Archive for the ‘Mining’ Category

A commission appointed by the Chilean Congress to investigate the Chilean Mine collapse has now published its findings. According to the report, safety failings were behind the disaster that trapped thirty-three men underground for two months last year.

The catastrophic rock fall that caused the Chilean mine disaster took place last August. For many days, nobody believed there could possible be any survivors, but miraculously signs of life were discovered and the rescue teams moved in. For seventy-two days, teams of experts tunnelled down through solid rock to try and reach the men trapped deep underground while the whole world watched and waited. Thankfully for the men and their families, all thirty-three miners survived the ordeal and were pulled free from the remains of the mineshaft that had been their home for two months.

But although the Chilean miner’s story had a happy ending, the Chilean government ordered an investigation into the cause of the disaster. According to the findings of the commission’s report, the mine owners had failed to put adequate safety procedures in place and were more interested in increasing profits that the safety of their men.

The report also points the finger of blame at the Chilean mining regulator as they failed to carry out regular mine inspections and the commission recommends that the regulatory body be reorganised in order to prevent a similar disaster occurring in the future. The government has since been completely exonerated from any associated blame for the disaster.

Many of Chilean miners’ families have since filed claims for compensation to the tune of £17 million against the Chilean mining regulator and mine owners, but although both appear to be at fault, it remains to be seen whether the families of the trapped miners ever receive any money as a result of the disaster.

Aker Wirth has recently signed a contract with mining giants, Rio Tinto, as part of the innovative Rio Tinto Mine of the Future programme designed to introduce safer processes into the underground mining and tunnelling industry. The contract is for a new tunnel boring machine and includes delivery and testing of the TBM.

The tunnel boring machine in question uses the innovative Mobile Tunnel Miner concept and has been developed as a result of the many years of experience accumulated by Aker Wirth in the field of mining and hard rock tunnelling. The new TBM combines the robustness of a TBM with the flexibility of a roadheader operation and is based on designs first introduced and tested around ten years ago.

The TBM ”…is capable of meeting the challenges set out by Rio Tinto to improve the safety and speed of tunnel construction in underground mining,” a representative of Aker Wirth said. Christoph Kleuters, the CEO of Aker Wirth, added, “We are proud to have this opportunity to partner with Rio Tinto and be part of an important development that may change the face of underground mining.”

The tunnel boring machine is expected to arrive at the Northparkes copper mine in Australia in 2012 where it will be subjected to operational trials and testing should be completed by the end of 2012. If successful, the new TBM should significantly improve modern mining and tunnelling techniques as well as safety below ground.

“This significant new investment offers the possibility for a step-change improvement over conventional drill and blast practices. Depending on rock conditions, this system should provide a capability to excavate at more than double the rate of conventional methods,” said John McGagh, Head of Innovation at Rio Tinto.

Following a second massive explosion at the Pike River Mine in New Zealand yesterday, the rescue team on site fear that all twenty-nine men are now dead. The blast lasted around thirty seconds and was much stronger than the original explosion, which means the chances of anyone surviving it are extremely remote.

Before the second blast rocked the mine, the rescuers had been working on the assumption there was still a fair chance that the men could be alive, even though nobody had yet been able to enter the mine due to high levels of methane gas still present. Sadly the rescue team now believe that there is no possibility the men could have survived such a huge explosion underground and the exercise will be directed to recovering their remains.

The explosion yesterday happened a short time after drilling had broken through the ceiling of the mineshaft where the stricken men were thought to have been working prior to the first blast. After the drilling broke through, tests were carried out revealing high levels of methane, carbon monoxide, heat, but very low levels of oxygen. As a result, even before the second explosion, rescuers were not optimistic about the miner’s chances of survival.

Already accusations have been thrown at the owners of the mine and devastated relatives are saying a rescue attempt should have been attempted much sooner. Countering such claims, Peter Whittall, Chief Executive of Pike River Mine, has already stated that in his opinion, the second explosion only confirms what the rescue team already believed—that the levels of methane were far too high for a safe rescue attempt.

But despite this catastrophic disaster at the Pike River Mine, mining in New Zealand has historically always been fairly safe and the last major incident was back in 1896 when sixty-five men were killed in a similar explosion.

Following a methane gas explosion at the Pike River Coal mine in New Zealand five days ago, hopes are fading fast of a successful outcome to the disaster. There has been no contact with the twenty nine men trapped deep underground since the explosion and at a press conference last night, Superintendent Gary Knowles, the police officer in charge of the rescue, told the assembled press that the situation at the mine was beginning to look extremely bleak.

The gas explosion five days ago ripped out the ventilator fans and power to the mine and although a camera was sent down a hole to where a fresh air base is located inside the mine shaft, there were no signs of any people down there despite the lack of apparent damage to the area.

At present the rescue team have not attempted to enter the mine as the levels of gas are still dangerously high and there is still a serious risk of explosion. However, rescue robots have been procured and one was sent down the mine yesterday, but unfortunately it short-circuited on water and died.

Until a replacement robot arrives, the rescue team are attempting to drill a bore hole down as far as the mine shaft. The bore hole is being drilled down through 162 meters of rock and once it breaks through, a laser device will be sent down the hole to check on the situation below. If this is successful, another bore hole will be drilled down to where the trapped miners are believed to be.

Until there is any substantiated news on the miners’ fate, relatives are anxiously praying for a miracle to bring their loved ones out alive, just like the Chilean miners’ miraculous rescue a few weeks ago.

One of the world’s largest mining companies, Rio Tinto, has recently announced the start of Tunnel Boring Trials for the first of three innovative new mining systems that have the potential to change the face of mining excavation in the future. Each of the three systems has been developed in line with the Rio Tinto Mine of the Future program, in which Rio Tinto has been working alongside experts from Redpath and Cementation, plus civil tunnelling industry technologies. It is hoped that the research program will encourage more effective mining exploration and resources will be more efficiently exploited.

Each of the three mining systems has been developed in conjunction with other partners. For the first two systems, Rio Tinto has been working with Herrenknecht and Atlas Copco, and for the third, the company is in partnership with Aker Wirth.

A great deal of time and money has been invested in the development of the three mining systems and Rio Tinto is convinced that the new systems offer a significant advantage over conventional blast and drill practices. They will also help the tunnelling industry play a bigger role in the billion-dollar field of international mining and underground excavation.

The head of innovation at Rio Tinto, John McGagh, thinks that the new mining systems will be able to double the existing rates of excavation and he believes that the horizontal tunnelling rate could even be as high as 10-13 meters a day. However, this rate will very much depend on the specific rock conditions at the point of excavation.

The new TBM mining system is 64 meters long, has a maximum boring diameter of 6 meters, and is expected to arrive in Australia at the start of 2012. Once the trials have been completed, the mining system technology will be used in other international mining operations undertaken by Rio Tinto.

Thirty-three Chilean Miners are looking forward to finally being rescued from the copper mine that has been their home since August 5th. The final preparations are in hand for a planned rescue tomorrow before dawn morning. The details of the rescue have not yet been announced, but the rescue team co-ordinator, Andre Sougarret, has been on twitter to announce that tonight will be the miners last night underground.

The escape shaft has now been reinforced with 180ft of tubing and the first rescue capsule made its way down the shaft yesterday. Since then, there have been four test runs and all have passed without incident. Rescuers estimate that the rescue capsule will take around twenty minutes for each miner to reach the surface as the capsule passes through a twisting 2,041ft shaft. There will be a one-hour turnaround for each journey.

The list of who will be extracted first is currently a secret, but the first four men to be rescued are likely to be those who are in the best of health. This is because they are in the best position to cope with the journey up the shaft. They can then tell their fellow miners what to expect as they too are rescued. The next ten men will be those who are suffering from a variety of ailments following their incarceration underground. The last men to be rescued will be the shift chief in charge when the men first became trapped, Luiz Urzua.

Once the men reach the surface, they will be taken to a triage centre away from the eyes of the waiting media and assessed by a team of doctors. As soon as they are declared fit enough, they will be reunited with two or three members of their immediate family before being flown via helicopter to the nearest town.

A news report in the New Civil Engineer this morning has suggested that the thirty-three trapped Chilean minors could possibly be looking forward to an early release from the copper mine in Chile where they have been trapped since August 5.

The minors have been trapped in an underground tunnel since a landslide blocked the mineshaft of the San Jose copper mine, located in the northern Atatcama Desert in Chile. Despite initial fears that all thirty-three men had perished in the landslide, signs of life were discovered on August 22 and a borehole drilled down into the mine soon established that all of the men were safe and well.

Since then, a complex rescue operation has been initiated and hundreds of men are currently involved in the project. There are three simultaneous drilling operations taking place to tunnel down through more than half a mile of solid rock. First estimates predicted that this rescue attempt would take at least three to four months to reach the minors due to the depth of the mine, but it now appears that the men could be rescued sooner than anticipated.

Sebastian Pinera, President of Chile, is hopeful that the men will be released before he travels to Europe for a week on October 15. He is keen to be present when all thirty-three men are finally brought up to the surface and reunited with their families, as he knows it will be a momentous occasion for Chile.

Although they have now been trapped underground for nearly nine weeks, the Chilean minors are apparently in good spirits and are coping well with their ordeal. Psychologists are monitoring their progress and the men are able to receive food, fresh water, medicines, gifts and letters from their families, plus other essential supplies, as everything is being transported down a narrow borehole.