Proactive air quality and dust management at an open-cut coal mine to limit impact

The mine experienced routine stoppages due to air quality exceedances. A community on its boundary, coupled with a desire to further expand its operations, poses a significant constraint and challenge. The mine conducts extensive air quality monitoring, and one monitor consistently showed an exceedance of the particulate matter concentration limit. Additionally, routine blasting is also required to expand the pit and brings with it the risk of adverse short-term impacts if not suitably managed.

The mine faces the daunting challenge of minimising environmental impact while keeping to its production schedule without interruptions. Strict regulatory requirements also demand that the nearby community must not be impacted by air quality exceedances from operational activities associated with production, including haul road truck movements and blasting.

Envirosuite assessed the mine’s conditions to provide a proactive dust management system (the Environmental Intelligence solution). This solution helps mine operators effectively predict potential high dust events that lead to PM exceedances from particular operational activities, as well as providing real-time data to guide actions in the here-and-now. The predictive system produces blast models that enable mining operators to anticipate environmental impacts (dust, fumes and overpressure) from blasting prior to the event and adjust the blast plan appropriately, which may involve scheduling to avoid adverse weather conditions.

The mine can now assess potential environmental impacts and evaluate risks in advance. It can minimise community and environmental impacts by scheduling specific operations at the right time. The mine can now limit its operational impact on the community and improve regulatory compliance  while maintaining an optimum level of operational efficiency. Real-time monitoring and trigger action plans that are based on site-specific thresholds have been established to ensure that the limits are not exceeded.