Sand Mining in India

        Sand Mining is to remove the sand particles which can be used for construction or for extracting heavier metals. Sand can be mined from natural environment such as terrestrial, rivers, coastal or marine.

        Sand holds a pivotal role in construction. As the population increases, people need homes to live and governement needs to build better infrastructure in which sand is the main construction element. Sand mining is one of the largest mining sectors in terms of volume which can be extracted in billions of tonnes each year thorughout the world.

        Sand mining is done by open pits also known as sand pits and from the ocean beaches, dunes, ocean floors and riverbeds. Mining for sand is simple as scooping up the sand with the front end loader (bogger) and then transporting it with the trucks or conveyors to the desired location. Another usual method to mine sand from the ocean beds or riverbeds is through the foating dredges and then pump them to the processing plant through a pipeline. 

   

        Regulations and laws apply for sand mining in all the countries. Due to the heavy volumes required for construction and infarstructure, the illegal sand mining is common in most of the developing and underdeveloped countries. In India, sand is classified as a minor mineral under Mines and Mineral Development and Regulations Act, 1957 meaning that legal and administrative control is with the state goverments. India has developed a Sand Mining Framework 2018 for regulating the sand mining by individual states.

        Sand mining comes with its own impacts on the environment which have major consequences if the regulations are not in place for sustainable mining. Some of the impacts are as follows

    

Loss of land - Due to extraction or erosion inland, riverside or coastal. This would impact the agricultural lands near riverside. 

Water Supply - Due to removal of sands from the riverbed, it might loose its ability as an aquifer storage leading to water shortages in the area for agriculture and drinking. 

Loss of biodoversity - marine dredging causes a lot of water turbidity which inturn affects the marine life. 

Climate - Sand mining creates fine particles of sand which causes dust that indirectly affects the general population in the area where it is produced and during transportation. The common disease is the silicosis which is a resperable disease caused due to breathing fine dust particles. 

Floods or storms - Erosion of sands near the riverside can cause the water to flow from the eroded areas into the households creating floods or storm like situations which have been observed in many places. 

        Sustainable mining of the sands need to be achieved so that it can be used for the future generation. There are alternatives proposed by various different researchers while teh large scale adoption of the these new products or technologies would simply take time to be implemented without governments support.     

Experimentation!!! Key approach in Coal Mines of China

While the driving force of the world right now is innovation, it is not at all a common term in mining dictionary. The even rare thing is to implement these technologies in the mining industry. The adaption of technologies is very capital intensive which the mining industries would not afford to go for. Though, it is seen that in the recent decades there is a slow and steady pace of growth in adaption of technologies in the mines.

Innovations are only possible when the problems arises or to achieve high targets. Former ones are prominent than the later ones. But both need a platform to experiment to achieve it. Experiments may go either ways, the better way will be written in the books while the worst would go down as the learning for next innovation. The industries fear about the worst part which would make it liable for production loss and don't try to implement the new technology till the problem arises. In the coal mines of China, they go after the high targets creating many problems and in turn creating innovations of unimaginable scales. 

Some short anecdotes about my trip to a experimental working face in a coal mine and the obstacles in this working face. 

            When I entered the experimental panel, it was kind of odd. In all the other coal mines, I could touch the roof while here the roadway looked so big just like a tunnel in metal mines. The usual height is expected to be about 1.5 meters to 3 meters, while it would be surprising to observe a 4.5-meter roadway height in the coal mines. It may be easy to say why does that matter. The deformation observed in the roadway are approximated to be about one meter which is huge including all the available supports in the system. Now, isn't that an interesting fact which can make a person think beyond the capability of the books or the articles. 

            After a long walk of 1.6 kms, we reached the working face. The facts of the coal seam were that it was 850 meters deep, 6 meters thick and longwall mining was employed. In the longwall mining scenario, I usually go through hydraulic props which stabilize the roadway near the working face. While in this working face we were going through shields which were doing the same job. That is a good resource management and a well-directed experiment but an expensive one which can be innovated to make an efficient system. 

            The working face itself possess a greater challenge as the experiment is about extracting the whole coal seam at one go. I may have missed that the the coal seam was inclined too that makes the extraction even more challenging. This high height meant big shields which is not a common sight. They have successfully implemented the big shields but what about the loads they will be going through. How the shield should be loaded in the inclined seams and how the capacity is decided in these big heights? Which are all the questions which are still to be pursued to find the solutions and create wonders in the mining site. 

            Coal mines in China don't work when problem arises. They create a new problem which inturn creates multiple problems. This is the key approach that they are following and have been very successful so far in experimentation and innovations. 

This would be a good message to the industries in the world to not to fear about the experimentation while be determined to go into the books for key innovations not only in the coal industry but in the metal mines industry. 

Mine Rider Journey in a Coal Mine

Transportation of the manpower to the working face is one of the vital part of the mining system. The closer it is to reach the working face, better the efficiency of the people. It does not exhaust the people from walking long distances though it gets habituated after few a month (personal experience). The working time is less effected as the people can work more on the working face than in commuting. 

In the old ages, it started by going through ladders to the coal deposit through small boreholes and excavate for few meters that is short walks to the coal faces. Later, the shafts came into play. Shafts have been a game-changer for the transportation of the manpower as well as for the material. The huge demand in the recent years started making the mines exploit the resources far away from the shaft. The technology was rapidly picking up in these years and then the Man Riding Systems were implemented in coal mines for swift movement of the personnel. 

The importance of personnel energy efficiency and the wastage of working hours made the great leap towards Man Riding Systems. The conventional Man riding systems are conveyor type while the new man riding systems can be through car or trains. I would like to take you all through my Man Riding journey.

In China, everything happens unexpected. It was Sunday evening, I was roaming around the city going through the tourist places and wondering about the beautiful sites. I was very tired and the next thing after I go to the hotel, I get a call that we are visiting a mine tomorrow morning. I am like not even a twenty-four-hour notice about the event. We went near the mine site next day morning and the mine was expected to be about 850 meters deep. The main shaft of the mine went only till about 600 meters as the coal seam at that level was the key focus of the mine last few years.

They said that we need to walk about 1.5 km and I was blindly following the fact that we will reach the face as that distance would be the normal walking distance to any working face. But to my surprise, we just reached a place with large equipment’s with no power in it. The cap lamps were the only prominent lights that made us look at different things. After about five minutes, the system started working and I noticed a new system that I haven’t been experience before, “Man Riding System”.

How cool!!! I heard a lot about these systems and I was excited to ride it and was bit nervous too. The rider seats were coming up and were taking a roundabout to go down. I was the third person to board the man rider. The first person was an old guy, he calmly went to the other side of the roundabout and hold the moving rider and sat on it and was on his path. I thought it is very easy, my confidence level boosted. The second person was my friend, he was more excited than me I assume. He didn’t go to the other side of the roundabout, he sat on the rider on this side itself. The rider due to its centrifugal force hit the wall after the roundabout and his world was shook for an instance but luckily he didn’t get hurt. I lost my whole confidence and was very nervous. Next was my turn.

I tried to calm myself and went to the other side of the roundabout and waited for my rider. I was going through all the thoughts about what do if I can’t get on the rider. After half a minute, there a comes a rider from the roundabout, thinking about what to do first. I can see it coming towards me, then suddenly my instincts made me to hold the rod sit on it like me sit on a Motor Bike (Dhoom Machale!!!! Haha…). But the instant I sat on the rider, it felt more like a Bullock Cart and can serve as perfect example. The speed of the rider was about 1-2m/s and the hanging makes you feel like the bullock cart going through ditches on the road. Then came the place to get down of the rider. It is not easy to get down on a slope. It reminded me of foot boarding which is common in Hyderabad buses. I got down and ran for a meter and a half to a halt.  

 After the visit to the working face, it was the time to go again on the Man rider. Now, I was like super confident about sitting on it. But to sit on the rider when it is going up is bit difficult than I thought. I went to the place near the belt where the rider will arrive, I did hold the bar but surprising when I did my action of sitting on it, I didn’t land on it (Haha). I gave up on that rider as it went away from the place where we were. On the slope, as the rider goes up, you need to be quick to land on it as it goes up the level. I waited for the next one which is 10m away from the one that went away. I made it quick this time to land on it. The same thing was needed on the top.

This was a wonderful experience on the Man rider. The technologies I learnt in Bachelors are now-a-days common things in the mines. I hope these experiences get better and better each passing day.

Image Credits: http://www.aphmel.com/man-riding-chairlift-system.html 

One of the largest underground coal mine in China

           It was my first visit to China fortunate enough as research internship candidate. It is a very unique place especially because of the language barrier where no one knows English. Even though the younger generation is rapidly getting accustomed to English, they are still very far away from getting use to it in the normal life. The beauty of China lies in the behavior of the people where the people are too friendly. For example, if you ask for a direction, most probably they would accompany you till you reach your destination. I can go on writing about the beautiful aspects of China but I would like to mention a wonderful experience in one of the largest producing coal mines.

             China is well known for its coal mining and its technological advances in the last decade. The production in China escalated in last two decades at a rapid rate. The rate can be attributed to the increased efficiency of the coal mine productions such as huge productions from one single coal mine. You may assume what's new in it, there are huge open pit coal mines producing more than 10 MT per annum in other countries. It would be interesting to know that an underground coal mine producing 30 MT of coal per year and surprisingly, it does not stand in the top 10 on the list. It stands fifteenth on  the chart according to the annual coal production in China. The highest recorded annual coal production was 55 MT in china from an underground coal mine. So it raises a question how are they managing it?

             China has very thick coal seams and very flat dipping upto 3°-5° inclinations. The coal seam and the roof layers are such that it is favorable to longwall mining where the width of the face is about 240m and the length of the panel is about 2km with a height of 3.5m. These specifications looks like a normal longwall mine with just a height of the face higher than usual which is 2 - 2.5m. Then question arises how are they able to produce 15 MT of coal annually. Some may say there may be large number of panels running at the same time. It is not the case, there are only two panels in operation and two panels in development. Then how??

           The answer lies in the mining method "Longwall Mining with Top Coal Caving". It was a touch and go topic back in my bachelors where we studied about it but never had a practical aspect of it as we didn't have any mines with that kind of technology in my country. So how does this work?

              Remember, the coal seams here are very thick which is about 20m. The coal is excavated in the bottom 3.5m with longwall mining but the remaining coal left in the roof caves in the back of the shields and recovered by conveyor at the back. It is not a magic that it starts to cave automatically, it has certain conditions that are extensively studied before adopting this method. In this mine, all the conditions are in its favor for the application of this method. From the production rate, it is estimated that 85-90% of the coal on the top is recovered which makes a huge difference in the production. 

              Every mine has its own problems but to tackle it and forward is what makes you successful. It was a learning experience for me. Hope everyone gets to visit these mines to watch the amazing view of the mines. Below is the picture before we entered the coal mine. 

              

Universities in Australia and Canada offering Mining masters'

Typically, there are more number of universities in US offering masters' in mining than any other country in the world. Some other countries that have enough mining universities in mining are Australia and Canada. The universities listed below are not according to the rankings and they are listed only on the basis of offering masters and higher degrees in mining.

Australian Universities:

Western Australia School of Mines (Curtin University)
Kalgoorlie, WA

Mining Area: Hard Rock

Department: Mining and Metallurgical Engineering

University of Adelaide
Adelaide, SA

Mining Area: Hard Rock

Department: School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering

University of New South Wales
Sydney, NSW

Mining Area: Coal

Department: School of Mining Engineering

University of Wollongong
Wollongong, NSW

Mining Area: Coal

Department: Civil/ Mining/ Environmental Engineering

University of Queensland
Brisbane, QLD

Mining Area: Coal

Department: School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering

Federation University
Mount Helen, VIC

Mining Area: Coal

Department: Mining Engineering


Canadian Universities:

University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC

Mining Area: Hard Rock

Department: Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering

McGill University
Montreal, QC

Mining Area: Hard Rock

Department: Mining and Material Engineering

Queens University
Kingston, ON

Mining Area: Hard Rock

Department: Mining Engineering

University of Alberta
Edmonton, AB

Mining Area: Hard Rock

Department: Civil and Environmental Engineering

Laurentian University
Sudbury, ON

Mining Area: Hard Rock

Department: Bharti School of Engineering


All the best folks. Decide yourself which university you want to pursue in. 

US Universities offering Masters' in Mining

When compared to Universities offering masters in Computer Science, there are very few (handful) universities which offer masters in mining engineering in United States. The list consists of the universities not according to the rankings.

List of Universities:

1) Southern Illinois University

    Carbondale, IL

Department: Mining and Mineral Resources Engineering

Research Type: Coal

No. of Professors: 03 - 05

2) University of Kentucky
    Lexington, KY

Department: Mining Engineering

Research Type: Coal

No. of Professors: 09 - 11

3) Missouri University of Science and Technology

    Rolla, MO

Department: Mining and Nuclear Engineering

Research areas: Geomechanics and Blasting

No. of Professors: 14 - 20

4) Colorado School of Mines
    Golden, CO

Department: Mining and Earth Systems Engineering
                     Underground Construction and Tunneling

Research Type: Coal, Hard Rock and Tunneling

No. of Professors: 14 - 17 in Mining and Earth Systems Engineering
                              The faculty in the Underground Construction and Tunneling comprises of different departments. Check that out on the website. 

5) South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
    Rapid City, SD

Department: Mining Engineering and Management

Research Type: Coal

No. of Professors: 05 - 08

6) Michigan Technological University
    Houghton, MI

Department: Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences

Research Type: Hard Rock

No. of Professors: Very few faculty are actually in Mining while the others are involved in geology.

7) West Virginia University
    Morgantown, WV

Department: Mining Engineering

Research Type: Coal

No. of Professors: 09 - 11

8) Virginia Tech
    Blacksburg, VA

Department: Mining and Mineral Engineering

Research Type: Coal

No. of Professors: 10 - 11

9) Pennsylvania State University
    University Park, PA

Department: Energy and Mineral Engineering
Program:Mining Engineering

Research Type: Coal, Hard Rock and Geomechanics

No. of Professors: 07 - 12

10) University of Utah
      Salt Lake City, UT

Department: Mining Engineering

Research Type: Hard Rock and Coal

No. of Professors: 08 - 13

11) University of Nevada
      Reno, NV

Department: Mining and Metallurgical Engineering

Research Type: Hard Rock

No. of Professors: 08 - 10

12) University of Arizona
      Tucson, AZ

Department: Mining and Geological Engineering

Research Type: Hard Rock

No. of Professors: 12 - 13

13) University of Alaska Fairbanks
      Fairbanks, AK

Department: Mining and Geological Engineering

Research Type: Hard Rock

No. of Professors: 08

14) New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
      Socorro, NM

Department: Mineral Engineering

Research Type: Hard Rock

No. of Professors: 06 - 12

Steps before applying masters in mining

Students usually confuse themselves over applying for masters’ degree. There are two types of degrees i.e. Master of Science / Philosophy (M.Sc. / M.Phil.) and Master of Engineering (M. Eng.). This has been cleared in the article “Should you Opt M.S. or M.Eng. in Mining?” While the previous article deals with the differences, in this article I would like to share the steps to apply for a M.S. / M.Phil. degree in Mining.

The most frequently asked question “How do I start applying for a M.S. / M.Phil. in Mining?” There isn’t a rule book to follow the steps that would lead towards successful application but the following steps would allow you to understand the way to apply for masters’ degree.

Step 1:

Decide which mining field you want to set your foot into.

It implies either to choose the coal mining stream or the hard rock mining stream. The research topics are highly different in both the cases.

Step 2:

Decide which mining research area you are interested to work in.

There are various research areas depending on the field opted. The coal mining sector has a numerous research areas related to ventilation such as methane detection and monitoring, ground control such as roof support and monitoring, etc. The hard rock sector involves mine planning, stoping methods and rock mechanics. The other emerging area in the mining is geomechanics. 

Step 3:

Make a list of professors working in that area.

Look at the present projects that are carried out by the professors and study a bit about the projects to get an overview of the working area. Make a list of the professors after getting an overview over their projects. This would be much shorter list which would make it easier to approach.

Step 4:

Contact the professors on the list.

Create a two page resume with a purpose of writing to the professor clearly stating your interest areas. Some of the professors respond to these type of emails which clearly mentions the result of the mail. But some of the professors ignore as they have high inflow of emails, in such case you need to contact the research students under the professor to know about the availability of project and the funds. Direct applications to the universities can get rejected as the professors may have sufficient students for the project. This ensures you to apply for specific universities rather than applying randomly over ten universities and hoping to get accepted from somewhere. This will also save application fees over a number of universities.

Step 5:

Apply to the universities with the positive response from the professor and few in the universities you feel the projects are appealing.

These are the steps that will make you understand about what masters by research is all about and how to chase your dream towards your area. Hope this would help people applying to Master of Science in Mining Engineering. Best of luck to everyone.  

Mining Museum in India

With the essence of preserving history of the nation, museums are built to display the artifacts of the old age works. A

rtifacts can be anything from coins, paintings and the display of the objects or the working procedures. India is well known for mining of the gold since first millennium BC. However, there has never been made an effort to build and preserve the artifacts of the age old mining methods in the Kolar Gold Fields to display it to the future generations. While on other side, the coal mining that has started in the year 1774 in India has been artificially reproduced in the Science and Technology museum to remember the history of the nation towards the technological growth.

One of the Science and Technology Museum that incorporates the replica of the mine workings is Birla Industrial and Technological Museum. 

The museum building has a fascinating story in itself from being a luxurious living mansion of Tagore’s to becoming a first science and technological museum of India named after one of the famous business man, G.D. Birla. He contributed the whole mansion towards developing a beautiful science park in the midst of Kolkata, capital city of West Bengal and the then most modern city of India.

The Museum was inaugurated in 1959. While the Mock up coal mine was set up in 1983. While only mining people have the knowledge of underground scenario, it is an interesting model to represent the scenario to the general public. They claim it to be the only kind which has been developed across the country for display to the public.

The model incorporates the coal mining method which represents the people excavating the coal manually and with the help of the machinery such as coal cutting machines. The illumination methods inside the deep underground mine have been demonstrated to the people before the era of electric lamps. The air flow in the model has also been setup using fans to recognize the efforts towards the ventilation in the mining scenario to direct the fresh air in the working areas. They have also incorporated the support systems used in the mine to support the roof from falls.

Museum people have made up a fantastic effort towards creating a replica of the mine to display it to the general public.

There should be more museums built to show the different types of the mining methods not only in coal but also in metal and display it to the general public. This will not only build up the awareness among the public but also boost the tourism in India. 

What are the different stages of mine life?

                      When a person wants to achieve a goal, he follows a series of steps to meet the specific requirements of the goal. 

                     For an example, let's say for cooking, the first stage includes to find the things to cook such as vegetables, cookery which can be found in supermarkets.The second stage of cooking include the quantity required to cook which needs to bought. The things that are need to be done to vegetables is the third stage which includes cutting, heating the pan. The final stage of cooking is to cook the items and it finishes your goal of cooking. The first three stages are as important as the last stage, but the last stage holds the prime importance as everything depends on its success.

                     A similar story runs around in mining.  First stage is to inspect the locations to find the type of minerals present at that location which is called prospecting. Once the minerals are found, the quantity of the minerals, depth of the deposit and the surroundings of the mineral can be investigated which is known as exploration. To reach the deposit, a pathway needs to be prepared which can be removal of overburden or declines or shafts and crosscuts which is known as development. The most important stage of the mine life is exploitation of the mineral i.e. extraction of the mineral which can be done by several methods. While the cooking has only four stages, mining has fifth stage known as reclamation which is to fill up the area with other material such that there are no pot holes created or to make that useful. 

Prospecting:

                    There are different types of methods to find the potential locations of the minerals such as 

1. Geological methods
2. Geo-chemical methods 
3. Geophysical methods

Geological methods can be used to find the minerals with the help of visual inspection which can be found on the earth surface. 

Geo-chemical methods can be best describes as some plants are grow in abundance at the sites of the certain minerals which makes geologist job easy to make a guess of the minerals according to the surroundings.

Geophysical methods make use of gravitational, seismic, electrical, magnetic, electromagnetic and radiometric methods to find the minerals inside the mother earth. 

Exploration:

               This is the stage where the extents of the mineral are found by drilling and collecting the core logs. The tonnage calculations and the grade determinations are made to estimate the value of the deposit. The feasibility studies are conducted to categorize the mineral into reserves or the future resources which simply means if the mineral can be extracted with the existing technology economically or which is not economically at current state and the up-gradation of the technology can make the extraction of the mineral economical.

Development:

               Development depends on the depth of the mineral deposits which may be characterized as the near the earth surface deposits and the deeply buried mineral deposits that are characterized based upon the value of the mineral. 

For near surface mineral deposit, the overburden rock/soil  is stripped covering the deposit to gain access for exploitation of the mineral which become the surface mining methods. 

For deeply buried mineral deposits. the openings are excavated such as shafts, declines, adits, inclines to reach the deeply buried deposits to prepare for underground mining methods.

Exploitation:

              Prime important stage of mining is started when enough development is done to ensure that production once started continues uninterrupted. The development goes on in succession with the production. There are different mining methods used to exploit a mineral from the mother earth. The mining methods are dependent on the type, depth and extent of the mineral deposit. Safety, technology, environmental concerns and economics ultimately derive the selection of the mining method. On a broad scale, the mining methods are classified into

1. Surface Mining Methods
2. Underground Mining Methods

Reclamation:

            The reclamation of the mine site is of paramount importance. The plans of the reclamation should be submitted before the development of the mine is started which ensure the goal of sustainability. The planned works during the reclamation process are to restore the land surface and make the plantations on that area to make it habitable and monitor the water quality through the years. The old mine sites have been converted into national parks, golf courses. lakes, underground storage facilities, solid waste disposal areas and others which benefits the society in one form or the other. 

                      

                  This is a cyclic process, the available land is prospected, explored, mined and reclaimed. 

Picture Sources:

911metallurgist.com

evancollis.com.au

miningglobal.com

uky.edu

technology.infomine.com

Which is the deepest mine in India?

                    Mining is all about who well you can dig and how deep you can dig to get the desired mineral. In the process, India have also evolved to innovate methods to dig deep and have constructed one of the world's deepest mines.

Deepest mine in India (Non functional):

Kolar Gold Fields

Owned by Bharat Gold Mines Limited BGML (now closed) 

Depth - 3200 meters (10500 feet)

Mineral - Gold 

Currently not operating

Will be resuming the operations in near future. 

Initially extracted as Open Pit Mines and later developed into underground mines and has been one of the deepest mines in the world. 

Deepest Mine in India (Operational): 

Jaduguda Uranium Mine

Owned by Uranium Corporation India Limited (UCIL)

Depth - 914.4 m (3000 feet)

Mineral - Uranium 

One of the oldest uranium mine. 

Richest grade of uranium is found in Jaduguda

Horizontal Cut and fill mining Method with backfill  

IN FUTURE,

Deepest mines in India:

Sindesar Khurd Mine

Owned by Hindustan Zinc Limited (Subsidiary of Vedanta Resources Plc.)

Depth - 1050 m (3450 feet)

Mineral - Zinc and lead concentrates 

By product - Silver

Currently not yet producing at that depth, shift sinking in process.

Blast Hole Open Stoping with paste fill

Rampura Agucha Mine

Owned by Hindustan Zinc Limited (Subsidiary of Vedanta Resources Plc.)

Depth - 950 m (3120 feet)

Mineral - Zinc and lead concentrates 

Simultaneous Open cast and Underground mining operations

Underground operations are still in development stage

Long hole open stoping with pastefill

Deepest Underground Coal Mine:

Chinakuri Coal Mine

Owned by Eastern Coalfield Limited (Subsidiary of Coal India Limited)

Depth - 700 m (2300 feet)

First coal mine in India 

Non Functional (Stopped after an explosion)

Bord and Pillar Mining Method