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Coal Operators' Conference Sciences

2012

Dust control practices in the Indian mining industry

Jai Krishna Pandey
CSIR-Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research

Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/coal

Recommended Citation
Jai Krishna Pandey, Dust control practices in the Indian mining industry, in Naj Aziz and Bob Kininmonth
(eds.), Proceedings of the 2012 Coal Operators' Conference, Mining Engineering, University of
Wollongong, 18-20 February 2019
https://ro.uow.edu.au/coal/406

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contact the UOW Library: research-pubs@uow.edu.au
 2012 Coal Operators’ Conference The University of Wollongong

DUST CONTROL PRACTICES IN THE INDIAN MINING INDUSTRY

Jai Krishna Pandey1

ABSTRACT: Mining is a dust prone occupation and almost every major process in mining contributes
to the atmospheric load of suspended particulate matter. Prolonged exposure of this dust is known to
cause various respiratory diseases including deadly pneumoconiosis among the miners. The Central
Institute of Mining and Fuel Research, Dhanbad has contributed significantly in the area of dust
assessment and control. It has developed a few simple yet effective techniques for controlling dust in
drilling, crusher houses, transfer points, and haul roads. These techniques of dust control are gaining
industry interest in recent years mainly for two reasons: (a) dust generation has increased significantly
due to higher mechanisation and the introduction of mass production technologies to meet our growing
production needs making application of dust control mechanism inevitable, (b) growing consciousness
of environment and stricter environmental compliance mechanisms has put constant pressure on the
mining industry for regular use of dust control practices. The present paper briefly describes the
techniques/methodologies for controlling dust during different drilling practices and at crusher house and
conveyor transfer points and haul roads in the mining industry.

INTRODUCTION

Coal is a prime source of energy for India and it will continue to maintain its lead for the foreseeable
future. Dust is an accepted fact for almost every operation in coal mining. Many processes can be
pinpointed as contributions to dust generation like drilling, blasting, haul roads, coal cutting by
continuous miner, conveyor belts and crusher houses. With an increased level of mechanisation and
the pressing demand to boost production for minimising the supply gap, generation of air borne
respirable dust is increasing necessitating more effective dust control practices. Being a labour
intensive industry, coal mining warrants extra efforts to mitigate dust pollution.

Prolonged exposure of coal mine dust is known to cause various respiratory diseases like
pneumoconiosis, silicosis, bronchitis, asthma, fibrosis of lungs and tuberculosis (TB), depending upon
the nature of the dust. Free silica/quartz present in the dust of mine air has been identified as a main
cause of these health hazards to miners. Indian coals are considered to be of 'drift' origin and therefore
contain high mineral matter intermixed with coal matter. Quartz is one of the major minerals present in
coal and therefore miners are exposed to health risks arising from inhalation of quartz laden coal dust
generated in the coal mines (Nair and Sinha, 1988). Dust with quartz content of up to 14.49% has also
been reported in coal mines of Bhart Coking Coal Limited, Dhanbad (Pandey, et al., 2008). The health
risk to the miners varies depending upon the nature of coal and its mineral content, condition of the
mines, nature of job handled by the miner and finally the quality and the efficacy of the safety measures
adopted by management.

Air-borne dust from mining activities spreads over nearby populated areas and crops causing harmful
effects in many ways to the people, vegetation, forests, animals and water resources. The corrosive
effect of the dust shortens the life of lubricants of Heavy Earth Moving Machinery (HEMM), increases
maintenance costs and reduces its operating efficiency. The dust impedes visibility thereby reducing
production capacity. It is also a potential safety hazard.

DUST CONTROL PRACTICES IN INDIAN COAL MINES

Dust control involves either dust consolidation or dust capture. Dust consolidation is normally practiced
for settled dust which becomes airborne in favourable condition e.g. haul roads of open cast mines.
Dust collection or capture is resorted to when it is airborne. In these cases dust is collected close to its
source of generation for effective result and therefore the method is useful for controlling dust generated
in localised spaces or point sources like drilling, blasting, crusher house and conveyor transfer points
with the help of special types of dust capture arrangement. Dilution of dust is limited to small
concentration of dust only. The Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research (CIMFR) has made a
significant contribution in this area and has demonstrated some very effective yet simple techniques for

1
CSIR-Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research, Dhanbad, India, email: jaikrishna_p@yahoo.com

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providing dust control in various situations which are described in the following sections. Few face
operations including blasting do not permit efficient and cost effective dust control. Preventive steps like
pattern of holes, quantity and strength of explosive and water stemming facilitate lower dust generation
and are probably the better tools to overcome the problem.

Dust control in drilling

Drilling produces the largest quantity of respirable dust per unit weight during the shortest time. A
study (Nair, et al., 1999) reports up to 1.46 kg of respirable dust generation per meter of drilling by a
250 mm diameter drill in iron ore opencast mines. Table 1 (Sinha and Nair,1982) presents the level of
dust generation during drilling in coal, limestone and iron ore which reveals that air borne dust generated
in drilling increases with drill diameter and rock hardness. Analyses of dust collected from these drill
holes reveals that the bulk of the drill hole dust (up to 65%) was above 500 micron in size, up to 12.2%
was under 53 micron and up to 1% was in the respirable range.

Table 1 - Quantity of total dust generated from drill hole for coal, limestone and iron ore for
different drill hole diameter

Amount of dust (kg) generated per meter of drilling

Diameter of drill hole (mm)
Coal Limestone Iron ore
60 3.7 7.8 12.7
100 10.2 21.5 35.5
150 23.0 48.6 79.5
200 40.9 86.4 144.5
250 63.75 134.9 220.7
300 91.92 194.5 318.2

Drilling is essential in mining and large quantities of dust will be produced irrespective of the method of
drilling. Therefore, various methods of dust suppression will have to be introduced to bring down the
concentration of dust to safe limit. The principal dust suppression methods are wet drilling,
suppression by fog and dry dust collection.

The wet drilling method is based on the introduction of water into the hole being drilled, through the
centre of drill steel. But it has not yet been possible to establish the relationship between the dust
collecting capacity and the shape and size of the bit or even the number of outlet holes for the water
(Parmeggiani, 1983). However, water has poor efficiency for collection of respirable dust (Sen and
Ghosh, 1985). Water adds to the risk of jamming of the drill bit inside the drill hole, and reduces the rate
of drillling. In underground mines, water added for drilling creates foggy situations, which lead to poor
visibility. Addition of small amount of soluble oil (0.1-3%) creates an emulsion which reduces surface
tension of the water and may improve the performance and extends the life of the bit. Many studies
have shown that the addition of wetting agents to the circulating water is expensive with relatively little
effect on fine dust collection.

Besides economics and efficiency, the situation may also arise where wet drilling is undesirable either
because the machines become clogged, or because the spray and fog released by the machine may
affect nearby electrical installations or create undesirable conditions for the operator drilling vertical
overhead holes. There may also be workplaces that are not equipped with a water supply. Dry dust
collection is therefore more common. The conventional practice of dry dust collection is energy
consuming and not effective. CIMFR has developed few dry dust collection systems for the prevalent
form of drilling practices used in Indian mines. The advantages of the CIMFR designs are:

 The dust collectors are portable and easy to use;

 They do not use any source of energy for operation – no water, electricity or anything else;
 They do not affect the rate of drilling, rather than improve on it by avoiding jamming and energy
waste;
 Collection efficiency is very high;

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 No moving parts, therefore, no wear and tear only some inexpensive washers need
replacement;
 The dust collectors are easily fabricated by small scale units;
 Operators do not require any special training for their use. Even unskilled labour can use them;
 The dust collectors are inexpensive.

Dust extractor for jack hammer drilling

The dust extractor (Nair, et al., 1999; Nair and Sinha, 1984) is comprised of a hood with a cushion base,
an elastic collar attachment to cope with intermittent hammer motion and an elastic collar grip on the drill
rod to prevent air leakage to atmosphere. A collared base plate is added to the bottom of the hood
above the cushion base. A long filter bag is attached to the funnel opening. A foot pedal ensures firm
grip of the device to the ground during drilling. The arrangement of the dust extractor is shown
schematically in Figure 1.

Figure 1 - Dust extractor for jack hammer drill (not to Scale)

The jack hammer drill rod passes through the elastic collar, and through the base plate collar. The
elastic top collar provides a leak proof grip on the drill rod, and yet it lets the rod move up and down
during hammer action. The flexible gasket too permits free hammer motion without leakage. The
base collar does not allow dust to fall back to the drill hole. During drilling, the cuttings are transported
to the hood by the scavenging compressed air, which eventually gets channelled through the filter bag.
The bag lets the air go out and retains all the dust. This gives collection efficiency (Table 2) of about
90%. The dust collection process is dry. No dust is allowed to fall back to the drill hole. For this
reason use of the device improves on the rate of drilling. The device is ideal for secondary drilling as
well as horizontal drilling in underground mines.

Table 2 - Result of Air borne respirable dust concentration in rock drilling by jack hammer drills
of 33 mm diameter with and without dust extractor

Drilling without Drilling with extractor Dust collection

Operation
extractor in ppcc* in ppcc* efficiency %
Before drilling 200
st
During 1 hole drilling 2720 440 83.82%
nd
During 2 hole drilling 3973 436 89.03%
rd
During 3 hole drilling 5695 659 88.42%
*particles per cubic centimetre

Dust extractor for electric rotary drilling

Electric rotary drilling is very common in underground mine where several such holes are drilled every
day. This generates about 42 g of respirable dust per minute (Sinha and Nair, 1982) which cannot
viably be diluted to safe limits. The dust extractor (Nair, et al., 1999) designed for electric rotary drilling
is shown schematically in Figure 2.

The extractor weighing about 1.25 kg is comprised of a hood and a wide cushioned base, a narrow
collared mouth, and a funnel shaped dust outlet to the side of the hood. A long collector bag is

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attached to the funnel. A handle holds the hood on its foam base to the vertical coal strata while the
bag hangs to the ground from the funnel end. During drilling, the drill rod passes through the mouth of
the hood, and through the base till it meets the coal to be drilled. The design of hood takes into account
the lateral throw of the dust during drilling. Forward motion of the drill and the gravitational fall of dust
down the bag creates negative pressure within the hood which prevents dust heat through its mouth.
The cushion base firmly resists leakage between coal and hood. All these result in nearly 100% dust
collection.

Figure 2 - Dust extractor for electric rotary drill (not to Scale)

Dust collector for drilling in mine roof

This is basically a light weight (less than 2 kg) portable dust collector (Nair, et al., 1999) explained
schematically in Figure 3. It consists of a cushion base, collared disc with spring action handle. A
long collector bag hangs from the collar. A port of entry for the drill rod is provided in the collector bag,
the mouth of this opening is stiffened and is provided with ring gaskets. During drilling the cushioned
disc is placed against the roof and supported by a handle. The drill rod is allowed through the hole in
the bag, till it touches the roof. The bag is flexible enough to permit drilling for vertical holes or inclined
holes. The hanging bag is positioned along the handle so as to avoid obstruction to the drilling
process. The collector permits collection of about 90% the dust.

Figure 3 - Dust collector for drilling in mine roof (not to Scale)

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Dust arrester for large diameter deep hole drilling in open pit mines
Up to a few hundred kilograms of broken dust is generated from each drill hole. The dust is finer than
what is formed in other mining operations and contains a significant proportion of respirable dust.
Normally this dust is flushed out from the drill hole by a few cubic meters of compressed air, at high
velocity. This dusty air loses its kinetic energy upon reaching the surface, and a dust cloud is formed
around the drill. The energy which is wasted in polluting the environment is put to use in the CIMFR
designed Dust Arrester (Nair and Sinha, 1987) to clean the air of its own dust.

The dust arrester is a rectangular box with a ring shaped foam cushion washer at the top, a collar base
plate with a cushioned bottom, and a large opening on one side to which a specially shaped long and
tough filter bag is attached. Figure 4 explains the design of the dust arrester schematically. For dust
collection, drilling is carried out through this device. The box is placed on its cushion base at the
selected site. The drill rod is introduced through the top ring cushion and through the base plate collar
till the drill rod touches the ore body. The dust filter bag is fully stretched. The hole in the ring cushion
is smaller than that of drill rod, but flexible enough to let the larger drill bit pass through. This ensures
an airtight grip between the drill rod, and the ring cushion yet permit free rotation of the rod. During
drilling, part of coarse dust gets deposited around the base collar and fines pass through the filter bag.
The base cushion gets pressed against coal strata due to the weight of dust settling inside the box,
thereby preventing leakage of air at its base.

Figure 4 - Dust arrester for large diameter deep hole drilling (not to Scale)

Thus, the cushion at the top surrounding the drill rod and the cushion at its base together make the
extractor an air tight unit, and therefore, dusty air from drill hole moves on its own towards filter bag for
dust collection. The large surface area of the filter bag permits slow filtration of dusty air through its
pores. Table 3 and Table 4 present the performance study of the dust arrester in stone and iron ore.
The current design is ideally suited for drills of diameter up to 120 mm. A modified version is under
consideration for larger diameter drills. The total weight of the box is about 5 to 6 kg only and that of
bag another 3 to 4 kg.

Table 3 - Air-borne dust concentration measured during drilling in stone with and without dust
arrestor using 150 mm drill master drilling machine

Time measured from start of Drilling with dust arrestor Drilling without dust arrestor
drilling (ppcc) (ppcc)
1 minute 160 1998
5 minute 177 3000
10 minute 220 4940
15 minute 230 8053
Average 198 4650
Reduction in respirable dust 95.7%

Dust control at crusher house and transfer points

A significant amount of dust is generated at crusher houses and transfer points in the coal mines.
CIMFR, Dhanbad has given a concept of the Canopy Curtain Method (Pandey, et al., 2001) for
collecting dust at dust generating point sources like coal unloading bunkers, crushers, screening points
and conveyor transfer points with dust collection efficiency of more than 80%. The technique involves
dust collection at start point. It essentially requires filter cloth to make an appropriate enclosure at the

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dust generating point. Porosity of the cloth enables it to take advantage of the natural wind. The
enclosure has to be of sufficiently large size so that the up thrust velocity of dust generated due to
impact of coal diminishes out. The dust will then be permitted to stick to the walls of the enclosure or
escape through the chimney by the action of the normal air current, diffusion or otherwise. The
enclosure has to be kept wet by capillary action or by wetting the canvas with the water drops from the
top or a combination of both for a better and more effective result. A wire net framework will be
required to keep cloth enclosure in order. A small exhaust fan can be fitted in the chimney to further
improve the dust collection efficiency. A laboratory experiment was designed to assess the efficacy of
the techniques. Dust collection efficiency obtained in conducted a six set of experiments varied
between 76-94%. It is more for silica or stone dust as compared to coal dust. It has been found that
wetting the canopy significantly improves the dust collection efficiency.

Table 4 - Air-borne respirable dust (ARD) concentration measured during drilling in iron ore with
and without dust arrester using 150 mm drill master drilling machine

Time in minute Drilling without Drilling without

Drilling with dust Drilling with dust
measured from start of dust arrestor dust arrestor
arrestor (ppcc) arrestor (ppcc)
drilling (ppcc) (ppcc)
Before drilling started 80 53 95 105
1 minute 143 8 040 105 100 000
5 minute 143 15 860 240 113 000
10 minute 139 16 950 120 80 000
15 minute 120 16 950 120 80 000
20 minute 280 3 120 144 429 000
25 minute 240 5 990 265 71 770
30 minute 213 2 770 280 48 720
Average 183 9 442 188 71 327
Percentage reduction of
98.1% 99.8%
ARD

Dust control in haul roads

Unpaved haul roads in coal mines are a veritable source of dust pollution supporting normally 10 to 15
mm of dust on its surface (Pandey, et al., 1999). Dust from haul roads gets lifted and floats in the air
during movement of trucks and forms a dust cloud. With an increase in the weight of trucks, speed and
frequency of traffic, the cloud may appear to be continuous causing delays and difficulties. During
continuous dumper runs, dust loads of surrounding atmosphere builds up both vertically and horizontally.
Application of water at frequent intervals, remained by far the most practical solution for the control of
dust on haul roads. Water applied in the conventional way gets dried up fast, and its replenishment at
frequent intervals (up to 15 times a shift) becomes necessary for effective dust control which adds
significant cost. In a case of Block II, Opencast Project of Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL), water
spraying over a 3 km long, 20 m wide haul road cost Rs 25 000 over a period of one year (Pandey, et al.,
1999). It becomes more cumbersome and costly where water is not easily available. Unfortunately
water becomes a scare resource in summer when it is required most. Besides, water has a poor
wetting ability for coal. Therefore instead of penetrating into the dust and consolidating it, it flows down
the sloppy road and make it muddy. A number of techniques have been adopted addressing these
issues which includes application of hygroscopic chemicals like calcium/magnesium to increase water
retentivity. These chemicals require repeated application as they are re-dissolved in subsequent water
sprays and tend to drain out to lower levels in the usually sloppy mines, adding to cost of treatment.
Spray with oil-water emulsion also helps to consolidate dust but it does not penetrate deep and
underlying dry dust layers gets airborne quickly during dumper movement. Some surface crusting
agents like cohrex have also been tried which may need weekly or daily application. CIMFR, Dhanbad
has contributed the following environment friendly and techno-economically viable methodologies for
controlling dust in unpaved mine haul roads:

 Wet encrustation using super absorbent chemicals which can absorb, retain and reabsorb water
several times, its weight without getting dissolved. The methodology involves mixing of the
chemical with road dust and application of the water. It helps in very effective water
management by increasing the water retaining capacity of road dust and in the process
consolidates the dust and conserves water. This chemical is not known to have any
environmental ill effects. Poor chemical absorbed water is not squeezed out under the

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compressive force of tyres, the bondage being at molecular level. Poor solubility of the
chemical increases the effective span of the treatment cycle to several months. In the case
study of Block II Opencast project of BCCL it could result in a saving of about 45% over the
water spraying. (Pandey, et al., 1999)
 To avoid water wastage and improving the economic viability of water spraying, it has also been
proposed to selectively wet the road surface close to the tyre/road surface contact plane, before
tyre to surface contact occurs, which can effectively eliminate dust emission from haul roads
with far less spray of water. This can be achieved by designing a system to spray an adequate
quantity of water ahead of the front tyre in each dumper. The system should be wide enough to
match back wheel width and should preferably be fitted with inwardly facing sprays (Nair, et al.,
2001).
 Chemical dust suppressants are nowadays gaining more acceptance in the industry for
controlling dust at haul roads probably due to the fact that the application methodology for these
chemical dust suppressants fits well to the conventional water spraying. Keeping in view their
industry acceptance, Director General of Mines Safety has also issued circulars for ensuring
environmental safety and hazard issues. One such chemical, Dustron PC Coal has been
developed by Syntron Industries, Ahmadabad in collaboration with CIMFR, Dhanbad. The
product is non toxic, biodegradable, meets all the safety standards as per statutory requirement
and has been proved to be very effective in controlling dust at haul road (Trivedi and Kumar,
2011).
 Dustron PC Coal is poured into the conventional water spraying container in recommended
dilution and sprayed on the haul road surface in a conventional way. It improves water
penetration, water retention, agglomeration of dust and reduces the water consumption of dust
with improved dust control. Syntron Industries has conducted a number of studies for dust
control with the help of Dustron PC used in mines haul road. The results of these studies
conducted at various coal and metal mines vis-a-vis conventional water treatment with respect
to various parameter on these haul roads are being summarised in the following six tables.
These studies (Trivedi and Kumar, 2011) reveals the significant improvement in water
conservation on mine haul roads, including:
1. Water requirement decreases by more than 50% and a commensurate reduction in
diesel consumption for running of water tanker. Moisture of haul roads are increased
three fold in comparison to normal watering.
2. Sieve test analysis of haul road dust with chemical and with water alone reveals that
application of chemical improves agglomeration conditions as fines (size 0.5 mm or
less) have been reduced after application of chemical by 80%.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

CIMFR, Dhanbad has made a number of significant contributions to fight the menace of dust in mining
operations. Most of these are very simple and effective in controlling the dust generated due to various
mining operations. But their potential has not been optimally utilised as dust control largely remained
limited to convention as water spraying and wet drilling. In the wake of the mechanisation and
developmental need of the country, the mining operation has made a quantum jump which has
significantly increased the dust generation level. This, coupled with growing consciousness for
environmental and health hazards, and stricter environmental compliance mechanism is virtually forcing
mining operations to use dust control mechanisms with dust prone operations, the industry is now
looking for techno-economically viable dust control solutions. Accordingly most of these have started
gaining acceptance of the mining industry. Dust collectors described for various types of drilling
operation provides inexpensive and easy to use methods with high performance efficiency. Dust
suppressing chemical is a very convenient, cost effective solution for unpaved haul road dust
consolidation. A canopy curtain method definitely deserves a trial for transfer points particularly
crusher houses. Mass production technologies like longwall, highwall and continuous miners are also
coming up in India which has a larger dust generation potential than conventional method of working.
Adding dust suppressing chemicals in water jet spraying at cutting faces for improving wettability will
significantly reduce the dust generation.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author is thankful to Director, CSIR-CIMFR, Dhanbad for his kind permission to present the paper
for the conference.

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