70 m, 0+380.00 m — 0+420.00 m, and 2+280.00 m — 2+291.68 m have been studied as the fundamental results; the reserve factors have been calculated considering seismic acceleration and intensive precipitation and are equal to 0.80, 1.45, and и 0.91, respectively.

Extracting unstructured roads for smart Open-Pit mines based on computer vision: Implications for intelligent mining

The mining industry is rapidly advancing towards automation and intelligence, with smart mines emerging as a future trend. Open-pit mining areas are semi-enclosed, and roads are essential for unmanned trucks to perceive the mining environment and execute various production tasks. The dynamic nature of open-pit mines, driven by production progress, leads to frequent alterations in roadways. As a consequence, roads become unstructured, with indistinct edges that easily blend into the surrounding mine environment. This poses a challenging operational environment for unmanned vehicles. To address this challenge in the realm of intelligent mining, this study establishes a dataset of mining roads based on different rock types and proposes an unstructured road segmentation method for mines by integrating residual networks, Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization (CLAHE), and the Efficient Channel Attention (ECA) mechanism. This method is applied to four semantic segmentation networks: FCN, UNet, PSPNet, and DeepLab v3 +. The dataset and network model undergo validation using a specific hybrid loss function and relevant evaluation metrics. The results show that the established road dataset has good applicability, with an ablation experiment confirming the effectiveness of the added modules. This study introduces a new perspective for advancing unmanned driving in smart mines.

Analisis Resiko Pekerjaan Dengan Metode Hazard Identification Risk Assesment Di Perusahaan Tambang Batu Bara

Data from the Social Security Administering Agency (BPJS) for Employment in 2021 - 2022 recorded 499,604 cases of work accidents, then the Circular Letter of the Chief Mining Inspector number: B- 6234/MB.07/DBT.KP/2023 dated 9 October 2023 regarding Increasing Vigilance in Efforts Preventing Mining Accidents and Improving Mining Safety Performance, throughout 2023, 46.9% of accidents will result in deaths due to interaction activities on mine roads. Based on preliminary studies at PT. The true Saptaindra Site SERA in 2023 found that the number of property damage accidents (equipment damage) was 11 cases and near misses were 4 cases. The aim of this research is to identify risks that can occur both in terms of humans, the environment and operational processes, then be able to analyze the level of risk and provide recommendations for controlling dangerous risks to minimize the potential for work accidents at the PT Saptaindra Sejati Site SERA. This research uses HIRA (Hazzard Identification Risk Assessment) method with the main focus being able to identify potential hazards through calculating the level of opportunity (Likelihood) and level of severity (Saverity) in order to obtain the level of risk using a risk matrix. And then control is carried out according to the work safety hierarchy, namely elimination, substitution, engineering, administration and PPE (personal protective equipment). The results of this research show that after controlling jobs with a medium risk level, there are 3 jobs including Topsoil removal, Over burden removal and Coal getting and less than 9 according to table 2.3 Risk Matrix and jobs with a low risk level. risk), namely 3 jobs including Land clearing, Drill and blast and Mine water pumping work in the sump.

Optimization of Technological Schemes for Construction of Open Mine Roads

Optimization of haul roads is a critical aspect of open-pit mine design, directly impacting operational costs. While computer software tools are increasingly employed for haul road optimization, there is a growing need for additional analytical models in this field. This research study compares and analyzes some of the commonly used modern methods for optimization, using the hypothetical example of optimizing haul roads in a typical open-pit mine scenario. The selection of a particular optimization method depends largely on the unique characteristics of the open mine, including its geographical location, current raw material market conditions, and other local factors. Given the complexity of the problem and the multitude of parameters involved, potential simplifications are also discussed. By examining and evaluating different optimization approaches, using the example of haul road optimization, this research aims to enhance the understanding of haul road optimization and provide insights into effective strategies for improving operational efficiency and reducing costs in open-pit mining operations.

Effect of Transport Road Slope on Fuel Consumption of Coal Mine Transport Truck

Fuel is a major component of mining operational costs. One of the factors that affect fuel consumption is the condition of the mine road conditions. This research was conducted in a coal mine in South Kalimantan to determine the effect of slope and hauling distance on the rate of fuel consumption. The research method used by researchers is a quantitative research method. From the results of the analysis, the total power required for the conveyance to overcome the slope of the road with a distance of 1.47 m is 6.47 MW and for one trip it requires 19.25 liters of fuel. Based on the results of calculations regarding the relationship between road slope and hauling distance to the speed of fuel consumption, it can be concluded that when in free conditions, if there is an addition of 1% road slope, fuel consumption will increase by 4,820 liters. Whereas in unloaded conditions, if there is an addition of 1% road slope, fuel consumption will increase by 2,071 liters.

Models for Optimizing Traffic Flow in Unmanned Mining Road Networks Based on High-precision Maps

Models for Optimizing Traffic Flow in Unmanned Mining Road Networks Based on High-precision Maps

Soil–Structure Interaction Analysis Using the Finite Element Method in Thin-Walled Steel Pipes Buried under Haul Roads

This paper addresses the challenges associated with steel pipes used for transporting liquid fluids within buried sections of mining facilities, specifically in areas with heavy mining vehicles. While existing design standards, such as AW-WA M11, and manufacturer recommendations largely consider loads from vehicles like the AASHTO HS20 or Cooper E-80, both weighing below 35 tons, these guidelines inadequately represent the actual loads experienced on certain mining roads, notably those accommodating heavy vehicles, like haul roads. The research presented here focuses on the interaction between soil and buried steel pipes under the substantial loads exerted by mining vehicles with a maximum gross load of up to 612 tons, inclusive of hauled material weight. Utilizing a parametric study with the finite element method, the paper identifies critical variables influencing efforts and deflections calculations in these facilities. The analysis of 108 models, varying parameters related to trench pipe installation conditions, offers insights that empower designers to refine soil trench parameters in mining facilities, mitigating pipe failures and optimizing installation costs. Ultimately, the key influential variables affecting pipe deflection and stress are identified as the trench backfill height and the elasticity modulus of the trench lateral fill.

Analisis Produktivitas Alat Angkut dan Muat Pada Pengupasan Overburden di PT. XYZ Desa Batuah, Kutai Kartanegara, Kalimantan Timur

PT. XYZ is a company engaged in coal mining contractors located in East Kalimantan. During mining activities, PT. XYZ uses an open-pit mining system. In February 2023 PT. XYZ had a production target overburden of 193,700 bcm, but in reality, the production target only reached 119,529 bcm.. The productivity of the conveyance and loading equipment is by field conditions to be compared with the company's production achievement targets. The research method used is a quantitative method where this research takes data directly and interviews in the field. The results of the calculation analysis, the production of means of conveyance dumptruckIVECO 350 reached 27.17 Bcm/hour, dump truck ISUZU GIGA FV285 reached 22.16 Bcm/hour, andarticulated dump truck VOLVO A40G achieved 54.57 Bcm/hr. Production of the Sanny SY330H excavator truck reached 178.63 Bcm/hour and the XCMG X370CA excavator reached 154.09 Bcm/hour. The amount of production of the actual means of conveyance that was achieved was 193,700 Bcm/hour. The parameters that affect the amount of production of a tool both hauling and loading, namely circulation time, tub or bucket capacity, amount of filling, fill factor, and material expansion factor. However, based on field observations by the author, there are several additional factors such as the type of weather factor and the condition of the mine road or ramp. In addition to the weather factor, road conditions that are far from the existing standard size will affect the amount of production of a tool.
 Keywords: coal, Overburden, Production, productivity

Arahan Reklamasi Lahan Pascatambang Tanah Liat (Clay) PT X Desa Temandang Kecamatan Merakurak Kabupaten Tuban Jawa Timur

The clay mining activities carried out by PT X have resulted in an excavation pit, if there is no post-mining management that is carried out, it will decrease the productive land of the community along with native flora and fauna. This research aims to provide recommendations for post-mining reclamation direction of clay. The method used is survey and mapping method refers to Matric 17 of the Decree of The Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources of The Republic of Indonesia Number 1827 K/30/MEM/2018 about Reclamation Assessment Guidelines for Production Operation and the things to be analyzed are the stages of reclamation activities that have been carried out and purposive sampling method for soil sampling which will later be tested in the laboratory and then the results obtained will be matched with criteria for soil analysis results. Based on the results the land stewardship that carried out was leveling, stocking top soil, making drainage, and channel repairment. The revegetation carried out was planting of klampis, vetiver, and trembesi around the mine road. The final completion carried out is treatment up to two years of age, fertilization, and checking of reclaimed plants. The recommended clay post-mining land reclamation direction is revegetation with vetiver plants (cover crops) with spacing of (1x1) meter, eucalyptus (fast-growing plant) with spacing of (3x1) meter, and peanut (local plants) with spacing of (30x30) cm, then will be planted with a pot system.

Passable area segmentation for open-pit mine road from vehicle perspective

Recognition of passable areas of mine roads based on vehicle perspective is crucial for autonomous vehicles to drive in unmanned open-pit mine scenes. In the past few years, deep learning-based passable area recognition methods have been proven feasible. However, these works have mainly focused on structured urban road environments. Few works designed for mine road region detection due to dataset scarcity. In this article, we propose the mine road scapes segmentation dataset, which is collected from open-pit mine road environments. The dataset is collected from different mine areas, covers different daytime and dusk periods, and annotates the road and non-road areas in detail. Besides, a novel transformer-based road segmentation network is proposed, which is designed for the mine road characteristics of texture and distribution. The segmentation network is composed of an improved transformer feature extraction backbone, which can simultaneously aggregate global context and local detail information, and realize pixel-level recognition. We solve the problem of mine road segmentation benchmark under vehicle perspective. Moreover, by comparing the results of current mainstream methods on the mine road dataset, our method obtains state-of-the-art performance.

Experimental Study of the Freeze–Thaw Damage of Alpine Surface Coal Mine Roads Based on Geopolymer Materials

In the process of mining and transportation, the temporary non-hardened mine-road structure is mainly a mixture of soil and stone, which very easily produces dust hazards via crushing and wind transportation. Geopolymers can be used in the road’s soil and stone mixture so that the road reaches certain strength requirements in line with the short-term use of the mine. However, in alpine open-pit coal mines, which are subject to the influence of weather changes, freezing and thawing phenomena will affect the long-term use of the road and its normal and safe operation. An open-pit coal mine in Xinjiang, China, was chosen as the research object of alpine open-pit coal mines. Using the method of indoor testing, different freeze–thaw freezing temperatures, different numbers of cycles, changes in the mechanical properties of the mine-road materials, and microscopic changes were studied. From the experimental results, it was determined that with a reduction in the freeze–thaw freezing temperature, the specimen strength declines after stabilizing, and with an increase in the number of freeze–thaw cycles, the specimen strength exhibits a linear decline. The specimen’s internal structure gradually changed from dense to loose; the fracture mode changed from toughness fractures to crystal fractures after the removal of the maximum load reduction. The uniaxial compressive strength was reduced to 61%; the tensile strength was reduced to 49%. The fracture zone of the specimen was analyzed using energy spectra, and the main elements changed from O (57.19%), Si (17.07%), and Al (12.19%) without freezing and thawing to O (49.76%), Si (15.70%) and Ca (11.09%) after freezing and thawing.

Enhanced mine road monitoring using unmanned aerial vehicles and deep-learning approach

Mine roads are highly vulnerable to deterioration as a result of substantial vehicular traffic and excessive precipitation. Therefore, it is critical to incorporate safety monitoring of the mining road infrastructure into mining operations. This study aims to extract mining road objects and classify road conditions using the geometric standards of mining road safety. The study area comprised one of the pits of Perseroan Terbatas (PT) Berau Coal, Indonesia. This study developed a novel approach utilizing geospatial artificial intelligence that integrates drones, deep learning, and spatial geometry to monitor road conditions in terms of geometrical aspects such as slope, road width, turning angle, and cross-fall. The detection results of the mining road resulted in 30 parameter combination schemes, with the optimal scheme consisting of a combination of an 87.5% model overlap, a 512 × 512 tile size, and a 0.3 m pixel resolution. This scheme achieved an accuracy of 89%. Furthermore, the spatial geometric analysis results revealed that 64% of the grade standards, 90% of the turning angles, 61% of the cross-falls, and 51% of the road widths in the mining road area conformed to the internal mine road standards of PT Berau Coal. The method developed in this study can also be applied to other mining areas. The mining road monitoring method developed in this study can improve the mining road standard and may be applied in other mining operations to improve efficiency and safety.

Prediction of Flyrocks, Airblasts and Ground Vibrations Using Neural Computing and Applications at ZCDC Mine

When an explosive detonates in a blasthole, approximately 20 to 30% of the energy is only utilized for fragmenting the rock mass whilst the bulk of the energy is lost in the form of ground vibrations, flyrocks and airblasts. Employees’ residences, mine offices, processing plants and engineering workshops built close to the mining area and are in danger of being damaged by blast induced hazards. In addition, due to flyrocks there was a high level of ore losses, ore dilution, equipment damages, mine roads and powerlines. To assess and reduce these negative impacts, monitoring of flyrocks, ground vibrations and airblast was carried out and generate a prediction model. A three-layer, feed-forward back-propagation of a 9-10-3 network architecture was trained, validated, and tested using the Bayesian regularization algorithm. A total of 100 monitored blast records obtained from the mine were used as input parameters for the ANN prediction model. Subsequently a Multivariate Regression analysis prediction model was run and used to compare with the results obtained from ANN model. Based on the study's findings, an ANN model proved to be the best for field predictions.To determine the relative impact of each input parameter on flyrocks, gound vibration, and Airblast, a sensitivity analysis was also carried out and lastly blast optimization which managed to reduce blast induced impacts by over 30%.

Innovate geopolymer synthesis for green mine road construction: Analysis of efflorescence behavior and strength analysis

Waste generated from coal mining and consumption causes severe pollution. This study used open-pit mine road aggregate (OMRA), ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS), and coal fly ash (CFA) to synthesize geopolymers for road construction in surface mines. The influences of multiple factors on efflorescence behavior were investigated. Findings reveal that increasing the modulus of the alkali activator, contents of slag and alkali activator, and isolating air contact reduces efflorescence and enhances mechanical strength. The optimized synthesis scheme was applied on-site, showing no efflorescence after construction, and satisfying the strength requirements of open-pit mine roads.

Evaluasi Kemiringan Jalan Tambang Terhadap Cycle Time Alat Angkut Pada Dump Truck Hino FG 235 JJ Tambang Batu Granit Di PT Aditya Buana Inter Kabupaten Bangka

PT ABI is a private company engaged in the granite mining business using the open pit method. The problem encountered is that there is a slope of the mine road that does not comply with the standards set by the company, namely ≤ 8%, the slope of the mine road, which is not suitable, makes the truck to produce large rimpull, which affects the overall distribution time. This study aims to evaluate and optimize the dump truck cycle time obtained. This research begins by calculating the actual travel time on 2 dump trucks in 40 trips, conveyance A gets 493.72 seconds and conveyance B is 495.75 seconds, the actual travel time on the haul road segment exceeds ≥ 8%, i.e. in the B-C segment which has a grade of 8.86% with an average travel time of 20.38 seconds and in the C-D segment which has a grade of 10.51% with an average travel time of 37.91 seconds. Obtained circulation time decreased by 5 seconds from 494.73 seconds to 489.69 seconds with a percentage increase of 1.04% after optimization, meaning that the conveyance can transport 89 tons more of material.