Alan Bailes, Weber Mining & Tunnelling S.A.S, Australia, discusses recent advances in safety, using remote seals for the confinement of cavities in an Australian coal mine as an example.
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ine fires are fought indirectly when access to the fire zone is impossible, as a result of: safety restrictions, blocked underground access, a limited supply of available firefighting materials, or a fire zone that is too large for available underground personnel. This approach involves sealing the mine or construction area off, using in-mine temporary seals as ventilation-control structures to isolate the fire area. These in-mine seals can be constructed from within the mine, or remotely through boreholes. Sealing the mine or isolating the fire or heating event area is designed to control or extinguish the fire by reducing the oxygen concentration in the mine atmosphere to a level that will not support combustion.
Rocsil® LS1 foam has a history of being used in underground coal mines around the world. The product is commonly used to provide confinement in open void areas (cavities) above longwall shields and roadways, improving safety for coal mine workers. The foam is an effective solution in recovering collapsed roadways and enabling longwalls to retreat more efficiently when experiencing poor mining conditions. For remote sealing, specially designed equipment effectively delivers the foam product into mine roadways or shafts without the need for labour to be deployed underground, or when exclusion zones are in place on the surface. Once the critical mine event is under control,
global mining review // October 2021
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