Responsible Mining and Sustainable Development

Mining is essential to our everyday lives. There is a saying ‘if it can’t be grown, it has to be mined’.

Perhaps the greatest challenge facing the mining industry is not just find enough mineral resources to meet demand but to produce those minerals in a way that causes least harm, and conveys maximum advantage, to the environment and to society. Many research projects at Camborne School of Mines contribute towards these aims. We call this topic Responsible mining and sustainable development.  A selection of our projects is given here to illustrate the diversity of research required to make mining more economic, efficient, safe, to protect the environment, to promote sustainable development and to ensure security of minerals supply. Mining is an energy intensive activity and CSM renewable energy research can also be applied to make mining operations more efficient and encourage use of renewable energy sources.

PROJECTS

Geomechanics for safe design of quarries and mines
The safe and efficient design of both surface and underground excavations in fractured rock masses is of fundamental importance in most quarry excavations, large scale open pits, road and rail civil engineering projects, underground storage space and underground mining. Research in this area focuses on improved field characterisation and numerical modelling of rock masses to optimise the design process: recent projects include optimisation of the design of block caving and large slope applications and the retrospective analysis of major slope failures and rock falls. Laser-scanning and digital photogrammetry technology have been used to develop remote imaging of rock quarry, mine and slope faces to provide improved modelling resolution and mechanistic reality along with a greater understanding of the fundamental geological controls. 

Contact: John Coggan / Bob Pine        
                

Blast vibration analysis to reduce environmental disturbance from mining
Vibration generated from a blast may be a nuisance or exceed regulatory levels. We at CSM are examining the ground vibrations emanating from a blast but with particular emphasis on vibrations from an underground tunnel blast. The first stages of the tunnel blasting round, normally referred to as the cut, generally produce the greatest levels of vibration, particularly near to the blast location. Research work based at the CSM Test Mine has examined the most appropriate way to ameliorate these vibrations. One accepted method for blast vibration reduction in surface operations is to utilise Programmable Electronic Detonators (PEDs), these detonators providing precise firing times. PEDs are being trialled extensively in our research to quantify blast vibration reduction. Funding for this research has come from a CSM Trust PhD studentship.

Contact: Andy Wetherelt

Research in Safety Management
Mines often present challenging working environments, and it is essential that a mature and effective safety culture is embedded throughout mining organisations. Pat Foster is researching safety management with Anglo American in South Africa. The project is applying various risk assessment techniques, structuring and rationalising risk assessments, studying the effectiveness of technical and behavioural control measures, studying safety culture, and establishing a global network of mining safety risk educators and researchers.

Contact: Pat Foster

Remote Surveying Vehicle to reduce deployment of people in mines
A robot has been designed for use in underground mining operations to reduce the risk to the survey operator and improve efficiency in mine surveying. Combining state-of-the-art laser scanning instrumentation with wireless communications and advanced robotic technology the robot remote surveying vehicle (RSV) makes data capture much faster and improves the range and coverage of measurements, as well as safeguarding the safety of survey personnel. It has been used successfully in the Arian Silver Corporation mine, Mexico to replace its existing mine plans with geometrically accurate 3D plans; the work took just three and a half days and covered 2.2km of tunnels, collecting an estimated 99.36 million individual data points.

Contact: James Jobling-Purser / Pat Foster

Minerals processing design to improve energy efficiency
Fifty to 75% of the energy in a processing plant is used in comminution (crushing and grinding). Achieving separation at coarser grain sizes, design of more efficient processes and using higher efficiency grinding equipment can all help to reduce this energy consumption, and thus the carbon footprint of the industry. Research is being carried out at CSM on use of an automated sorter that can make a preselection of material while the grain size is still large and thus reduce the amount of crushing and grinding required later in the process. This sorter is also used for research on recycling

Contact: Hylke Glass / Richard Pascoe

Mineralogy to reduce environmental hazards
Environmental mineralogy is the study of the types and proportions of minerals present in different environments. Research in this field has traditionally focused on improving our understanding of the potential impacts of certain minerals on human health and ecosystems. The main factors determining the toxicity of mineral particles are size, shape, stability, structure and surface chemistry. Research at the CSM is currently focused on the mineralogy and potential health/environmental impacts of atmospheric emissions and surface water discharges from mining-related activities in Russia (EU funded) and SW England; and the nature and mineralogical controls on the toxicity of inhaled ash from volcanic eruptions and smokes from the agricultural burning of biomass (NERC funded PhD studentship). The studies are in collaboration with researchers from the University of Cambridge, University of Durham and Natural History Museum.

Contact: Ben Williamson / Jens Andersen / Gavyn Rollinson

Security and sustainability of minerals supply
Demand for minerals is unprecedented, led by the rapid economic expansion in China and India and this is leading to questions about whether we have sufficient of many commodities, such as copper and uranium, to meet the increasing and ongoing demand. Security and sustainability of minerals supply deals with the sources of mineral commodities and their abundance, reliability and diversity. The rare earth elements (REE) are not well known but are used in many applications, including computer disk drives, computer monitors, TVs, and catalytic converters for cars.  Today, China provides almost all of the World’s REE. Demand is increasing and we have been investigating a carbonatite REE deposit at Lofdal, Namibia. Such carbonatites tend to be small but relatively high grade deposits, and could provide alternative supplies of REE.

Contact: Frances Wall / Vicky Niku-Paavola / Ben Williamson

Power engineering to reduce energy costs for mining
Mining requires a variety of resources to support their operations, but a key need is for power to drive the extraction and processing of minerals. In the current world, where energy costs are high and where we all wish to reduce carbon emissions the provision and efficient use of generated electricity is vital. Staff with CSM are specialists in the design of electrical machines to produce power and are particularly interested in effects that can cause instability and power quality reduction. Aspects of connection to the generation system are also covered.

Contact: Ching Lai Hor / Ahmed Zobaa

See details of our Renewable Energy research here

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