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Demonstration of remote mine seal construction.

Gray TA; Trevits MA; Crayne LM; Glogowski P

Trans Soc Min Metall Explor 2007 Jan; 320:31-37

http://transactions.smenet.org/

20032512

Mine seals can be remotely constructed in underground coal mines, through vertical boreholes, when direct access to a fire is impossible or considered to be too dangerous. This method has great merit because boreholes can be drilled to specific mine areas and seals can be positioned close to a fire zone. The technology however, can be largely ineffective if the constructed seals do not provide effective barriers to airflow or cannot be used to impound water and other inert materials. Unfortunately, no viable alternatives exist to sealing the entire mine at the ground surface. Full-scale remote mine seal construction research is being conducted at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's Lake Lynn Laboratory. Under this effort, Howard Concrete Pumping Co. and GAI Consultants, Inc., have joined forces to evaluate a potentially significant improvement to the current state of the art. This paper describes the development of novel technology for remote mine seal construction, evaluation of the materials used, construction practice, and followup testing.

Underground-mining; Coal-mining; Mine-fires; Mine-seals; Safety-research

NIOSH Pittsburgh Research Laboratory, P.O. Box 18070, Pittsburgh, PA 15236

TMEIE3

20070101

Journal Article

Yernberg WR

2007

9780873352550

1075-8623

PRL

Transactions of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration

PA