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International Journal for Mining, Equipment and Technology Made in Germany
Glckauf 1-2010
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3 Glckauf mining reporter 1-2010
MINING REPORTER
GLCKAUF
mining reporter
International Journal for Mining,
Equipment and Technology
Made in Germany
Copyright:
VGE Verlag GmbH, Essen
Publishing House:
VGE Verlag GmbH
P.O. Box 18 56 20 45206 Essen
Federal Republic of Germany
Internet www.vge.de
E-Mail info@vge.de
Telefax +49 20 54 9 24 - 109
Phone +49 20 54 9 24 - 0
Managing Director:
Kristian Senn, sn@vge.de
Michael Ullrich-Ley, ul@vge.de
Chief Editor:
Dipl.-Ing. Karsten Gutberlet, kg@vge.de
Advertising sales:
Ute Perkovi c, per@vge.de
Distribution Manager:
Michael Ullrich-Ley, ul@vge.de
Producer and DTP-Production:
Kerstin Finkensiep, kf@vge.de
Herbert Stimper, sti@vge.de
Kathrin Giertz, kag@vge.de
Printed by:
Mnch Medien & Print, Essen, Germany
April 2010
ISSN 0176-4101
EDITORIAL
MACHINERY
Scooptram ST 14 loader is setting
new standards for equipment,
safety, performance, ergonomics
and serviceability in the com-
petitive 12 to 16-t market segment Karl-Heinz Wennmohs 6
Implementing the new EU emission
regulations: the challenge facing
mining equipment manufacturers Gnther Robert Saelho 11
Transport Technology in Room
and Pillar Coal Operations
An Overview Marinus J. Pouls 17
30 years of GTA Maschinensysteme
A Lower Rhine success story Karsten Gutberlet 22
SHAFT SINKING
Shaft sinking north of the
Arctic Circle Oleg Kaledin,
Planning, construction and installation Andreas Ne,
of the WS 10 mine project for MMC Dietmar Schilling and
Norilsk Nickel, Moscow, Russia Andre Marais 26
HEALTH AND SAFETY
A Safe Method for Cutting down
Production Loss in Case of a Mine Walter Hermlheim
Fire and Andreas Betka 31
PLANNING
Hard rock mining the opencast
way versus a combination of
opencast and deep mining Alexander Hennig,
methods Christian Niemann-Delius
An energy balance sheet and Thorsten Skrypzak 37
METHANE
International CMM and
VAM Project Development
Experiences of a Mining Consultant Thomas Imgrund 42
Paul Rheinlnder 4
4 Glckauf mining reporter 1-2010
EDITORIAL
W
ith an exhibition area of over 500,000 m
2

bauma has established itself as one of the
largest trade fairs in the world. Hardly any
other exhibition in the branch has a wider range of
exhibits and no other event is more international. At
the last exhibition in 2007 more than half the 3,002
exhibitors came from abroad (49 countries). 155,000
of the more than 500,000 visitors came from abroad
(191 countries). The number of exhibitors at bauma
2010 will probably not be less than the above gure. It
will probably be dicult to repeat the record number
of visitors in 2007. In any case it will be interesting to
know the prevailing sentiment among the exhibitors
and visitors. Hence bauma is not only a huge market
place on an international scale, but also acts as an
important sentiment barometer for the branch.
A special feature of bauma is the concept of the
partner region implemented for the fourth time this
year. Following Latin America, the CIS states and the
Arabian peninsula India is the partner country this year.
Not much need be said with regard to the potential
of India for the branch: with about 440 Mill. t it is the
third largest coal producer and with about 1.2 bn in-
habitants it has the second highest population in the
world, a young population and is the source of hopes
for global economic development. Hence an attractive
programme is also being prepared for Indian visitors.
The guests will include politicians and representatives
of the mining industry, who will provide information
on development of the mining sector in the course of
the Indian special in the afternoon on 21 April 2010
in the bauma forum in the Mining Hall C2. In addi-
tion to representatives of the Ministry of Coal the
speakers will include managers of the coal companies
Coal India, Singareni Collieries and the state-owned
ore mining company National Mineral Development
Corporation (NMDC).
In addition to India further country specials will deal
with Russia, Latin America and South-east Asia. The
specials will focus on contributions from the countries
to the current situation and future development in
the mining industry. The visitors to the events in the
bauma forum can thus obtain impressions at rst hand
with regard to the opportunities and possibilities for
business in these regions. The four regions are markets,
to which mining equipment from Germany has been
sold on an increasing scale in recent years and which
exhibit potential for further growth.
India
India oers in particular good sales opportunities in the
medium and long term. With an annual production of
about 440 Mill. t the sub-continent is the third largest
coal producer in the world. By 2012 output will have
risen to 520 Mill. t. Exports to the country increased
more than tenfold by the end of 2008 and will reach
a level of about 60 Mill. in 2009.
Russia
Exports to Russia more than doubled to 353 Mill. be-
tween 2005 and 2008. In 2009 a volume of 235 Mill.
was achieved. Russia will nevertheless remain the most
important foreign market.
Latin America
Latin America is developing into an emerging region
in the branch. Exports to Central and South America
increased tenfold between 2005 and 2009 and rose to
more than 130 Mill. . Copper and important mineral
raw materials are the main growth promoters.
South-east Asia
The south-east Asian market depends to a large extent
on the Chinese demand for coal and raw materials.
However, momentum for growth also emanates from
the economies of the other countries in the region. In
2008 Indonesia produced 150 Mill. t coal. The Philip-
pines are not yet a coal exporter, but have numerous
mineral resources, which will be developed and worked
in the next few years.
An important factor in the success of German mining
engineering on the world markets is probably the
cooperation of the manufacturers with the mining
institutes at the German universities.
Three universities highly respected internationally
are in the forefront: the oldest mining faculty in the
world, the TU Bergakademie Freiberg, the RWTH
Aachen established in 1870 and TU Clausthal are
collaborating closely in the search for ways to meet
the requirements of customers for ecient and safe
technology for the extraction and processing of raw
materials. These universities will likewise report on
their main areas of current research at the week-end
in the bauma forum. In addition 14 universities and
research institutes from all over the world will describe
the latest research results at the Research live stand.
To indicate aspects of the mining activities along
the value creation chain the German Federation of
International Mining and Mineral Resources (FAB)
will be present at the VDMA stand in Hall C2 at the
bauma exhibition.
I hope that as exhibitors and visitors you will have
an informative, interesting and successful time at
bauma 2010.
Glckauf!
bauma 2010 branch event, sentiment barometer, market place
Dr.-Ing. Paul Rheinlnder, Chairman of the Mining Machinery Section in VDMA and managing director of
Gebr. Eickho Maschinefabrik und Eisengiesserei GmbH, Bochum, Germany
Sinking
Drilling and heading
Extraction (underground)
Roof support
Cutting heads
Shearer drums
Conveying and transport
Ventilation and air
conditioning
Open-cast mining
Highwall mining
equipment
Process control and
automation
Central control and
stations
Disposal mining
Deep well drilling
Preperation plants
Coke oven and equipment
Up-garding plant
Driving aggregate
Pumps and compressors
Electrical equipment and
Control devices
Communication, data
processing and transmission
Measuring devices and safety
installations
Pneumatic and hydraulic tools
Tools
Safety measures and health
protection
Chemical products and build-
ing materials
Fittings and valves
Chains, ropes, pipes, wires
and wire goods
Rubber and plastic
products
Fixing materials, bearing
lubrication and other products
Mining companies/
contractors
Consulting/Engineering
Machines and plants for
process control, process
measuring technique
Mining companies
Environmental Protection
Pit gas
Research, theory,
technology transfer
Mining special literature,
lm and photo documentary
Other products
Personal protective
equipment
Firedamp protection,
re prevention, environment
protection
General safety at mines
Main exhibit categories
Organisers Organisers
11
th
International Trade Fair
for Mining Technology
Exploration, Underground Mining,
Open-Cast Mining,
Mineral Processing and
Coal Preparation
710 September 2010
Donetsk/Ukraine
Messe Dsseldorf GmbH
Messeplatz
40474 Dsseldorf
Germany
Phone +49/211/45 60-02
Fax +49/211/45 60-77 40
info@messe-duesseldorf.de
www.messe-duesseldorf.de
17
th
International Trade Fair
for Mining Technology
Exploration, Underground Mining,
Open-Cast Mining,
Mineral Processing and
Coal Preparation
14 June 2010
Novokuznetsk/Russia
www.ugol-mining.com
Now with Special Feature
Safety & Security
N
ow
w
ith

Sp
ecial Featu
re
Safety &
Secu
rity
6 Mining Reporter 1-2010
MACHINERY
Scooptram ST 14 loader is setting new
standards for equipment, safety, perform-
ance, ergonomics and serviceability in the
competitive 12 to 16-t market segment
Dipl.-Ing. Karl-Heinz Wennmohs, Atlas Copco MCT GmbH, Essen, Germany
T
he global demand for high-performance loaders
for the deep mining industry, usually known as
LHDs (load-haul-dump loader), has undergone
an erratic development over the last ten years in terms
of the demands of users and the transport capabilities
of the dierent machine series and manufacturers. The
trend towards larger unit sizes has now clearly estab-
lished itself, with the 12- to 16-t-class having developed
into a lucrative market segment for manufacturers.
Developments in this particular area cannot simply
be initiated by the manufacturers alone from a purely
marketing perspective, as the end-customer will ulti-
mately have to be included in the design process if any
project of this kind is to be successfully completed as
a builder-user partnership.
Looking back
When the mining industry talks about mobile load-
ing and transport machines we generally hear names
like
LHDs,
Loaders,
Muckers,
Boggers,
Scoopy,
The Wagner and
The Scoop.
But there is one name that has now established itself
worldwide and that is Scooptram.
Developments in the raw materials market
have dramatically driven up demand for
underground loaders in recent years. At the
same time mines have opened up greater
opportunities for LHDs in the larger size
range. The 12- to 16-t-class is now an impor-
tant sector of the global LHD market and
Atlas Copco has developed a completely
new machine for this particular segment.
The decisive criterion for LHDs is perform-
ance in tonnes per shift. If identical power
categories are being matched one against
the machine with the higher productivity
will soon win out. As well as pure perform-
ance, factors such as operating costs and
machine availability are also important
criteria in the selection process. All these
features, plus the ergonomic constraints
imposed by the operators workplace, were
taken into account during a collaborative
design process involving a number of global
mining companies and the result was the
Scooptram ST 14.
During the period 1940 to 1955 the Elmer brothers
and Eddie Wagner developed diesel-powered loading
and transport vehicles for surface worksites.
During this time experience was built up in the
design of four-wheel drive and articulated steering
Figure 1. The rst
underground
LHD the Scoop
MS-1.
MACHINERY
systems. In 1958 Eddie Wagner founded the Wagner
Mining Scoop Company and presented his rst mobile
loader for the deep mining industry. Designated the
Scoop MS-1 this machine was the forerunner of
todays generation of LHDs (Figure 1).
The new Scooptram ST-5, which went into service in
1963, heralded the market launch of the LHD concept.
This range of machines led to the successful worldwide
introduction of LHD technology during the years 1963
to 1975 (Figure 2).
The Wagner company took out a large number of
technical patents over the years, including the design
for the E-o-D (Eject or Dump) bucket. The SAHR (Spring
Applied, Hydraulically Released) braking system was
also a key development from this period.
Wagner was taken over by Atlas Copco in 1989.
In 2002 the rm relocated from Portland, Oregon,
USA, to rebro in Sweden and was renamed Atlas
Copco Wagner.
Design and development
A global market and demand analysis was rst car-
ried out for the development of the new Scooptram
ST 14 range. This identied a clear trend towards a
shift in LHD sizes in the underground mining industry.
Machines in the 6- to 10-t-category were being sup-
planted by equipment in the 10 to 15-t class, while
turnover in the 18- to 22-t-category was stagnating or
even switching to smaller sized machines. In the case
of the smaller types of machine this can naturally be
attributed to the fact that larger and more powerful
loaders are being introduced in order to increase the
output per working unit, although the trend that has
been observed in the heavyweight class is harder to
explain. The reasons for it lie partly in the operating
conditions, while in some cases it has been found that
the vehicle components, powertrain and tyres have
reached the limits of their operating capacity.
The technical capabilities of an LHD vehicle are
primarily measured by its loading and transport ca-
pacity per shift. A loader whose haulage potential is
Figure 2.
Scooptram ST-5.
Figure 3. Cut and
ll stoping.
Hauhinco Maschinenfabrik
G. Hausherr, Jochums GmbH & Co. KG
Beisenbruchstrae 10
559 5prcckbveI - ermany

Phone: +49 (0) 2324 - 705 - 0
Fax: +49 (0) 2324 - 705 - 222
E-Mail: info@hauhinco.de
Strong and Quiet! EHP-3K 300
Our newest pump generation features:

x Input power of 300 kW
x Flow rates ranging from 324 to 443 l/min
x Operating pressures up to 500 bar
x Low noise level
x Rigb energy efficiency
x Optimized pressure pulsation reduction
x Variable drive capable from 0 to 100%
(optional)
x ExtremeIy ccmpact design
www.hauhinco.de
Bauma 2010:
Hall C2, 111/216 | bauma.hauhinco.de

QME 2010: Booth 4033
MACHINERY
After numerous eld trials at various mines the
ST 14 was declared ready for series production and
was then purchased by mine operators around the
world for use in typical LHD applications, e.g. for cut
and ll stoping (Figure 3), loading ore and bringing in
back ll material, as well as for sub-level stoping and
room and pillar mining methods.
All these typical mining applications assume a
dened maximum distance for the LHD transport
cycle. What this distance will be will depend on a
number of factors and will naturally dier from one
mine to the next.
Machine performance
Getting the optimum performance from an LHD vehicle
essentially depends on how quickly and readily it can
ll the bucket. This operation is very aptly described
as one-pass loading, which simply means that the
loader with its power and optimal scoop design
penetrates the muck easier in a single pass, loads the
bucket and then continues on to the dumping point
(Figure 4).
Another important factor for optimum loader de-
ployment is operator visibility in the loading direction
and when reversing at speed.
A cab height of 2,550 mm aords the driver an
excellent line of sight in both travel directions over the
top of the engine compartment and bucket, which
are 1,980 mm in height (Figure 5).
The load sensing system tted to the hydraulic cir-
cuit provides about 44 % more available performance
compared with similarly powered machines with open
centre hydraulic systems, which is particularly useful
when digging. This system can deliver a 14 % increase
in travel speed on ramps with a 15 % gradient. This
increased speed, combined with faster lling of the
bucket, are the factors that make for a higher loading
performance.
With the load-sensing system the hydraulic ow is
determined by the actual demand and oil leakages
are reduced to minor adjustment ows. This reduces
the energy input and the motor consumes about 10 %
less fuel than similarly powered units with open centre
hydraulic systems.
About 20 years ago the rst Atlas Copco under-
ground drilling machines were tted with a CAN
bus system for control purposes. Over the years this
technology also came to be used on other product
ranges. It was therefore decided at the planning and
design phase that the CAN bus control system (or
RCS Rig Control System) should also be tted to this
new generation of loaders.
The hardware and software installed on the Scoop-
tram ST 14 provides an ideal platform for ongoing
machine automation.
Safety and ergonomics
As part of the pilot study a new generation of opera-
tor compartments was built specically for this new
model range. These ROPS and FOPS tested cabs feature
a larger window area for improved operator visibility
and noise levels are now reduced to a maximum of
Figure 4. Bucket
design.
technically smaller than that of a larger machine can
however prove to be a better solution if it is faster and
more mobile in its movements, with the result that it
can deliver a signicantly higher shift performance.
And this also applies when viewed from the other
perspective: the much larger vehicle with its relatively
slow movements will deliver a lower output per shift
and will therefore be inferior to the smaller machine.
In addition to these fundamental considerations
factors such as diesel consumption and ergonomic/
operator-friendly design are now coming increasingly
to the fore. This is covered in a separate section.
The demands of the market, a comparative review
of the dierent types of loader currently in service
and the need for a real improvement in the existing
systems and technical features led to the development
of the 14-t Scooptram ST 14.
Figure 5.
Scooptram ST 14
technical data and
dimensions.
MACHINERY
80 dB(A). The operator is now exposed to much lower
levels of vibration, a factor that was greatly appreciated
by loader drivers during underground eld trials, along
with the improvement in machine performance.
If the cab door is not fully closed the braking systems
are switched to parking mode, the steering cannot be
activated and the bucket and boom are also hydrauli-
cally locked (Figure 6).
The Atlas Copco foot box is another signicant
comfort factor for the operator during his long stints
on board the vehicle (Figure 7). The new box fea-
tures hanging control pedals that ensure maximum
Figure 6. The loader cannot be operated
with the cab door open.
Figure 7. Atlas Copco foot box.
Figure 8. Fields
of vision from the
new operators
compartment.
Please visit us at bauma 2010, in hall C2, booth 308 and hall C3, booth 311
MACHINERY
legroom and allow the driver to stretch out his legs
for maximum comfort.
Visibility from the operators compartment was
greatly improved as a result of simulation exercises
carried out during the Scooptram ST 14 planning and
design phase (Figure 8).
The benets of the new cab design were very
positively received by LHD drivers.
Servicing and maintenance
Servicing and maintenance experience acquired from
mines around the world was taken into consideration
when planning the ST 14 loader and this is reected
in the design of the new vehicle.
All key maintenance routines, such as lter chang-
ing, valve inspections and oil level checks, can now be
undertaken on the ground.
The RCS control system is able to identify the re-
quired maintenance work and log the servicing data
for future reference. It also provides extensive diag-
nostic support for troubleshooting with information
displayed on the on-board display screen.
This information can additionally be transferred to
the mines existing data system and in this way can
be used for scheduling maintenance work while at
the same time performing fault analysis and trouble-
shooting routines.
Outlook
Fitted with the latest generation of diesel engines to
comply with current emission regulations the new se-
ries of LHDs in the 12- to 16-t-class has been designed
to meet the demands of todays mining industry.
Everyone involved in the development of the new
range is fully aware of the vehicle emission limits
that are to be imposed on underground loaders and
dumpers in the run-up to 2015. A typical example
taken from the dumper sector illustrates just how
tough these targets are:
Current vehicle emission limits in 1995 for single
dumper vehicles will be equivalent to the emissions
from 85 similarly sized dumpers from 2015 on.
This fact represents a real challenge for motor and
vehicle manufacturers and it is one that will have to be
solved within a relatively short period of time. With
its forward-looking design the ST 14 loader is already
geared up for future emission reduction targets.
LHD operations typically involve repetitive cycles
over the working shift. At the extraction face this means
taking material from the muck pile and transferring it
to a continuous conveyor or drop-hole, while in stope
lling operations it will involve collecting the back ll
material (from the drop-hole or bunker) and transport-
ing it along a roadway to the discharge point.
In critical areas the loader can also be used in
remote-control mode so that the driver can operate
the machine by radio from a safe distance. Advanced
on-board video camera technology is now available
that allows the loader to be remotely operated from
practically any part of the mine.
But the real breakthrough involves the progressive
automation of the loading and transport cycles. The
rst step in this direction will see the machine making
the trip from the loading point to the tipping area
automatically and without any assistance. The actual
loading and dumping cycle will be completed manu-
ally by remote control. Such operations could also be
continued during shift changeovers when blasting is
carried out.
The key factor in all this is the need for an on-board
operator and everyone involved in developing this new
technology is working towards the ultimate objective
of the fully manless LHD cycle.
The rst steps have now been taken in this direction
with the Scooptram ST 14, whose design remit included
this development objective from day one.
The automation system should be hands-on,
tailored to the task and highly functional. All the
hardware components required to operate the au-
tomatic control system are now on the machine. All
that is needed is the availability of and connection to
the mines own performance-capable Wireless LAN
network (Figure 9).
Excellent results have already been achieved with
the Scooptram ST 14 set up to deliver back lling mate-
rial, in other words permanently assigned to carrying
out a repetitive working cycle.
Further deployments in various mines around the
world have conrmed this. While a number of require-
ments have yet to be met for example there is still a
catalogue of questions surrounding the actual one
pass loading system it seems likely that the experi-
ence acquired to date will be sucient to resolve any
outstanding problems in this area.
Figure 9.
Scooptram ST 14
equipped for
automatic
operation.
MACHINERY
Implementing the new EU emission
regulations: the challenge facing
mining equipment manufacturers
Dipl.-Ing. Gnther Robert Saelho, GHH Fahrzeuge GmbH, Gelsenkirchen, Germany
C
ontrols on emissions from diesel vehicles are
now being applied in the o-road sector with
the introduction of the next stage of the emis-
sion reduction programme in the EU, in North America
and in Japan. The switchover from EU Stage III A to EU
Stage III B, and from Tier 3 to Tier 4 Interim, will have a
much greater impact on motor and engine builders and
original equipment manufacturers than the gradual
introduction of the previous emission stages.
For engines with a power rating above 130 kW
Stage III B is due to come into force at the turn of
2010/2011, while for the 56 to 130 kW range the new
regulations will take eect in late 2011/early 2012.
The permitted limits for:
Vehicles for todays deep mining industry are
now subject to the same exhaust gas restric-
tions as their o-road counterparts above
ground. The space constraints imposed on
mining vehicles mean that considerable ef-
fort and expense is needed to t the coolers
and other components needed for the ex-
haust-gas aftertreatment system. By taking
large-capacity LHD vehicles as an example
the paper examines the kind of constructive
measures now being contemplated so that
even mining machinery of this kind can be
equipped with SCR technology.
NO
X
(nitrous oxide),
CO (carbon monoxide),
HC (hydrocarbons) and
PM (particulates)
are shown in Figure 1. There are no limit values for
CO
2
(carbon dioxide) (1).
While the limits imposed by Stage EU III A/Tier 3
Interim could be achieved by engine-internal measures,
EU III B and Tier 4 Interim will require a combina-
tion of engine modications and additional exhaust
gas aftertreatment. The available engine-internal
measures and options for exhaust gas treatment are
depicted in Figure 2.
There are as yet no tried and tested technologies
available for underground vehicles that are capable
of meeting the threshold limits imposed under EU
Stage IV and Tier 4 Final.
All engine-internal measures result in more ecient
motors with a smaller combustion chamber, which in
turn means an increased cooling requirement.
Supercharged engines with intercooling not only
give reduced NO
X
emissions but also have a longer
operating life, while there is a signicant increase
in torque at lower engine speeds. This makes for a
higher power density. For motor manufacturers this
means that more cooling capacity is required and en-
gine braking is much reduced because of the smaller
combustion chamber.
Exhaust gas recycling is a technique frequently
used by engine builders in order to reduce nitrous
Figure 1. Permitted
limits for NO
X
, CO,
HC and PM.
MACHINERY
either using engine-internal NO
X
reduction in the form
of cooled exhaust recycling in combination with a diesel
particulate lter or tting an SCR system (selective
catalytic reduction). In this case the diesel particulate
lter (DPF) is designed to reduce soot particle levels.
Regenerating the diesel particulate lter requires
an electronically controlled fuel injection system that
can carry out a series of injections per working cycle
at very high injection pressures. The burner itself takes
up a certain amount of space and has to be tted
upstream of the DPF right at the intake to the exhaust
collector pipe. Post-engine NO
X
reduction using SCR
technology requires a urea solution as an NO
X
reduc-
tion agent and according to current practice this has
to be fed in using a dosing system. The urea solution
oxide levels. The best results are generally obtained
by employing a system known as cooled exhaust
gas recycling (Table 1). This process also requires
additional cooling capacity (3).
As well as providing a larger cooling surface ad-
ditional space also has to be found to accommodate
the exhaust gas aftertreatment components. This
means a higher exhaust emission stage will call for a
larger number of components and a greater amount
of space in order to achieve the legally required result.
The problem of providing sucient space for cooling
and exhaust gas treatment is particularly critical for
underground machinery, which usually has to oper-
ate in conned conditions. Meeting the requirements
imposed by EU Stage III B and Tier 4 Interim means
Figure 2.
Available engine-
internal measures
and options for
exhaust gas
treatment.
MACHINERY
known as Ad Blue is commonly used on roadgoing
vehicles. This liquid is injected into the exhaust line
upstream of the SCR catalyst and a hydrolysis reaction
releases ammonia and CO
2
from the urea solution.
The ammonia can react with the nitrous oxides in the
exhaust gas when the temperatures in the SCR catalyst
reach a certain level. Urea consumption is between 2
and 8 % of the amount of diesel fuel used. The vehicle
must therefore have an on-board tank of sucient
capacity (4) (Figure 3).
The feed tank for the urea solution must be sited
in a well protected area and the urea solution has to
Engine cooling Cooling water Charge air
Vehicle/Motor Output
[kW/rpm]
Vol.-
ow
[L/min]
Intake
temp.
[C]
Cooling
output
[kW]
Max.
press.
loss
[mbar]
Max.
op.
press.
[mbar]
Mass.-
ow
[L/min]
Intake
temp.
[C]
Out.
Temp.
[C]
Cooling
output
[kW]
Max.
press.
loss
[mbar]
Max.
op.
press.
[mbar]
SLP12(COMIII)/
TCD2015VO6
240/2,000 410 103 125.0 317 1.0 0.520 172 50 64.7 70 3.0
SLP12(TierIVi)/
TCD2015VO6
240/2,000 410 103 108.0 317 1.0 0.540 157 50 59.0 70 3.0
SLP12(TierIVi)/
TCD2013VO6 4V
240/2,000 314 110 153.6 171 1.0 0.267 184 46 37.6 100 2.5
LF-7.4(COMIII)/
TCD2013VO6 2V
181/2,300 198 110 90.6 230 1.0 0.301 189 50 42.7 100 2.5
LF-7.4(TierIVi)/
TCD2013VO6 4V
180/2,200 363 110 140.4 229 1.0 0.252 171 46 32.1 100 2.5
LF-7.4(TierIVi)/
TCD2013VO6 4V
180/1,900 314 110 124.2 171 1.0 0.238 164 46 28.6 100 2.5
Table. 1. Motor cooling as the exhaust gas levels are reduced the cooling requirement of the engine will increase as a
function of the exhaust treatment process. A higher cooling capacity can only be achieved by using larger-sized units for
the water cooling and intercooling systems.
Foundations for
Offshore Wind Turbines
Tools for Planning and Design
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Tools for Planning and Design
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The increasing need for renewabIe energies in the future has meanwhiIe found
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This book provides fundamentaIs and methods for pIanning and design of foundations for offshore wind turbines.
It gives a comprehensive overview not onIy on the design itseIf but aIso on reIated aspects such as construction,
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German offshore wind energy deveIopments since the year 2000. It is recommended as a heIpfuI guidance to aII par-
ties invoIved in the pIanning process; especiaIIy cIients, designers, approvaI authorities and construction companies
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Order Form Complete and fax it to + 49 (0) 20 54 924-149 www.vge.de
MACHINERY
be kept at a temperature of between 5 and +25 C.
When the vehicle is operating this temperature range
must not exceed 11 to +35 C in order to prevent
crystallisation. Even this relatively small range poses
problems at many mines and additional cooling may
be required for the urea tank.
The urea solution has to be metered out at a rate
that is generally equivalent to the NO
X
emissions. If too
much urea is fed-in the ammonia formed from it can-
not react with the NO
X
and so will be released into the
environment. This creates an extremely pungent smell,
especially in enclosed areas, and may also be damaging
to health. This problem can be resolved by incorporat-
ing an additional oxidation catalyst the so-called CU
(clean-up) catalyst behind the SCR catalyst.
The individual exhaust gas aftertreatment systems
are shown in Figure 4. The burner required for the re-
generation of the diesel particulate lter is connected
into the exhaust ow upstream of the lter, as stated
above. Vehicles that have to operate on steep inclines
are often tted with an engine retarder.
The combined use of burner and DPF means that a
number of motor manufacturers are no longer able to
include an engine retarder in the exhaust gas line. In
such cases the companies concerned have to t a dier-
ent version of the auxiliary brake retarder, which also
requires additional space. Dispensing with the engine
retarder would again call for extra cooling capacity
to dissipate the braking energy. An eective solution
here is to store the braking energy and to use it when
increased output is required. This can for example be
achieved by pressure charging hydraulic accumulators
by way of a volumetric ow from the duty pumps,
provided these have the requisite control system.
Approximately 0.08 kWh of energy can be stored per
braking cycle over a period of about 8 s. Assuming 30
cycles per hour and around 200 working days a year
this means an energy saving of around 7,000 kWh or
2 3 % of the total energy requirement.
A fullscale SCR exhaust aftertreatment system will
take up several times more space than a conventional
exhaust gas silencer. The following components will
be required, depending on the particular emission
stage or threshold in question:
Components in the exhaust gas ow whose posi-
tion is xed because they must be located either
in the hot zone of the exhaust system (DOC, DPF)
or in the cooler zone after the urea injection stage
(SCR, CU CAT). The distance between the individual
components is also eectively predened by the fact
that certain values have to be met on the engine
test bench. Depending on vehicle type and size the
need to comply with EU regulations on exhaust
emissions could mean that it would no longer be
possible at least from an economic viewpoint to
build certain models.
Compared with a conventional silencer unit an exhaust
aftertreatment system requires a signicant outlay on
engineering, and a lot of space, in order to achieve
the emission limits imposed by EU stage III B/Tier 4
Interim. Figure 5 shows a typical exhaust aftertreat-
ment system with particulate lters and SCR catalysts,
as tted to a Deutz diesel engine type TCD 1015 V08.
As can be seen, there is practically no access to the
engine itself and servicing components like the oil
lter have to be relocated elsewhere, which in turn
increases the maintenance costs.
The components listed below are required in order
to meet emission limits laid down in Stage III B/Tier 4
Interim:
Cooling:
Additional engine cooling.
Figure 3. Vehicle
tted with
2015 Com III A
motor and
vehicle tted with
2015 Tier IV
motor.
MACHINERY
Intercooling.
Cooled exhaust gas recycling.
Auxiliary brake retarder:
Retarder, hydraulic hybrid or similar.
Exhaust gas aftertreatment:
Burner for particulate lter regeneration.
Diesel oxidation catalyst.
Diesel particulate lter.
SCR catalyst/clean-up catalyst.
Ad Blue (UREA) tank.
Injection unit.
Monitoring/control electronics, signalling system.
One way of reducing the cooling requirement and
the size of the exhaust system is to downsize the
diesel drive motor.
In this case the power output, and ideally the di-
mensions of the engine too, can be reduced without
incurring any loss of performance from the actual
machine. This calls for targeted modications to the
dierent systems tted to the vehicle. While each
individual measure only produces a relatively small
impact, the sum total of such modications can
result in a signicant saving in power demand. By
carrying out an eciency analysis of the individual
Figure 4.
Exhaust gas
aftertreatment
systems.
MACHINERY
systems it is easily possible to achieve savings of well
above 10 %.
Drive system
Overall LHD eciency can for example be improved
by opting for a hydrostatic drive instead of the stand-
ard hydrodynamic drive system. In such cases quite
signicant energy savings can be achieved on each
loading cycle and this is reected in a much lower
cooling requirement and signicantly improved fuel
consumption.
Fewer pumps required for the drive
hydraulics
By priority switching or series switching the dierent
load consumers it is possible to reduce the number
of pumps units and hence improve the overall ef-
ciency.
Variable displacement pumps:
By employing demand-driven variable displacement
pumps in the steering and working hydraulics eciency
levels can be improved during the part-load and no-
load phases, as on a hydrostatic drive system.
Braking energy
On hydrostatic drive systems, for example, it is possible
to store the braking energy by building-up pressure in
a series of bladder accumulators and then using this
to drive the vehicle when it is in travel mode. While
the amount of energy that can be stored from each
braking action is relatively low, signicant savings can
be obtained from the sum total of all the LHD load-
ing and travel cycles. However, the most important
benet of the hybrid braking system is that it relieves
the strain on the friction brake and helps extend its
service life.
Auxiliary drives
By adjusting the controlled fan drives to meet the
current cooling requirement it is possible to achieve
a substantial reduction in the fan output. Fitting insu-
lated drivers cabs, ensuring good temperature man-
agement and reducing the heat input into the drivers
compartment are all measures that can signicantly
cut the output of the air-conditioning system.
If a smaller-sized engine can also be tted this not
only makes for a reduced engine volume but also
allows a more compact air lter unit to be installed.
A lower volumetric ow in the exhaust gas line also
means that in certain cases a much smaller exhaust
system and aftertreatment unit can be tted. The
reduced demand from the cooler makes for smaller-
sized cooling units, a lower fan performance and
smaller fan drive components. Finally, the reduction in
fuel consumption means that the vehicle can operate
with a smaller diesel tank (Table 2).
Operating experience with the Deutz TCD 1015
V08 diesel engine in a 20-t LHD tted with an exhaust
gas aftertreatment system has shown that exhaust
aftertreatment using a combination of particle lter
and downstream SCR catalyst with Ad Blue injection
on the vehicle can only be achieved under consider-
able space constraints. Compromise solutions have
already adopted in terms of the accessibility and
serviceability of certain components. On smaller ma-
chines and in more conned operating conditions it
would not always be possible to install an elaborate
after-treatment system.
Underground trials at the Zielitz mine (K + S Kali
GmbH, Germany) with an 18-t LHD type LF-18 tted
with a TCD 1015 V08 engine and a Johnson Matthey
SCRT system were generally successful and the compo-
nents sited along the exhaust gas line stood the test
well. Only the compressor and metering system were
found to require improvement. Another machine from
the same vehicle range was subsequently tted out
from new with the same SCRT system and has now
been in regular service for a number of months.
Operating experience indicates that, at least as far
as mining machines of this size are concerned, the
limits imposed by EU Stage III B/Tier 4 Interim are both
achievable and practicable when using SCRT exhaust
aftertreatment systems installed downstream of the
EU Stage II engine. This will have to be veried by
long-term tests.
References
1. Nonroad Diesel Engines, Emission Standards, Dieselnet.
2. Deutz AG: Variable Emissions-Reduktions-Technologie.
3. John Deere: Emissionstechnologien.
4. Eidgenssisches Department fr Umwelt, Verkehr und
Energie: Emissionsvorschriften Schweiz und International.
Figure 5. Typical
exhaust aftertreat-
ment system with
particulate lters
and SCR catalysts
as tted to a Deutz
diesel engine type
TCD 1015 V08.
Table 2. What are the benets of reducing the motor power output?
May be possible to use a smaller model of
engine
Engine size is reduced
Reduced air requirement Smaller air lter unit
Lower exhaust gas ow Smaller exhaust system
Lower cooler requirement Smaller cooler
Reduced fan output Smaller drive components
Lower fuel consumption Smaller fuel tank
In spite of the reduction in engine power the systematic use of measures
to reduce power loss will result in a vehicle of comparable performance.
MACHINERY
Transport Technology in Room
and Pillar Coal Operations
An Overview
Dipl.-Ing. Marinus J. Pouls, Bucyrus Europe GmbH, Lnen, Germany
O
ne of the lesser known methods for mining
coal in Europe is Room and Pillar (also called
Bord and Pillar). This method is extensively
used in South Africa (90 % of UG production), India
(95 %) and USA (50 %).
A room and pillar section consists of roadways
and cross-cuts between the roadways. A typical panel
layout is shown in Figure 1.
The pillar sizes between the roadways and cross-cuts
vary depending on mining height, roadway width,
seam depth and whether depillaring will be under-
taken or not. For example in a mine having a depth
of 150 m, a mining height of 3.5 m and a road width
of 6 m the pillar size would be 15 m x 15 m, in case no
depillaring takes place or 20 m x 20 m if depillaring is
planned. Mining can take place in seam heights as low
as 0.9 m (Figure 2 for low prole Continuous Miner)
and up to 5.5 m. Road width varies between 5 and
6.5 m. Room and pillar operations prefer at condi-
tions or seams with only a slight gradient (preferably
less than 1 in 6 or 9).
This method consists of the following activities:
Cutting of coal and loading it on to a transport
vehicle with a Continuous Miner.
Transporting the coal to a feeder breaker with
a coal hauler (Figure 3).
Crushing and loading coal on to a belt conveyor
with a Feeder Breaker (Figure 4). This consists
of a hopper, a chain conveyor to transport the
coal through a crusher onto a belt (capacity up
to 1,200 t/h).
The present paper will give an overview
of the actual status of the coal hauling in
the underground room and pillar mines. It
will give a general overview of room and
pillar operations and will describe in more
detail the dierent coal hauling alterna-
tives available, including the advantages/
disadvantages of each system. The coal
haulingalternatives are:
Batch transport with Shuttle Cars,
Diesel Haulers and Battery Haulers
Continuous transport with Continuous
Haulage Systems
It will further describe operational aspects
of coal hauling in operations, such as cable
layout for Shuttle Cars. It will furthermore
highlight improvements made in the past
years and those which will or are being imple-
mented at present or in the near future.
Supporting roof and if required ribs with a
Roof Bolter (Figure 5). The Roof Bolter can
have one, two or four bolting rigs. It further
has a temporary roof support to ensure a safe
working environment.
Figure 1. Typical
Panel Layout.
Figure 2.
Continuous Miner
in a thin seam
operation and
discharge end.
Figure 3. Shuttle Car.
MACHINERY
Coal Haulage
The interesting aspect is that the principals of coal
haulage in a room and pillar section have not changed
in the past 50 to 70 years. The rst shuttle cars were
introduced already in 1938 by Joy and battery haul-
ers as early as 1950s. The improvements have been
mainly in availability and quality.
The main aspect of this presentation is on the coal
haulage between the Continuous Miner and the Feeder
Breaker. This can be in two forms:
Batch transport:
Shuttle Cars (Capacity up to 30 t).
Coal Haulers (Capacity up to 22 t).
Continuous Transport:
With belt conveyors.
With chain conveyors.
Batch transports
Basically, there are two versions, each with dierent
alternatives
Shuttle Car
The Shuttle Car as the name indicates shuttles be-
tween the Continuous Miner and the Feeder Breaker.
It is the most used transport system for hauling coal.
According to the information available more than
2,600 units are in use or more than 70 % of the total
population of coal haulers.
There are two models:
Electrical powered with a cable.
Electrical powered by having a battery on board
(only used in relative small numbers).
The main characteristics for the cable powered version
are (Figure7):
Coal is loaded on one side and the internal chain
conveyor moves it forward to the front.
Requires a cable which is spooled onto a cable
reel for its energy supply.
Location of the cable reel is on the LH- or RH-
side. The driver is located on the other side.
When operating SCs the cable routing in the
section plays an important role. The routes of
the SCs must be independent from each other
(Figure 8).
The driver can seat perpendicular (straddle) to
the direction or in line with the direction (two
seat option).
Can be equipped with a discharge boom or
not.
Does not have to turn when travelling between
Continuous Miner and Feeder Breaker.
Is reported to have the cheapest operating cost
(75 to 80 % of a battery hauler).
Coal Haulers
The coal haulers can be identied by the fact that
they consist of two parts with articulation between
the two, the parts are:
Trailer for transporting the material
Tractor with the power unit
Coal Haulers can be powered by (Figure 9):
Battery (over 300 in use). The standard process
is to have two spare batteries: whereas one is
Utility activities such as cleaning the oor and
transporting material (Figure 6). There are in
principal two versions:
Battery powered scoop.
Diesel powered utility vehicle (similar to a LHD).
Figure 4. Feeder
Breaker.
Figure 5. Twin
boom Roof Bolter.
Figure 6. Scoop
and Utility Vehicle.
Figure 7. Shuttle
Car showing
cable a position of
driver.
MACHINERY
being charged the second battery cools down.
Under normal operating conditions the batter-
ies last for 8 h.
Diesel engine (over 100 in use)
Some general characteristics:
Has to turn when going to the Feeder Breaker
to be able to discharge.
Is heavier than the SC but has a large volume
for transporting coal.
It has a push blade to discharge the material
(Figure10).
The driver sits on the side of the machine
(Figure 11).
It is possible to operate more than two machines in
a section. The machines can drive in a circle. With
a Shuttle Car this is not possible.
Continuous transport
As the name states the Continuous Miner does not
have to stop cutting because the material is hauled
continuously away to the Belt Conveyor. There are
dierent types of haulage systems:
The modular designed continuous haulage
system (Figure 12).
The single strand continuous haulage system
(Figure 13).
The Modular designed continuous system consists
of short individual haulage systems combined into
one. The single strand system has one through going
haulage system.
Figure 8. Cable
layout in panel.
The continuous haulage system as shown in
Figure 12 has following components:
Mobile Bridge Carrier.
Piggybacks, also called Mobile Bridge Con-
veyors.
Every Mobile Bridge Carrier has a driver. Some general
characteristics:
Is more complicated to operate.
Advisable to have two Roof Bolters in the sec-
tion, one on the LHS and one on the RHS.
The panel layout of a Continuous Haulage
system is slightly different from a standard
MACHINERY
Product comparison
When choosing one of the haulage systems the rst
most important question is which of the above men-
tioned haulage methods is the most applicable one.
As usual there is no black and white statement pos-
sible. A number of aspects play a role in determining,
which method is the most favorable one considering
the available operating conditions. These are but not
limited to:
Geological aspects (type of oor, mining thick-
ness, inclination).
Mining/operational aspects (pillar sizes/traveling
distance, exibility, investment requirement,
operational cost, ventilation).
Local experience.
Hereafter some of these will be discussed.
Geology
Following aspects have an inuence on the decision
making process:
Inclination.
In steeper conditions (more than 8 or 1 in 7) the
Diesel Hauler has an advantage over the Shuttle Car
and Battery Hauler. Battery haulers are preferably
only used in relatively at conditions because bat-
tery life reduces when they have to work in inclined
conditions. Continuous Haulage is more dicult to
operate under inclined conditions more than 6.
Type of oor.
In soft oor conditions the Shuttle Car and Diesel
Haulers are preferred. The Continuous Haulage
requires a relative good to semi good oor.
Mining thickness.
In low seam applications (i.e. less than 1.5 m) bat-
tery haulers have an advantage over Shuttle Cars.
In seam heights less than 1.2 m the capacity of the
coal haulers becomes low and the use of continu-
ous Haulage systems has a positive eect on the
haulage/production capacity.
Mining/operational aspects
The following mining/operational aspects have an
inuence:
Pillar sizes/tramming distances.
The size of the pillars will depend on the depth of the
seam, road width and the mining height. Therefore
at greater depth the pillar sizes become bigger and
automatically also the tramming distances. Shuttle
Car tramming distance depends on the maximum
capacity of the cable reel (this is related to cable
type used) standard capacities are in the range of
150 to 200 m, the maximum is around 250 m. Con-
tinuous Haulage systems have a maximum length
of around 120 m. If longer tramming distances are
required the battery or diesel powered haulers are
the preferred solution.
Flexibility.
Shuttle Car and Continuous Haulage systems are
less exible than the battery powered and diesel
powered haulage systems.
Investment cost.
The cheapest solution is the use of Shuttle Cars,
followed by the battery haulers (they require two
Figure 9.
Diesel and
battery Haulers.
Figure 10.
Push blade for
discharging coal.
Figure 11. Location
of Driver.
Figure 12. Modular
Continuous
Haulage System.
section, the angles of the cross cuts are set at
60 to facilitate a better handling of the system
(Figure 14).
MACHINERY
additional spare batteries and a charging station).
The Diesel Hauler investment cost is comparable to
the battery hauler. The Continuous Haulage system
costs the most.
Operation cost.
It is reckoned that the SC is the cheapest to operate,
followed by the battery hauler and then the diesel
hauler. The operational cost of the Continuous
Haulage system is said to be between the Shuttle
Car and Battery Haulers. However, it should be
mentioned that the haulage cost do play a major
cost but it is estimated that it still only count for
about 15 to 20 % of the total operational cost in
a section.
Ventilation/environment.
In case of using diesel powered vehicle special at-
tention has to be paid when using them. Besides
the discharge of harmful gasses such as CO, CO
2

etc. also the additional heat generated by the
diesel engine in the headings must be considered.
But having said this, the eect is not as dramatic
as maybe believed.
Local experience
An important role in the decision which equipment
will be chosen plays the local experience at the mine
and or adjacent mines. It is not uncommon that a
system operates very well in an area but not at all in
another. It has been observed that in a mine in one
section the continuous Haulage was a success but in
the second section it only had problems. The dierence
was that the rst section had a crew with more than
10 years of experience with the system and was also
convinced that it was the best they have.
Future and present developments
It is outside the scope of this paper to give a detailed
overview. We therefore present you a short enumera-
tion of the present and future developments:
Introduction of computerized controls (displays)
(Figure 15).
Introduction of VFD (Variable Frequency Drive)
drive systems.
AC drive on Battery Haulers.
Use of joy sticks for steering the equipment.
Improved diesel engines
Introduction of automatic controlled Continu-
ous Haulage systems
Conclusions
Coal Haulage systems play a very important part in a
Room and Pillar section. There are a number of alterna-
tives available to an end used. The determination of
the most appropriate system depends on the mine.
References
1. N.N.: Section by section/Equipment Underground
Coal Haulage. Mining Magazine, September, 2007.
2. Stefanko, R.: Coal Mining Technology Theory and
Practice.1983.
3. Hargraves, A.J. ; Martin, C.H.: Bord and Pillar methods:
in Australasian Coal Mining Practice. 1993.
Figure 13. Single
Strand Continuous
Haulage System.
Figure 14. Panel
layout showing
cross cut angles
at 60.
Figure 15.
Compartment
showing Joy stick
control and
display.
4. Sanda, A.P. : Haulage 1998 (Underground). Coal Age,
September, 1998.
5. Sanda, A.P.: Continuous Haulage a Bridesmaid Still.
Coal Age, 1989.
6. Torre, D.C.: Development in Continuous Haulage for
Coal Mining. Mining Engineering, 1982.
7. The Battery Powered option. World Coal, 1998.
8. Bucyrus Internal Documents on Coal Haulage.
MACHINERY
30 years of GTA Maschinensysteme
A Lower Rhine success story
Dipl.-Ing. Karsten Gutberlet, Chief Editor, VGE Verlag GmbH Verlag Glckauf, Essen, Germany
I
f you want to hear or write something positive in
the current nancial and economic crisis then you
need to look to the SME sector as the most robust
part of the national economy, for over the years it
has been the adaptability of small and medium-sized
companies to the uctuating fortunes of the economy
that has helped secure the comparatively high stand-
ard of living that we all enjoy. SMEs have been a
tower of strength amidst the turbulent events that
have surged through our economy and the German
word Mittelstand or small and medium-sized
enterprises has now taken its rightful place amidst
the Anglo-Saxon terms that litter the vocabulary of
international economists.
SMEs and SME productivity is a subject that is
usually spoken about in general terms and rarely do
we hear about individual companies or see the faces
that run them. Important innovations that emanate
from relatively small businesses are often overlooked
or take many years to be recognised or even accepted
by the established marketplace.
One such example from the German Lower Rhine
area is Hamminkeln-based GTA Maschinensysteme
GmbH (GTA), a company that owes its origins to the
mining industry and currently manufactures equip-
ment for the upper tier in roadway drivage and
tunnelling operations.
GTA was founded by Helmut Heisterkamp in 1979.
As a salaried engineer he had become familiar with
the conned operating conditions of the German
coal industry and he therefore set out to develop and
manufacture his own equipment in order to improve
the lot of those working below ground (Figure 1).

Mine requirements, transport systems and
support technology the German abbre-
viation for this is GTA were the business
activities of the company established in 1979
by Dipl.-Ing. Helmut Heisterkamp, the begin-
nings and success of which are closely linked
to the coal mining industry. Nowadays the
company concentrates on road drivage and
transport technology for the international
mining and tunnel construction industry.
Suspended machine systems
for roadway drivages
The companys technical and economic success con-
tinues to be based around suspended machinery
and equipment for roadheading operations in the
coal industry. These systems make use of the upper
levels in these conned working areas and have now
become a key requirement for ensuring productivity
and workplace safety. They have also signicantly
reduced the cost of the preparatory work needed to
develop a new coal face.
The introduction of this technology also led to a
signicant reduction in accidents in this area of opera-
tions. The machines and components are continuously
being rened and improved and the GTA platform
has for years now always been pencilled-in as standard
equipment when planning new mine drivages. In the
major mining markets of China and Eastern Europe, on
the other hand, this particular technology initially failed
to make any inroads because of the low safety priority
and cheap labour costs prevailing in those countries.
However this situation is now fortunately changing.
The main products that are still being used by the coal
industries in Germany and elsewhere are:
Mobile drilling and working platforms.
Roadway support machines and arch erec-
tors.
Drilling and rockbolting systems for high level
work in mine roadways.
Roadway support manipulators.
Roadway start-up platforms.
Rockbolting platforms and slewable working
platforms.
The company could have rested on the success that
sustained it and continues to reap rewards even
today over the course of the slow decline in the
German coal mining industry. This was the approach
adopted by some suppliers that went through a similar
Figure 1.
Dipl.-Ing. Helmut
Heisterkamp,
partner and
managing director
of GTA Maschinen-
systeme GmbH.
MACHINERY
period of prosperity and they are no longer around
to tell the tale.
GTA always realised, however, that while the Ger-
man coal industry provided an outstanding basis on
which to build a business, this was a market with a
limited shelf life. The company management in particu-
lar knew that the principle of dividing the mechanised
roadheading equipment into two operating levels,
with the economic and safety benets that this would
bring, would also be of real interest to the tunnelling
sector. Eorts were therefore initiated more than
ten years ago to establish appropriate links with this
cogeneric branch of industry.
The TAM tunnel support machine
Following a number of deployments involving compact
machines of the type and size normally found in the
coal industry the rst truly gigantic GTA system to
attract worldwide attention was built and put into
operation for support setting work in the St. Gotthard
base tunnel in Switzerland. Even the professionals were
amazed that 60 t of steelwork could simply be hung
from the tunnel roof and that the colossal machine
could then move about in any direction it wanted. Two
even larger machines, each weighing about 80 t, are
currently in service in a tunnelling project at Toulon in
southern France, where they are not only setting the
supports but also doing the drilling work too.
The TAM tunnel support machine is built up from
the following components (Figure 2):
A mobile machine frame that is suspended from
two supporting overhead monorail tracks.
Four integral slider tracks to accommodate the
individual appliances.
Two drilling arms that can be deployed longitu-
dinally for drilling the pipe screen and setting
radial and roadhead bolts.
Figure 2. The TAM
tunnel support
machine.
MACHINERY
Two longitudinal working cradles that can move
freely and independently of each other.
A support manipulator built into no. 1 cradle.
Two pipe racks ange mounted to the cradles
and tted with hydraulic pipe lifters.
An optional shotcrete manipulator ange
mounted to each working cradle.
An electrohydraulic twin pump unit installed
on a ange mounted support at the end of the
machine frame.
Two/four AKS 9300 drive trolley units.
User programmable radio remote control.
The success of the two aforementioned machine de-
ployments was enough to draw the attention of the
international tunnelling community to the possibilities
of using the upper tier in tunnel drivages and this
put the spotlight on the GTA system.
It has already been suggested that by bringing
the upper working level into the equation through
the introduction of the GTA system the conventional
tunnel drivage can now be regarded as a further de-
velopment of the New Austrian Tunnelling Method
(NATM). With the NATM the crown section of the
tunnel is excavated rst and the lower section is then
removed after a certain time lag making it also a
two-tier system. The new development lies in the fact
that by employing GTA machine systems both upper
and lower excavations can be undertaken as parallel
operations. This reduces the cost of the project and
makes for improved safety.
The Aachen-based engineering consultants WBI are
currently conducting a comparative study of the time
and cost expenditure incurred in completed tunnelling
projects that have involved conventional tunnelling
methods and upper tier systems.
Systems designed for the upper tunnel section
have always been central to GTA thinking and will
continue to be so in the years ahead. And GTA is fur-
ther consolidating its market position by developing
various other machines and systems for the tunnelling
industry as a whole.
TEM tunnel enlargement machine
As well as producing machines for tunnel support work
GTA has also been involved in developing technical
solutions for the renovation and enlargement of old
tunnel structures. In a pilot project undertaken for
Deutsche Bahn, which was extensively reported in the
press and media, two old small-section tunnels were
renovated and extended without any interruption to
train services. This was all made possible by GTAs own
tunnel enlargement machine, or TEM (Figure 3).
Figure 4. The GTA
NormLifter
tunnelling vehicle.
Figure 3. Design
layout of the
TEM machine.
MACHINERY
This machine essentially comprises a protective por-
tal (a tunnel within a tunnel) that is equipped with all
the machinery and components needed to complete
the widening of the original tunnel prole.
At about the same time the company developed
and built a track removal machine for the renovation
of the Arlberg tunnel in Austria. This mechanised
system is able to replace both rail tracks in sequence
while trains continue to operate on the free section
of line.
Ancillary products
With a view to providing technical solutions for the
demands of an extended market GTA has also in-
vested real eort in developing a number of ancillary
products. This included the take-over of the InTrak
engineering rm (Innovative Traction Systems), a
company with outstanding credentials as a manufac-
turer of both overhead and oor-mounted transport
systems (monorail installations and special climbing
locomotives).
These innovative railborne traction systems for
moving loads in tunnel construction projects which
can be diesel or electro-hydraulically powered were
developed and manufactured in Germany and have
been used by the industry with great success both at
home and abroad. InTrak also specialises in building
machines to customer specications that are designed
for the automatic transport and transloading of mate-
rials in inclines of up to 17. The companys portfolio
also includes ATEX-approved diesel powered trolleys
for the mining industry along with a range of hydraulic
and pneumatic shunting trolleys.
GTA has therefore taken the rst step to becoming
a system supplier, particularly as far as the tunnelling
industry is concerned.
Another key move in this direction was taken when
GTA acquired 50 % of the German-French company
NormRent, a machine rental business that has become
a well established platform in the European market as a
provider of mobile vehicles for the tunnelling industry.
NormRent supplies equipment to tunnel contractors
inside and outside Germany, including single- and
twin-arm elevating platforms with on-board support
and shotcrete manipulators and a range of mobile
mixers and dumpers.
This means that GTA has both extended its inter-
national client base and at the same time established
a link to the type of tunnel-oor technology that has
to operate in close conjunction with the companys
overhead systems.
In the course of this partnership it became apparent
that the standard vehicles generally being bought in
via NormRent did not meet the needs of the market
in a number of respects. GTA therefore set about
developing and building its own tunnelling vehicles
in order to meet all the needs of this particular sector.
A number of these machines have already gone into
active service (Figure 4).
GTA is therefore well positioned for the future and
will continue to provide its customers with a range of
services based on the company hallmarks of innovative
technology, eciency and reliability.
SHAFT SINKNG
Shaft sinking north of the Arctic Circle
Planning, construction and installation of the WS 10 mine project
for MMC Norilsk Nickel, Moscow, Russia
Dr.-Ing. Oleg Kaledin, Dipl.-Ing. Andreas Ne, Dipl.-Ing. Dietmar Schilling, Ing. Andre Marais,
Thyssen Schachtbau GmbH, Mlheim an der Ruhr, Germany
T
hree years of tendering and negotiations came
to an end in September 2007 when Thyssen
Schachtbau GmbH was commissioned by OJSC
MMC Norilsk Nickel (MMC Norilsk Nickel) to under-
take the planning, construction and installation of
the WS 10 ventilation shaft site for the Skalisti Mine,
which is part of the ore mining complex at Norilsk on
the Taimyr Peninsula, a mining region of Siberia north
of the Arctic Circle.
The contract eectively involves the planning and
con struction of an ore mine and its integration and
link-up with the existing ore production facility.
MMC Norilsk Nickel
company prole and history
MMC Norilsk Nickel is a Moscow-based russian mining
and metallur gical company. The operational side of
the business is centred in the northern Russian mining
region of Norilsk-Talnach.
MMC Norilsk Nickel is the worlds leading producer
of nickel and palladium. It also ranks among the largest
international suppliers of platinum and is in the top-ten
list of copper producers. In addition to this the company
is involved in the mining of cobalt, rhodium, silver, gold,
tellurium, selenium, iridium and ruthenium.
Though it was known as far back as the 17
th
century
that there was copper and nickel on the Taimyr Penin-
sula mining did not in fact commence in and around
Norilsk until the 1920s. The USSR Government set up
the Norilsk Combine on 23. June 1935, thereby laying
the foundations for the worlds largest mining and
Thyssen Schachtbau GmbH accepted the
challenge to sink a 2,055 m deep shaft with
an inner diameter of 9.0 m for the worlds
leading producer of nickel (MMC Norilsk
Nickel) north of the arctic circle as a turn key
project. Following a reduced workprogram
by reasons of the nance crises in 2009,
the operations are back in its entirety since
January 2010. After completion of the 18 m
deep shaft collar with fan drift and the core
installations at the surface, the foreshaft
sinking from 18 m level to a depth of 150 m
can start in May 2010.
17
th
century Existence of copper and nickel deposits
known
1920 Mining commences
1935 Norilsk Combine set up
1935 Severonickel Combine established in
Monchegorsk
1940 Petchenganikel Combine set up in
Zapolyarny
1989 The three Combines are merged with
three other companies to create No-
rilsk Nickel
1993 RAO Norilsk Nickel
2000 Norilsk Nickel Company
2001 Mining and Metallurgical Company:
OJSC MMC Norilsk Nickel
Table 1. History of Norilsk Nickel.
metallurgical company for non-ferrous metals. The mine
ocially started production on 10. March 1939.
Combines for the production of copper and nickel
were also established in the Murmansk mining region
on the Kola Peninsula. The Severonikel Combine was
founded at Monchegorsk in 1935 and the Petchen-
ganikel Combine, which was based at the towns of
Zapolyarny and Nikel, followed in 1940.
On 4. November 1989 a Government resolution
merged the three combines with another two com-
panies and the Gipronickel Planning Institute to form
Norilsk Nickel. A further resolution of 30. June 1993
set up the joint-stock company RAO Norilsk Nickel. The
company was then restructured in 2000 and re-named
the Norilsk Mining Company. Further reorganisation
took place the following year and as a result the group
adopted its current name of Mining and Metallurgical
Company (MMC Norilsk Nickel) (Table 1).
Shaft sinking north
of the Arctic Circle
The Norilsk mining area is located in the Arctic Circle
region of central Siberia to the east of the Yenisei
River. At these latitudes the freezing temperatures
that constantly prevail mean that the permafrost soil
only thaws down to a maximum of 6 m for a short
period during the two summer months. The Norilsk
mining region contains rich ore bodies, with nickel,
copper and platinum the main focus of mining activi-
ties (Figure 1).
The WS 10 ventilation shaft is also to be constructed
above an extremely rich body of ore and will form
part of the new Skalisti mining development whose
deposits will secure ore production from the Norilsk
mining area from the end of 2015 well into the future.
In addition, work will soon be commencing on the
SHAFT SINKING
SKS 1 production shaft, which is to be located about
1,500 m from the WS 10 site.
The two WS 10 and SKS 1 shafts for the future
Skalisti Mine are about 35 km to the north-east of
Norilsk and close to the urban district of Talnakh in
the middle of the tundra. A 3 km-long paved road
connects the WS 10 site to Skalistis WSS 7 main shaft,
which has already been completed. Before the shaft
construction work started Norilsk Nickel laid pipelines
to supply the site with compressed air and fresh water
and also installed an overhead power line for the
supply of electricity.
The extreme climate conditions prevailing within the
northern Arctic Circle posed a huge challenge for the
construction crews (Figure 2). In winter temperatures in
the Norilsk mining area are generally between 20 C
and 35 C. However they can also plunge to below
40 C and stay there for several days on end, making
it impossible to operate load-lifting cranes, transport
vehicles and other types of machinery. However the
biggest problem is posed by the snowstorms that
prevent any kind of outdoor work from being under-
taken, and in some cases even make it impossible for
heavy machinery to reach the worksite.
A logistic challenge
Supplying the construction site with machines and
equipment is a huge logistic challenge. Deliveries from
Figure 1. Some-
times a shaft will
be established
here, some 8 km
away from the
next living area
deep in the
tundra.
Figure 2. Clearing
from snow in
Norilsk ocial
called snow-
ghting.
Im Oberen Werk 4 66386 St. Ingbert Germany
1920
HQ
P.O. BOX
PHONE
66369 St. Ingbert Germany
+49 (0) 6894 31 01 +49 (0) 6894 31 01
www.preinfalk.de pw@preinfalk.de

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SHAFT SINKNG
Germany have to take the sea route from Rotterdam
to Murmansk and then be transported onwards to
Dudinka. As the ports of Murmansk and Dudinka
are closed from the end of April to mid-July because
of adverse weather conditions all supplies have to
be carefully planned several months before they are
shipped to the site and must also be registered well
in advance with the customs authorities and shipping
companies.
Materials supplied from within Russia, such as pipe-
work, vehicles, items of equipment and concrete rein-
forcement, can be transported on the Trans-Siberian
Railway to Krasnoyarsk and from there shipped down
the Yenisei River to Dudinka. These internal shipments
also have to be planned in advance in great detail, as
the Yenisei is only navigable during the ice-free months
of July to September.
Scope of the contract
The volume of work assigned to Thyssen Schachtbau
GmbH as the general contractor essentially involves
the construction of a complete mining facility:
The surface work mainly comprised:
Construction of an accommodation block for some
150 workers.
Erection of the permanent 66 m-high shaft head-
frame.
Construction of the winder house and installation of
two SIEMAG M-TEC
2
twin-drum winding machines.
Installation of two Howden mine ventilation fans
delivering approx. 750 m of air per second, along
with fan housings and diffusers.
110 kV and 6 kV AREVA transformer station for
permanent power supply to the shaft.
Workshops and stores buildings.
Temporary concrete mixing plant and temporary fan
building for the shaft sinking.
Permanent belt installation to serve the waste tip.
Table 2. Surface structures.
Above ground the project includes the preparation
of the shaft site, the erection of all temporary and
permanent surface buildings and mine facilities and
the installation of the shaft surface infrastructure
(Figure 3, Table 2).
Work to be carried out underground comprises the
sinking of the 2,055 m-deep ventilation shaft, the
construction of the fan drift and the excavation of
shaft landings, pump rooms, roadway entries and
a shaft undercut (Figure 4).
The preparatory work at the shaft site, which is located
in a river valley in the foothills of a range of moun-
tains, required extensive earth-moving operations to
be carried out under strict environmental conditions
in the natural landscape of the tundra, the aim be-
ing to create an average gradient of 1.5 over the
40,000 m site. The shaft surface was covered with a
1.5 m-thick layer of aggregate and surrounded by a
drainage trench.
Because of the permafrost the foundations for
the buildings had to stand on drilled piles 700 mm
in diameter and set on compact rock. The piles were
between 7 and 20 m in depth, depending on the local
ground conditions at the shaft site.
The shaft, which is to be sunk by conventional
drilling and blasting, has a specied nished diam-
eter of 9.0 m and an end-depth of about 2,055 m.
The 135 m-deep section of foreshaft has a concrete-
backlled cast-iron tubbing lining, while the main shaft
section is to be constructed in steel concrete from the
135 m level to shaft bottom.
The blasting holes, which have a maximum depth
of 4.5 m, are drilled with a pneu matic, six-arm shaft
drilling machine. This rig can also be employed for
large-prole holing work and for drilling exploration
boreholes to a maximum length of 60 m.
The foreshaft is excavated using a portal crane and
kibble system, with a hydraulic excavator loading out
the debris on the sinking oor. The main shaft section
will be constructed using a 7 m-capacity dirt bucket
and a grab with a payload of some 1.2 m.
An innovative six-deck working platform system is
used for installing the permanent shaft lining and shaft
Figure 4. Connec-
tion of the water-
proof fan drift is
a rst time used
new concept for
Norilsk.
Figure 3. The shaft
facility in Septem-
ber 2009; left to
right: Basestruc-
ture of the 110 kV
power station,
45 m of nal 66 m
of permanent
headframe, 6 kV
station, temporary
ventilation build-
ing, temporary
social building.
SHAFT SINKING
ttings, some of which are to be tted in parallel with
the sinking work. This six-deck platform moves on a
walking mechanism without the need for the normal
scaold winches and is a very eective piece of equip-
ment for the sinking of ultradeep shafts.
The two permanent SIEMAG M-TEC
2
(today: SIEMAG
TECBERG) twin-drum winding machines are available
for the sinking operation. The kibble winch is essen-
tially used for manwinding and debris clearance and
for supplying materials to the sinking crew.
The SIEMAG M-TEC
2
twin-drum winder, which will
operate the skip conveyance when the mine comes
into permanent production, is to be equipped with
two manwinding cages during the sinking phase so
as to keep the platform team supplied with materials
such as pipework, shaft guides and buntons.
The concrete for the shaft lining is mixed above
ground and then transported by a pump and drop-pipe
system to the placement point behind the formwork at
the level of the shaft platform, where it is compacted.
A combination of rockbolts, wire mesh and, where
required, shotcrete is used to provide temporary cavity
support at the sinking oor. The shaft insets, pump
rooms and roadway entries, along with the shaft bot-
tom road, are all to be excavated conventionally by
drilling and blasting with shotcrete spraying.
The entire shaft complex is to be handed over
as a turnkey facility at the end of 2015. The TS pro-
gramme of work has so far not deviated from the
project schedule.
Progress to date
Earthmoving and ballast laying work commenced at
the shaft site on 28. November 2007, which was just
two months after the contract was awarded (Figure 5).
In spite of the adverse weather conditions the site
was covered with up to 4 m of snow during the winter
2007/2008 the earthmoving and excavation work
progressed speedily. Some 150,000 m of tundra
and loose soil were moved and about 60,000 m of
crushed stone ballast laid in place. Preparation work
at the shaft site was therefore practically completed
by the autumn of 2008. A tipping point was also set
up to accommodate the sinking debris.
After the local authorities had issued the regula-
tory blasting permit the rst round of blasting for the
shaft prole commenced in July 2008. The shaft collar
section was constructed to a depth of about 18 m and
lined with cast-iron tubbing (Figure 6). The shaft cel-
lar and four sets of headgear foundations were also
completed during 2008 (Figure 7).
The excavation for the fan drift, which in some places
was 16 m below ground level, was also constructed
by drilling and ring. The drift broke through into the
shaft in August 2008. The connection between the
shaft and the fan drift was formed using an adapter
frame, which was bolted up to the tubbing segments
to create a watertight, exible junction. The shaft cel-
lar and entire length of the fan drift were lined with
a waterproof welded membrane.
Work on the drilled piles for the accommodation
block began in early May 2008. After the foundations
had been completed and a lattice of steel beams
erected the actual building work was able to commence
at the end of August. The accommodation block with
its adjacent wastewater treatment plant will provide
washroom facilities for about 150 workers (Figure 8).
The unit also contains oces and conference rooms,
along with lounge areas. The accommodation block
was ready for occupation in February 2009.
Figure 7. Some
meters ready sunk
which was easier
than to over come
all that admini-
strativ barriers.
Figure 6. Every
shaft project
starts with a small
step, here already
four months after
contract awarding.
Figure 5.
Surveying on
dicult conditions
with equipment
up to date.
SHAFT SINKNG
The 6 kV power supply station temporarily required
for the shaft sinking operation was fully installed and
commissioned. The temporary fan building, a store-
house and the permanent 110 kV and 6 kV transformer
units are all currently under construction (Figure 9). The
bottom 45 m section of headgear has been erected
and is now being covered with steel sheet cladding.
The complete headframe structure, which will stand
66 m in height, is to be ready by early 2010.
Outlook
Developments on the international nancial markets,
and the fall in the world market price for nickel, have
forced MMC Norilsk Nickel to reschedule the WS 10
shaft complex project by gearing down the construc-
tion work for the year 2009. The work is back in full
operation since January 2010. The foreshaft sinking
from the 18 m level to a depth of about 150 m can
start in May 2010.
The installation of the permanent SIEMAG TECBERG
twin-drum winding machines, which will be used to
sink the WS 10 shaft from the 150 m level to its nal
depth of about 2,055 m, has now been postponed
until August 2010.
Summary
In spite of the extremely exposed location of the shaft
site good progress has been made on the extensive
surface facilities, including the construction of the ac-
commodation block, the shaft cellar, the 18 m-deep
shaft collar, the fan drift and the permanent headframe
structure (Figure 10).
The extreme climate has aected not only the
planning of the project but also every aspect of the
construction work and has required the planning
engineers and site managers in particular to be able
to adapt to events as they arise and to have the ex-
ibility needed to acquaint themselves with building
methods not known so far. Because of the limited
transport options and restricted payload capacity
the procurement and transport of equipment and
materials, which have to be shipped via the Polar Sea
or down the Yenisei River, has to be organised many
months in advance and well before the items in ques-
tion are required at the construction site.
The planning, construction and assembly work
required for the WS 10 shaft complex has posed a
number of exceptional problems. However, thanks to
the commitment and technical skills of the construc-
tion crews and the excellent working relationship
established with the personnel from MMC Norilsk
Nickel, all these diculties have been successfully
resolved and the various construction phases have
been delivered on schedule.
Figure 10. Some
2,800 m concrete
installation prepa-
ration work for
the shaft cellar in
parallel to the
nal headframe
installation.
Figure 9. Installa-
tion of the shaft
building from
which the highest
head-frame of
Norilsk will be
built.
Figure 8. Good
humor some
adverse conditions
notwithstanding.
HEALTH AND SAFETY
A Safe Method for Cutting down
Production Loss in Case of a Mine Fire
Dr.-Ing. Walter Hermlheim, Central Department of Occupational Health, Safety and Environment,
RAG Aktiengesellschaft, Herne, Germany
Dipl.-Ing. Andreas Betka, Central Mine Rescue Station, RAG Deutsche Steinkohle AG, Herne, Germany
D
uring the rst decades of fully mechanized
longwall mining, as a matter of fact sponta-
neous combustion res could only be fought
under a high risk, e.g. by conventional sealing, by
digging out or by measures of ventilation-pressure
regulation. Today the classical cycle Sealing Wait-
ing Reopening can be cut down to only a few days
by means of an inertisation. Production can restart
under safe conditions while re ghting work is still
going on.
The formerly high danger when sealing a re can
be reduced considerably provided the described safety
regulations are observed. In this way a properly ap-
plied inertisation contributes to cut down production
loss in case of a mine re, to preserve the coal deposit
as well as to improve the safety of the mine rescue
brigade itself.
Ignition Hazards
In the past spontaneous combustion res in the goaf
close to the longwall or the roadway have proven to
be particular ignition hazards. Since the mid sixties
there were over 200 spontaneous combustion res
with more than a dozen cases of CH
4
ignitions.
Furthermore, in addition to smaller gas res which
normally can be safely put out by the workforce
themselves, there were a few larger, open gas res
Due to adequate preventive measures against
res and explosions, mine rescue work has
become rare in the coal mining industry of the
developed countries. The main eld of activity
of the rescue brigades today comprises the
prevention of damage to property. Besides
being responsible for the safety of the un-
derground workforce, mine rescue brigades
can contribute in this context reduce produc-
tion losses. It should be agreeable that mine
rescue work for the prevention of damage to
property should not be more hazardous than
regular underground work. This requires a
regular check of safety regulations for riskre-
lated work, e.g. as to high climatic loads or
to the ghting of re types which include
the potential risk of an explosion. This paper
points out the experiences of the German
coal mining industry gathered on the latter
subject during the last three decades. Special
emphasize is put on ignition hazards related
to spontaneous combustion res.
which required action by the mine rescue and even
inertisation in some cases (Figure 1).
Basic Rules Regarding Spontaneous
Combustion Fires
The most fundamental safety rule when ghting
spontaneous combustion res in the goaf which
are close to the longwall and to the roadway and
thereby explosion prone (Figure 2) is to agree on a
safe boundary value for retreat from the re and for
the last possible opportunity for a goaf or full space
inertisation.
Based on the analysis of the ignition events men-
tioned above, it has proven to be reasonable to set
this boundary value at a fuel concentration of 50
60 % of the lower explosive limit in the air leakages
escaping from the re through the goaf. That means
that organised work in roadways close to the seat of
the re in the goaf, e.g. sealing or the preparation
Figure 1. Mine Res-
cue Training Drill-
ing into the Goaf.
Figure 2. Resealing
a Roadside Pack
with Sprayed
Concrete.
HEALTH AND SAFETY
mixture by a timely preparation of a goaf inertisation
(Figure 4). Below of approximately 10 Vol.-% O
2
the
CH
4
concentration is irrelevant (see Figure 3).
If in addition noteworthy concentrations of Hy-
drogen and Carbon Monoxide appear in the combus-
tion gasses, Coward-Diagrams for gas mixtures with
several combustible components must be used for
the evaluation mentioned above to reset the boun-
dary values.

Coal Production during a Fire
If, besides the boundary values mentioned above, a
number of other safety criteria are met, dierent from
procedures in most other coal producing countries,
production can safely be resumed even when the
re is still going on and is not yet fully extinguished.
These rules include:
The location of the hidden re is known or can
be estimated with sufcient precision.
The goaf is separated from the open mine
workings and sealed by roadside packs which
are constructed from solidly setting mortar
matter.
Known hollow spaces in the goaf behind the
longwall/ roadway crossing point are lled or
interrupted by barriers constructed from mortar
matter, e. g. when the ventilation windows in
the roadside pack are lled after the face has
advanced (Figure 5).
The permitted boundary values for hazardous
gasses are not exceeded and the Oxygen content
remains above 18 % in the airow within the
open mine workings.
Continuous monitoring of the air leakages
within the goaf via ventilation pipes prove that
there are no explosive gas mixtures present
within the goaf close to the re (negative ex-
plosion index). A sufcient distance from the
explosive limits must be kept at all times (see
Figure 3).
The Graham index (does not apply during iner-
tisation) and the CO generation do not show a
tendency to rise.
of an inertisation, is possible for as long as the CH
4

concentration of the gases leaking from the re meas-
ured in the sning pipes which penetrate through
the roadside pack into the goaf is lower than 2.5 to
3 Vol.-% CH
4
(Figure 3).

Goaf Inertisation
Alternatively the Oxygen concentration in the air leak-
ages can be kept at a safety margin of 2 % below the
nose limit of the explosive triangle for the respective gas
Figure 5. Ventilation windows: Every 7 to 10 m ventilation windows are kept open in the road-side
pack for climatisation and methane control purposes. After the face has advanced approximately 20
m past the window, it is sealed.
Figure 4. Goaf
Inertisation.
Figure 3. Coward-Diagram for Methane with safety boundary to the
explosion triangle (dashed) for ghting spontaneous combustion res
in the goaf.
HEALTH AND SAFETY
The re does not generate more CO than the
alarm value of 20 l/min. Deviations from this are
possible, but they require the mutual consent
of the head of the control centre and of the
representatives of the central mine rescue sta-
tion and the mines inspectorate within a risk
assessment by the operation control.
Goaf inertisation is applied if it is necessary to
meet the requirements described above.
It must be kept in mind that the rules mentioned
above were in their full extend drawn up for goaf
res close to the longwall/roadway area, which are
known to have caused ignitions in the past due to
their proximity to sizable unventilated i. e. methane
loaden cavities in the goaf.
Therefore a precise knowledge or an educated
guess regarding the location of the re is not always
necessary, if nothing points to proximity of the event
in the goaf to the longwall/roadway area and if the
re zone has denitely no connection to goaf cavities
close to the longwall/roadway. If the distance from the
face exceeds 300 m experience tells that no possible
pathways for ignition do exist.
Full space Inertisation
If it becomes necessary to fully render the danger area
inert (full space inertisation) from a safe distance due
to a considerable risk of explosion, it has proven to be
of advantage to improve the existing rule for isolating
parts of the mine workings construction of explosion
proof seals around the aected area and subsequent
simultaneous closing by a stepwise approach and
reduce the risk even further (Figure 6).
To do so, the airow towards the re is locked by
means of a brattice at a safe distance from the danger
zone and fed with Nitrogen. The return airow from
the re is locked after the workings aected and the
goaf have been ushed with Nitrogen for several
times. A safe distance for inertisation of a possible
ignition hazard is normally a kilometre between the
place where a possible explosion is extinguished by
the next explosion barrier and the brattice which cuts
o the airow to the re. The brattices in the return
airow from the re can be installed as close to the
re as possible, because they are constructed when the
Oxygen concentration has dropped to a safe level.
Criteria which suggest that a full space inertisation
is necessary are:
The presence of indicators pointing to a re
existing already prior to a deagration or ex-
plosion (repeated ignitions are possible, maybe
in intervals).
CO concentrations which do not drop back to
the original value after a deagration or explo-
sion (repeated ignitions are possible),
A gas re which spreads in the goaf or other
cavities and therefore or because of its general
size cannot be controlled by direct approach,
Dangers by a methane drainage pipe close to
the centre of the re which cannot immediately
be controlled.
To safe costs, it is advisable to have a goaf inertisation
system operational before safety relevant boundary
values are exceeded. This way the expensive and
potentially dangerous intermediate step full space
inertisation can be omitted.
It must be stressed the full space inertisation
does not require explosion-proof seals, rather light
Figure 6. Full Space
Inertisation of a
spontaneous
combustion re
which poses an
ignition hazard
(top) and of an
open re
(bottom).
MINING
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HEALTH AND SAFETY
Compared to the described inertisation procedure
the classic sealing procedure without inertisation for
the control of such incidents has almost completely
disappeared. Figure 8 shows an explosion-proof seal
constructed from mortar matter which will withstand
static loads of 5 bar. Such seals are used to nally seal
o abandoned mine workings in an explosion-proof
manner.
Reopening the Fire Zone
The only way to make sure whether a re has burned
out or has been extinguished or contained via full space
inertisation is to restore the ventilation in the area,
which was rendered inert, on a trial basis.
This requires preparations to immediately reseal
the opened brattices (air locks) and to immediately
restart the full space inertisation if the re surges up
again. For such a trial ventilation the area around
the aected zone should be cordoned o in ample
distance. All activities are undertaken by the mine
rescue under breathing and ame protection. If the
ventilation trial must be aborted because the re
surges up again, the procedure and time scheme are
the same as for a new full space inertisation.
Preparation and Precaution
On a case to case basis it is advisable to have a prepared
goaf inertisation system which can be operated from
a safe dis-tance in place before a possible incident to
make a costly and elaborate full space inertisation
unnecessary in the case of a explosion hazard. Such
measures are especially advisable for coal seams
which are prone to spontaneous combustion and
have residual coal close to the roadway or the face
in end position.
In the case of a positive Y ventilation system the
use of so-called lost ducts in the salvaged area of the
air-drawing roadway is an opportunity. Such ducts
should be overlapping and coupled in such a way
that that a tube ends respectively between 20 m and
100 m behind the face (Figure 9).
In seams which are prone to spontaneous combus-
tion and in which shortly before the end position is
reached, residual coal must be left in the goaf, it is
advisable to install lost ducts between the shields on
the fresh air side of the residual coal not closer than
10 to 15 m to the area of the salvage zone. When the
end position is reached, the area behind the shields
including the cavities on the edges of the longwall
can be lled with foamed phenol resin.

References
1. Hermlheim, W. ; Beck, K.-D.: Inertization as Means
for Reducing Down Time and the Explosion Risk in Cases
of Spontaneous Combustion. Proceedings 6
th
Int. Mine
Ventilation Congress. Pittsburgh, 1997.
2. Hermlheim, W. et al.: Handbuch fr das Grubenret-
tungswesen im Steinkohlenbergbau (Colliery Mine Rescue
Handbook, in German). Essen: VGE-Verlag, 2007.
3. Hermlheim, W. ; Bolesta, M.: Examples of Grouting
Techniques in Operational Applications. Proceedings 6
th

Int. Conf. on Rock Bolting & Injection Techniques and
Roadway Support. RWTH Aachen Technical University,
2008.
Bild 9. Prepared
Inertisation
Overlapping lost
Ducts in the
Salvage Zone of
the Top Road.
Figure 8. Seal
constructed from
Mortar Matter
with all necessary
Fittings.
Figure 7. Water
Explosion Barrier.
brattices are entirely sucient. The explosion pro-
tection is pro-vided by the Nitrogen and sucient
safety distances. The required safety distance of
1 km is from the spot at which a potential explosion
is extinguished by a water barrier. A network of such
barriers (Figure 7) therefore is a precondition for the
approach described above.
HEALTH AND SAFETY
Strata controI in
in-seam roadways
The publication is divided into a number of sections detailing the
planning, design and operating life of a mine roadway. Viewed in its
entirety the book provides an integrated appreciation of how to plan
and design in-seam roadways, while as a work of reference it can help
solve specihc problems in that the individual sections can be treated
as self-contained elements:
* Geology o Gernan black coal deposits
* Geotechnical principles o strata control
* Rock pressure and rock stress
* Mine layout
* Rock and roadway deornation
* Planning tools and support design
* RAGStandard planning
* Roadway support systens
* Roadway developnent nethods
* Roadway nonitoring
* lnproving rock conditions and roadway repair
* Roo support or the T|unction zone
t
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Strata controI in in-seam roadways
2009. about 650 pages - 16 cn x 24 cn - in colour
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Elementary mining practice
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mine pIanners,
engineers and
students.
Under the direction of
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produced by authors with
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Published by
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HEALTH AND SAFETY
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The new wall map, which has been updated using information generously provided by various companies,
illustrates the key role that natural gas plays in supplying energy to Europes industrial nations.
It shows the network of existing and planned gas pipelines in Europe together with the connections to the
most important supplier regions in the CIS, the North Sea and North Africa.
To take account of the increasing economic importance of liquid gas the map now shows the location of
LNG terminals along the coasts of Europe and North Africa. It also identies all the current production areas
along with their estimated gas deposits.
The relief background showing the main mountain ranges
gives some idea of the diculties involved in planning and
constructing the dierent pipeline routes.
PLANNING
Hard rock mining the opencast
way versus a combination of
opencast and deep mining methods
An energy balance sheet
Dr.-Ing. Alexander Hennig, Chief Engineer, Professor Dr.-Ing. Christian Niemann-Delius, B.Sc. Thorsten Skrypzak,
Institute for the Opencast Mining and Drilling (BBK III), RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
T
he Federal Republic of Germany has access to a
large number of shallow rock and stone deposits
that contain large quantities of high quality
mineral. However, the ongoing extraction of these
deposits means that the mining levels are becoming
every deeper. This in turn makes for ever longer trans-
port routes and results in a signicant rise in energy
consumption as the opencast lifecycle increases. This
eect is especially apparent when using the shovel and
truck method of winning, a non-continuous mining
technique that is widely employed in the rock min-
ing and quarrying sector. One way of reducing the
high total energy demand is to modify the in-plant
transport routes and transport procedures. It was
against this background that an energy usage study
was carried out of a combined surface and deep-mine
transport system, comprising both roadway and shaft
transport techniques, as part of a research project
carried out by the Institute for the Opencast Min-
ing and Drilling (BBK III) at RWTH Aachen, Aachen,
Germany, the resulting process then being compared
with the traditional opencast system of dumper truck
haulage. The ultimate aim of the project was to nd
out whether, and to what extent, such a combined
system could reduce energy consumption levels in the
The amount of energy consumed when
cutting solid rock has a signicant impact
on the overall protability of a projected
mining operation, especially when energy
prices are high. The raw-materials industry
is therefore now more focussed than ever
on optimising the winning process in energy
usage terms. Against this background, both
when planning new mines and developing
existing facilities, factors such as the winning
process and machinery combination are in-
creasingly becoming the centre of attention;
these systems may be completely new to
the industry or may until recently only have
been employed in other branches. For the
hard rock cutting sector, which has always
been based around opencast operations, this
increasingly means coming to terms with
the options and benets of using methods
borrowed from the deep mining industry.
rock and stone mining sector and therefore oer an
alternative to conventional surface mining methods.
Another aim of the investigation was to examine that
point in time, in respect of the status of the opencast
mine, at which it would be most logical in energy us-
age terms to make the transition from one transport
system to the other.
Strategy
The analysis was based on a project-specic model of a
new mining undertaking. As the diverse and countless
individual features often present in real mining areas,
for example in terms of the geometry of the mineral
beds, were deliberately omitted from the ctional
deposits the opportunity presented itself to give a
paradigmatic character to the project ndings. Based
on the depiction of the deposits and planned working
faces in their respective feature sizes a performance-
based selection was made of the various items of plant
and machinery, whereby the equipment layout and
performance was designed for the optimum eect.
This was followed by a quantication of the energy
demand from the individual working cycles. In order
to examine the mining operation as a whole and to
develop a meaningful reference value the energy
consumption rates were based on each tonne of
mineral extracted. This approach was then used to
carry out separate analyses for the opencast mining
operation using dumper trucks and for the combined
mining system using underground mineral haulage
techniques so that both systems could ultimately be
matched one against the other.
Deposits and layout
of the excavations
The body of deposits used for the analysis is 260 m in
thickness and extends over an area measuring 300 m
x 400 m. The rock strata are assumed to have an aver-
age density of 2.8 t/m. This gives a workable content
of 31.2 Mill. m or 87.36 Mill. t.
The natural stone quarry is designed for an annual
output of 1.5 Mill. t. The opencast site has a bench
height of 20 m and a bench slope of 80. The width
of the intermediate berms is 3 m. The selected layout
comprises 12 working levels with a total excavated
volume of 18,575,000 m of saleable mineral.
PLANNING
Mining by opencast methods
The deposits are mined on a non-continuous basis
using conventional drilling and blasting methods.
This is currently the most commonly used method for
excavating natural rock and stone, though the options
for employing alternative winning techniques have
been greatly extended in recent years as a result of
new technical developments in this eld. Drilling and
blasting is suitable for mining rock and stone of any
strength category. Slurry explosives are used so that
there is no likelihood of problems arising due to the
ingress of water into the shotholes. Some 41,000 m
of shothole have to be drilled every year for the multi-
row ring patterns with their 115 mm-diameter holes.
A performance-related drilling machine can achieve
an average drilling advance of 40 m an hour in the
solid rock.
The blasted rock has an average size of 700
800 mm and this material is loaded on to the dumper
trucks by a hydraulic excavator tted with a bucket of
6.5 m capacity. The operating conditions for a loading
machine of this size, which are governed for example
by the properties of the material being loaded and
the factors that apply during bucket discharge, can be
categorised in this particular case as moderately
heavy to heavy. The study also took account of the fact
that free-steered loaders are frequently used for this
Sub-process/machine Calculated energy consumption in litres
of diesel or in GWh electrical energy
Excavation by drilling
and blasting
1.4 Mill. l
Loading by hydraulic
excavator
3 Mill. l
Bulk transport by
dumper truck
20.1 Mill. l
Primary crusher 7.6 GWh
Auxiliary equipment 0.8 Mill. l
Total 25.3 Mill. l +7.6 GWh
Table 1. Energy consumption rates for various sub-processes in the open-
cast mining industry.
work. However for this particular mining scheme such
an arrangement proves to be more energy consuming,
as in view of the longer loading times the number of
transport vehicles would have to be increased in order
to achieve the same production level.
In order to quantify energy consumption during
product haulage by dumper truck the average transport
distance to the destination point was calculated for each
working level and each run was then subdivided into
uphill and downhill gradients and horizontal sections.
The calculations were based on a gradient of 10 %. It
was found that a medium-sized truck with a payload ca-
pacity of 38 m was well suited to this particular mining
concept in terms of both fuel consumption and loading
time in conjunction with the hydraulic excavator. Ac-
cording to the manufacturers data the deployment of
a truck of this size and output range would result in an
average consumption of some 148,000 l of diesel fuel
a year. However, as the mining operation advances so
the number of vehicles needed will increase. This fact is
determined by the dynamics of the mineral extraction
points and the situation will gradually change both as
regards the horizontal transport distances and, more
signicantly, in terms of the dierence in height that
has to be overcome.
As well as the main opencast operations of excavat-
ing, loading and transporting the mineral the analysis
also included the energy consumption levels of the
primary crusher. This was done for two reasons: rstly,
the transition from rock winning to mineral process-
ing, as far as the primary crushing stage is involved,
is sometimes fairly uid, and secondly, the primary
crusher had to be installed as a central component of
the transport chain when setting up the subsequent
combination of surface extraction methods and un-
derground transport systems. While the excavation
machines would be operating on a single-shift basis,
the crusher was to be set up for a two-shift routine.
The crusher unit was designed to deliver a throughput
of 375 t/h.
In addition to the dierent excavation, loading and
transport machines directly involved in the winning
operation an opencast mine will feature a number
of auxiliary items of equipment that are needed to
supply and back-up the sequence of operations. The
type of equipment involved, and the scheduling of its
deployment, will vary greatly depending on the condi-
tions that exist at the working faces. In the example
selected here the equipment employed for these
particular services was assumed to have an energy
consumption rate in the mid range.
The Table 1 shows the energy consumption rates
for the opencast mining operation as calculated on
the basis of the total operating time of the excavation
project in question.
Using these gures the energy consumption level
for the opencast mining operation can be calculated
at approximately 0.51 l of diesel fuel per tonne of
mineral produced. In actual practice consumption
rates tend to lie between 0.5 and 1 l of fuel per tonne
of mineral. The comparatively low amount of energy
consumed during the opencast mining of stone from
the workings under analysis can be attributed to the
model-based character of the depicted deposits and
Figure 1. Percentage-based contribution of indi-
vidual items of plant to overall energy consump-
tion during opencast mining.
PLANNING
to the well coordinated combination of the selected
plant and machinery (Figure 1).
Mining by a combination of methods
The concept of using the following approach for
mining the deposits is based on the idea that the
continuous increase in energy consumption for
truck haulage operations, which will result from the
ever longer haulage distances, can be prevented by
employing a transport route that will remain con-
sistent throughout the entire life of the workings.
Stone excavation will continue to be undertaken by
opencast mining methods, i.e. drilling and blasting,
while the mineral transport operation will use an
underground roadway network running beneath the
deposits (Figure 2).
The working cycle used for the actual mining opera-
tion, and the energy consumed in the course of this
process, will not dier in any way from the mining
operations described above.
The mineral extracted from the oor of the opencast
workings is loaded and carried by free-steered LHD
(payload capacity 14 m) to a glory hole located in the
centre of the mine. This glory hole was constructed
by raise boring. The surface area of the stoping levels
decreases with increasing depth. The average distance
to be covered by the LHD is therefore at its maximum
on the rst level, in this case 175 m. The stone is then
tipped into the glory hole and delivered to the under-
ground roadway.
While the surface mining work is organised on a
one-shift basis, the underground transport operation
and shaft haulage cycle will be a two-shift process.
This will ensure that the required production levels
are achieved and at the same time will help to reduce
the dimensions of the underground installations and
equipment. The deep workings can therefore also be
made smaller in scale and the outlay on drivage and
tunnelling work can be kept to a minimum. Conversely,
however, this concept will require the excavation of
underground bunker capacity. The rst of the two in-
termediate bunkers, each of which will be designed for
half a days output of 3,000 t, will receive the mineral
as soon as it has been tipped into the glory hole. This
is the only way in which the one-shift mining process
can link up smoothly with the two-shift transport
operation under way below ground.
The stone is drawn o from the bunker by a vibrating
conveyor and delivered to the primary crusher, whose
design and energy consumption rate is equivalent to
that of the crusher unit installed in the initial mining
operation.
The second bunker is located adjacent to the sur-
face winding shaft. After passing through the primary
crusher the mineral is transported along a conveyor
road by a horizontal belt installation 210 m in length
and with a belt width of 800 mm. It has been shown
that belt conveyors are the most energy ecient
transport system for operations of this type. As the
conveyor road runs horizontally the output of the
belt drive can also be kept relatively low, in this case
a mere 18.5 kW. The second intermediate bunker is
needed because it is not possible to transfer the min-
eral directly from the continuous belt conveyor to the
non-continuous one-skip shaft installation.
A measurement belt, which weighs out transport
units of approximately 15 t of mineral for the shaft
skip, has to be equipped for a drive output of 110 kW.
However this belt does not operate continuously over
the entire shift time, which means that energy con-
sumption at this installation can be greatly reduced.
The same applies to the second vibro-conveyor that
draws the mineral from No. 2 bunker.
The underground workings are ventilated by a
mine fan and two auxiliary fans installed in the road-
ways. Because of the automated transport process
and electrically powered transport systems the total
ventilation requirement is merely 450 m/min, which
equates to a fan output of about 9 kW. The mineral
winding shaft serves as the downcast shaft, while
the return air exits via a ventilation borehole that is
combined with the surface glory hole.
The winding shaft is 345 m in length and has a
diameter of 6 m. One shaft compartment is used for
Figure 2.
Schematic
representation of
the underground
roadway layout.
PLANNING
tion values established for the various part-processes
and items of plant over the entire lifespan of the
project.
The application of this particular winning method
therefore results in an energy consumption rate of
0.67 l of diesel fuel (converted gures) per tonne of
mineral extracted (Figure 3).
Analysis and assessment
of the results
An individual assessment of the two working methods
results in an energy consumption gure of 0.1 l/t for
the conventional opencast mining technique and
0.67 l/t for the combined system, as based on the
production of 1 t of mineral. The opencast method
therefore works out as more energy ecient when
viewed over the entire life cycle of the operation. The
main reason for this result is the high annual energy
demand of the shaft winding installation, which re-
mains constant over the entire mining period, as the
annual output of the mine does not change and is
extracted from a consistent depth.
In the case of the dumper truck transport system
as used for the opencast mining operations, on the
other hand, there is a signicant change in energy
expenditure when taken over the entire life cycle of
the project. As the winning depth increases there is
a substantial rise in energy consumption and in the
number of vehicles deployed. On the rst working
level, however, haulage from the extraction point to
the reference destination only means negotiating a
height dierence of some 20 m. When the material is
being transported along the underground roadways,
on the other hand, and even when mining is still under
way on the rst level, it still has to be raised up the
shaft from a depth of 345 m, after having been pre-
viously tipped down the glory hole. This means that
the shaft winder has a much higher energy demand
than the truck haulage system.
Further investigations were carried out in order to
determine at what working level, and hence at what
mining depth, the opencast method being used in
this particular mining scenario becomes more energy
intensive than the underground conveyor system.
Although the shaft winding installation has a high
energy requirement, this is oset by the relatively low
energy demand calculated for the rest of the combined
underground transport system based on belt convey-
ors. Even the roadway development work proved to
be less energy intensive than had been expected. The
Figure 4 shows the annual energy consumption for a
mineral yield of 1.5 Mill. t from the individual working
levels for both the opencast mining system and the
combined system (Table 3).
It becomes clear that the combined system only
becomes more energy ecient than the opencast
method when mine level 10 is reached. Prior to this
both energy consumption rates gradually move into
line with each other. While the truck haulage operation
becomes increasingly energy intensive, the amount of
fuel consumed by the combined systems free-steered
load and carry vehicle drops slightly as the mining
levels become narrower. This is also reected in the
Sub-process/machine Calculated energy consumption in litres of
diesel fuel or in GWh of electrical energy
Development work 0.065 Mill. l
Excavation by drilling
and blasting
1.4 Mill. l
Free-steered loader in
load-and-carry mode
7.6 Mill. l
Underground transport
equipment (vibro-conveyor, belt
conveyor, measurement conveyor)
23.2 GWh
Primary crusher 7.6 GWh
Shaft winder 122.1 GWh
Ventilation (main fan and
auxiliary fans)
2.5 GWh
Total 9.065 Mill. l + 155.4 GWh
Table 2. Energy consumption rates during individual sub-processes
based on equipment combinations.
winding men and materials, while the second houses
the skip conveyance. Because of the excellent stability
of the local strata the shaft wall can be supported by
a combination of rockbolts and wire mesh. This means
that practically the entire shaft diameter of 6 m will
be available as usable space. In order to achieve a
winding speed of 12 m/s the shaft winder has to be
designed for a skip payload of nearly 16 t and a drive
output of 1,100 kW.
Before regular production can begin the calculations
also have to take account of the energy consumed
by the underground tunnelling work (conventional
drivage system) and the dumping of the excavated
debris at a spoil tip some 300 m distant from the shaft
mouth. Both diesel-powered and electrically driven
machines were used for the development work. For
reasons of clarity the energy consumption levels of the
dierent items of equipment were consolidated into
a single value. This means that the equivalent diesel
consumption rates were used for the electric-driven
machines. The Table 2 shows the energy consump-
Figure 3. Percentage-based contribution of indi-
vidual items of plant to overall energy consump-
tion during underground operations.
PLANNING
overall analysis of the energy expenditure report.
The further the mining operation progresses beyond
level 10, which in this particular scenario represents
a depth of some 200 m, the greater is the energy-
consumption advantage of the underground transport
system (Figure 5).
In simple terms this result means that the nal depth
of 260 m selected for this particular mining project
was not large enough to fully exploit the benets of
the underground transport method. The additional
energy expenditure incurred in the early stages of the
underground operation, compared with that used
by the opencast system, could not be compensated
for as the project progressed from mine level 10 to
its nal depth. Even though the opencast transport
lines became longer than the underground conveyor
roads once the project reached level 3 (see Figure 5),
it would still be some time before the shaft winding
system could reach its energy break even point.
The shaft winding machine is without any doubt
the largest energy consumer in an underground mine.
Mine fans also consume similar quantities of energy,
but only at the larger mines and when air-ow require-
ments are high.
Conclusions
The combination system being studied in the case of
the selected area of deposits is overall more energy
intensive that the conventional opencast extraction
method. However, it is clear that once an opencast
mine reaches a certain working depth, which would
have to be determined on an individual basis, there
are energy benets to be gained from transporting
the mineral along an underground roadway connect-
ing to a surface shaft.
The certainty of this statement can primarily be
attributed to the fact that neither the underground
Mine
level
Energy requirement in litres of diesel
fuel for a 1.5 Mill. t yield of mineral
Opencast Process combination
1 450,000 1,035,000
2 515,000 1,030,000
3 585,000 1,025,000
4 650,000 1,020,000
5 730,000 1,015,000
6 790,000 1,010,000
7 860,000 1,005,000
8 920,000 1,000,000
9 990,000 995,000
10 1,070,000 990,000
11 1,120,000 985,000
12 1,240,000 980,000
13 1,300,000 970,000
Table 3: Energy consumption for a mineral yield
of 1.5 Mill. t.
development work nor the ventilation system has a
signicant inuence on overall energy consumption
and can quickly be compensated for.
Moreover, the network of underground roadways
can still be constructed even after the opencast mining
operations have commenced.
As the underground development work is being
undertaken beneath the deposits there is no risk of
the tunnel drivages colliding with the advancing stopes
and benches above ground. This means that the limits
of workability of a valuable mineral can be extended
quite signicantly to include deeper working levels,
which makes for a considerable increase in the volume
of recoverable deposits. For one thing, this can have
enormous benets when carrying out an economic
feasibility study of an existing mining project, as de-
posits will now become accessible that were previously
not included at the planning stage.
For another, deposits that were previously consid-
ered to be unprotable can become exploitable. This
makes a real contribution towards meeting future
demand for raw materials.
Figure 4. Graphic representation of the energy requirement for the
annual mineral yield from the individual working levels for both the
opencast and the underground systems.
Figure 5. Distances to be overcome by the mechanised haulage/convey-
ing systems operating between the extraction site and the reference
unloading point
METHANE
International CMM and
VAM Project Development
Experiences of a Mining Consultant
Dipl.-Ing. Thomas Imgrund, DMT GmbH & Co. KG, Essen, Germany
M
ost coal deposits contain more or less
methane, which is adsorbed in the coal
matrix and also occurs within pores, cleats
and voids of both, coal and surrounding rock. This
methane is released as a result of mining coal and
subsequent pressure release in the surrounding
strata. If possible, methane emissions will be con-
trolled by diluting and discharging the methane
through the mine ventilation. If this is not sufci-
ent, gas drainage will be carried out. Apart from
being a safety risk in the mine operation, methane
from coal mines is an energy source which could
be utilised by various technologies for heat or po-
wer generation (Figure 1). Regarding the climate,
methane is also identied as a greenhouse gas,
which is 21 times more harmful to global warming
compared to carbon dioxide (1).
As in most cases the utilisation of methane from
coal mines is not economic at actual prices for gas,
electricity or heat, projects are often nanced by the
generation of carbon credits. This business is based
on the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and
Joint Implementation (JI) of Kyoto Protocol. These
so called project based mechanisms allow emitters
of carbon dioxide fullling their emission reduction
Methane is a waste product of mining coal.
Utilisation of this gas is a more and more
interesting issue for coal mine operator as
well as a young business based on the carbon
market. Apart from using drained gas for
power generation using internal combustion
engines or supply to the natural gas grid,
thermal oxidation of highly diluted methane
in the ventilation air is in the focus of interest.
Projects for utilisation of this waste product
are usually nanced by carbon credits. The
German mining engineering and consulting
group DMT supports international companies
during development of gas utilisation projects
around the world.
targets by carbon oset projects in foreign countries.
Carbon credits could be generated either by methane
utilisation or just conversion of methane to water and
carbon dioxide as a less harmful greenhouse gas. The
abatement of 1 t of methane is equal with avoiding
18.25 t of carbon dioxide.
The methane discharged by ventilation (Figure 2)
is called ventilation air methane (VAM) and the
drained methane is called coal mine methane (CMM).
Usually the concentration of VAM in the ventilation
air is limited to 1 % maximum, depending on the
individual national mine safety regulations. Other
limits are common for particular parts of the mine like
return airways of panels. The utilisation of such highly
diluted methane-air mixtures has become technically
and economically interesting by new technologies as
thermal oxidation during the last years. Concentrations
of CMM are considerably higher, but limits dier from
country to country.
After the closure of a coal mine, methane emissions
abate more or less quickly, but use to continue on a
lower level for decades. This source is called abandoned
coal mine methane (AMM). Methane concentrations
of AMM depend on the residual gas contents after
mining as well on the inow of air into the disused
mine workings. Methane could also be produced from
virgin coal beds, as a source of natural gas or during
pre-dainage of coal seams to be mined. This is known
as coal bed methane (CBM).
Development of methane
utilisation projects
Utilisation of coal mine methane has a very long
tradition in Germany, but development was acceler-
Figure 1. CMM
red power plant
at a Chinese
colliery.
Figure 2.
Ventilation air as
an energy source.
METHANE
ated by the Renewable Energy Law in the year 2000.
This has been supporting CMM and AMM to power
projects with access to the grid and guaranteed prices
for power input. Today there is more than 220 MW
electrical capacity, installed at 128 CHP plants on dif-
ferent locations. During the last 10 years, DMT GmbH
& Co. KG, Essen, Germany, has played a major role in
building up Germanys CMM and AMM industry and
also has been involved in AMM and CBM projects in
other European countries.
Based on this development, during the last years,
DMT has cooperated with dierent parties involved in
international carbon nanced CMM and VAM projects.
Clients are power generation companies, energy trad-
ers, investment companies and developer of emission
reduction projects. So far, DMT has been involved
in about 65 projects worldwide, mainly in PR China,
followed by Russia and Eastern European countries.
In PR China projects in Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia,
Ningxia, Shanxi, Anhui, Chongquing, Yunnan and
Guizhou provinces have been assessed (Figure 3).
It must be considered, that the stakeholders in CMM
and VAM projects have dierent views on methane
emissions. For the mine operator coal mining is the
core business. CMM and VAM are waste products at
rst, produced by measures for eective and safe
coal production. Mine ventilation and gas drainage
have to meet the mine operations requirements and
national mine safety regulations.
The project developer, as well as an investor or a
buyer of generated carbon credits, is interested in
the converted methane volumes. After investment in
utilisation or abatement plants, the revenues from car-
bon credits are essential for them. Maximum utilisable
methane volume ows and adequate concentrations
are the important issues.
As both parties have dierent interests or at least
rankings of their interests, the common interests have
to be elaborated as a base of cooperation. Anyway,
the gas utilisation has to be managed after achieving
coal production and mine safety. DMT understands
its position as a bridge between these two parties,
bringing in know how regarding the interactions
between coal mining and gas emissions on one side
and the requirements as well as the possibilities of gas
utilisation on the other side.
Barriers in CMM and VAM projects
Due to the greenhouse warming potential of methane,
CMM and VAM projects have a large potential com-
pared to other emission reduction projects. However,
since 2007 only 26 projects have been registered as
CDM projects, all of them in PR China. A small amount
was registered as JI projects in Eastern European
countries. Among others, DMT indicates some major
barriers in project development.
As mentioned, for the mine operator coal produc-
tion is the main business. Hence, gas utilisation is of
secondary interest. The following example shows the
value of emitted methane compared to the value of
mined coal. The example is a gassy mine in Eastern
Europe producing 4 Mill. t of coal and emitting
118 Mill. m of methane annually. At a coal price of
130 US-$/t and a carbon credit price of 15 US $/t car-
bon dioxide equivalent, the value of the total emitted
methane is only 4 % of the value of the mined coal. As
an abatement rate of 100 % usually is not economic,
the possible revenues from carbon credits are even less,
about 15 Mill. US-$/a. Nevertheless, this is recognized
as additional business by many mine operators.
Further barriers are uctuating methane volume
ows and concentrations of both, CMM and VAM.
This results in an utilisation ratio of considerably less
than 100 %. At rst, volume ows and concentra-
tions depend on the mining and drainage methods.
They could uctuate short term, within hours, days or
weeks, and long term, within months or years. Long
term uctuations could be a result of a changing
coal production level as well as a result of increasing
or decreasing gas contents within the deposit. Short
term uctuations are inuenced by the current coal
production, the operation of the drainage system and
the barometric pressure.
Gas emission forecasts are carried out by mining
companies or national institutes for dimensioning
ventilation and gas drainage. Ventilation and gas
drainage is designed based on the maximum expected
methane emissions which have to be controlled dur-
ing mining. In some cases they are compiled just for
approval procedures without any interest in accuracy.
They could dier from reality considerably. At a major
mine DMTs technical team has seen plans for a CMM
to power plant with a gas demand exceeding the
total gas emission of the mine, drained and vented
methane. Misinvestment would have been more
than 30 Mill US-$. Hence, for methane utilisation,
methane emissions must be assessed in another way
(Figure 4).
Consultancy services
DMT oers various services during project develop-
ment and focus on bringing in special knowledge and
Figure 3. DMTs
activities in CMM
and VAM project
development in PR
China.
METHANE
engineers as well as inspections of relevant surface
and underground facilities (Figure 7).
For the analysis of statistic methane emission gures
it is essential to understand how these gures were
produced. Hence, it is necessary to discuss the measure-
ment and documentation methods with the people
who compiled these gures. For the mine operator,
these statistics are often of limited interest. Electronic
state of the art sensors are not unusual even at less
developed mines, but sometimes no calibration is car-
ried out due to additional costs. Hence, at some mines
the gures produced by old fashioned measurement
devices are more accurate than the gures measured by
state of the art sensors. Nevertheless ocial methane
emission statistics may base on electric sensors.
Gas content gures are a basic gure for gas
emission forecasts. Hence, usually underground coal
samples are taken for gas content determination in
DMTs laboratory.
The gathered data are analysed as a base for an
independent forecast of total and utilisable methane
emissions. As methane emissions may dier depend-
ing on the mine district, the mined seam as well the
mining, ventilation and drainage method, it is neces-
sary to analyse gas emission gures dierentiated.
Therefore, the historic methane emission gures are
broken down as detailed as reasonable. By this, the
particular sources of gas emissions the individual
productive or abandoned mine districts, headings
and panels and within this source the working seam
and the particular surrounding strata are identi-
ed. The inuences of coal production, ventilation
and gas drainage operations on methane quantities
and qualities are evaluated based on this detailed gas
emission balance.
Gas emission forecast
Especially for VAM projects, the whole mine operation
and the future mine development have to be analysed
carefully, as small dierences in VAM concentration
could result in considerably misinvestment.
DMT compiles gas emission forecasts based on an
empirical model developed during the last decades
for the prediction of roof and oor gas emissions of
high productive longwall panels. As the origin of the
method is in German collieries under special conditions,
it has to be adjusted and calibrated when used in other
deposits. Scientic numerical simulations are only as
accurate as the input parameter. These parameters
like permeability of virgin and destroyed coal and
rock are commonly not available. Hence, DMT uses a
pragmatic forecast method based on the theoretical
calculation and the detailed analysis of recorded actual
and historic methane emissions.
The Figure 8 shows the forecast for a CMM project
at a Chinese mine, working three seams successively
from the top to the bottom seam. After mining the
top seam the gas contents in the roof and the oor
of the middle seam are reduced, so gas emissions will
be considerably lower.
Deviations of actual from forecasted gas emissions
are common and recognized worldwide. This applies
also to the particular national forecast methods. As a
experience wherever it is reasonable. In the early stage
of project development, DMT assists with directed
data acquisition and interpretation with the target
of separating economic from obviously uneconomic
projects as early as possible. It must be considered,
that mining operations, especially in PR China, cover
a wide range of technical standards (Figures 5 and 6)
and geological conditions.
The second step is a technical due diligence, includ-
ing data acquisition and discussions with the mines
Figure 4.
Dimensioning of
CMM drainage and
CMM utilisation.
Figure 5. Colliery
at Western China.
Figure 6. Small coal
mine in Northern
China.
METHANE
result it is necessary calibrating the forecast with the
reality very carefully for each project.
The methane emission forecast and the possibilities
for energy supply lead to the methane utilisation con-
cept. In most cases gas engines and thermal oxidation
plants are the core of the concept. Apart from this,
there are further possibilities for methane utilisation
and abatement, for example direct gas distribution
via pipeline injection, conventional boilers and CMM
ares.
Risk assessment
The CMM or VAM project is reliant to the mine as gas
producer. The project could depend on the advance
of just one panel. This results in signicant risks as
the project developer, investor or credit buyer have
almost no inuence on gas delivery.
An omnipresent risk is a production reduction or
even stop. Without coal production methane emis-
sions in most cases decrease to near zero. Production
reductions or downtimes could be a result of geologi-
cal problems or gas outburst. DMTs team has visited
a mine construction site in Asia, which was stopped
for about one year due to a major gas outburst. After
this period mine development moved to another, less
explored part of the deposit - with leaving the future
quite uncertain.
Last but not least, gas quantities and qualities
depend on the actual operation of ventilation and
drainage and, of course, of the individual people
and their understanding of the job. This includes
the whole involved sta from the management to
the working force actually drilling and operating the
drainage boreholes.
Improvement of gas
drainage and ventilation
The evaluation of improvement potential has three
main targets: reducing the identied project risks
where possible, enhancing utilisable gas volume ows
and enhancing coal production and mine safety.
The rst possibility is adjusting the utilisation
concept to the minimum gas delivery. That is more
reasonable than building up a power plant and search-
ing for additional gas afterwards. Flexibility might be
important as no mine can guarantee the gas delivery
for a whole project lifetime.
At CMM projects maximum and stable methane
volume ows are of interest. Apart from an optimised
borehole layout and adequate borehole sealing, the
management of the boreholes is a solution for this.
At VAM projects an enhancement of concentrations
is not trivial, as safety in all parts of the mine must be
guaranteed. Overall reduction of ventilation air ow
is no solution and highly dangerous. Nevertheless at
many mines for example needless air shortcuts could
be reduced. Apart from improvement of ventilation,
CMM gas can be added to the oxidation plant.
Low concentrations of CMM are common in some
countries, even in the explosive range. Apart from the
safety risk, air shortcuts result in a reduction of drain-
age system capacity. Reducing shortcuts is interesting
for both, the CMM power plant operator and the
mine operator, as this aects the operation costs of
the drainage system.
The ventilation layout of panels aects the drainage
ratio due to the possible drilling locations and the inu-
Figure7. CMM
pumping station
at a colliery in
Eastern Europe.
Figure 8. Forecast
of drainable and
utilisable CMM.
METHANE
ence of the pressure drop of the ventilation. At retreat
longwall panels drainage boreholes are often drilled
from the gate road in advance of the coal face. These
boreholes are frequently destroyed by the advancing
coal face. Horizontal boreholes drilled from raises (as
carried out in PR China) are more eective, but also
more expensive. In the UK cross measure boreholes
are drilled in the rear of the coalface of retreat long-
wall operations. Ventilation of the drilling location is
carried out by a back return method.
Advanced longwall operations with Y-form ventila-
tion could be provided with more ventilation air. At
panels with very high gas emissions or working thin
seams this is essential, as the coal face width is a limit
for the ventilation air ow. Due to the pressure drop
of ventilation, maximum gas emissions are not con-
centrated at the return air side of the coal face, but
are dispersed within the return airway. Gas drainage
is supported by the pressure drop and a full access
to all boreholes. By regulation of each borehole the
operation lifetime of the boreholes is increased and
methane concentrations could be enhanced.
Specics of VAM projects
Compared to CMM utilisation, VAM projects are
considerably more ambitious. The development of
future VAM concentration is essential, because of the
technical limit of the oxidation plant (about 0.2 %)
and a sucient methane throughput. At a constant
utilised ventilation air ow, the methane throughput
depends on the concentration only.
At high mixture volume ows, a deviation in
methane concentration measurement of only 0.1 %
has an enormous inuence in the total VAM volume.
On the other side this is a tolerated deviation, which
can be found at every mine. Therefore, the assess-
ment of historic and actual gas emission data, as well
as the methane forecast, have to be very accurate.
Future variations of ventilation air ow have to be
considered.
The example in Figure 9 shows the forecast of VAM
concentrations for two cases. Currently at this mine
there are considerably air shortcuts within the upcast
shaft, which are one third of the mine districts total
airow. These could be reduced with low cost im-
provement by about 75 %. Without improvement the
project would not be economic. Apart from additional
revenues from carbon credits, the energy demand of
the main fan could be reduced considerably.
Summary
Methane emissions at coal mines are not only a safety
issue, but could mean additional revenues by power
and heat production or the generation of carbon
credits. With the Kyoto Protocol the utilisation or just
abatement of methane emissions from coal mines has
become a worldwide growing business. Nevertheless,
for a mine operator methane is a waste product as
rst, while for the CMM or VAM project developer
methane is the essential source for project revenues.
During project development, these dierent points of
view have to be considered. If not, the project wont
be sucient for both parties.
DMT has been involved in the development of
several projects for the utilisation of drained coal mine
methane (CMM) and ventilation air methane (VAM),
most of them in Asia and Eastern Europe. Within a
technical due diligence, an independent forecast of
utilisable methane emissions and an assessment of risks
and improvement potential is elaborated. This is the
base for investment in methane utilisation equipment.
Misinvestment, caused by incorrect interpretation
of gas emission statistics, gas emission forecasts and
future mine development, could be avoided.
Improvement of both, gas drainage and mine venti-
lation could be a benet for both, the mine operation
and the methane utilisation. Within the project, coal
production and mine safety must be considered as
most important. Hence, the dierent requirements of
mining and methane utilisation have to be evaluated
and common interests have to be elaborated for a
successful project.
References
1. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC): IPCC
Fourth Assessment Report (AR4), 2007.
Figure 9.
Forecast of VAM
concentrations.
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