Longwall Mining and Ground ControlResearch Center
DEPARTMENT OF MINING ENGINEERING365 MINERAL RESOURCES BUILDING INTRODUCTIONFaculty members
in the Department of Mining Engineering of the College of Engineering
and Mineral Resources at West Virginia University have conducted considerable
research in the longwall mining and ground control areas. The LONGWALL
MINING AND GROUND CONTROL RESEARCH CENTER has been established to
utilize faculty expertise, the achievements of which have merited
world-wide recognition over the past twenty years. OBJECTIVESThe objectives
of the Center are two fold. The Center develops reliable techniques
for the analyses, design, and operation of new and existing longwall
mines. The investigators evaluate techniques currently employed by
the mining industry and provide services for special operational problems
encountered during routine production under a variety of geological,
topographical, and mining conditions. Additionally, the Center develops
new techniques for ground control for use in mines employing both
room and pillar and longwall mining methods. Through investigation
of existing mechanisms, the Center works to develop improved techniques
for the management of all types of ground control problems. The Center's
research emphasizes productivity, safety, economic, and environmental
concerns. Research methodology stresses both theory and practice,
resulting in developed techniques that are scientifically-based yet
practical for adaptation in production operations. BACKGROUNDLongwall Mining
Modern longwall
coal mining, first introduced to the United States in the mid-1950s,
is the most recent mining technique. Longwall mining presently accounts
for more than 48 percent of the nation's underground coal production.
More than two decades of operation has shown that properly designed
and operated longwall mining is highly productive and is a much safer
method of extraction than continuous mining. Longwall productivity
is at least five times that of the commonly used room and pillar method,
and is at least 200 times safer in terms of fatalities and lost-time
injuries. However, the development of longwall mining has been hindered
by several factors including economic and environmental concerns.
Longwall mining requires a large capital investment, complicated by
an existing uncertainty regarding the applicability of the technique
and its environmental effects. Efforts toward the development of criteria
for applicability of longwall mining, an important phase of research,
need expansion. These criteria will serve as guidelines for the development
and design of longwall panels and for the selection of face equipment,
both of which will result in a drastic reduction in the investment
risk of longwall mining. The present major environmental problems
of the longwall method include respirable dust, surface subsidence,
and dewatering of aquifers and streams. The dust problem limits coal
production, while subsidence and dewatering cause public concerns.
In order to reduce dust exposure to miners, most longwall faces employ
single direction cutting. Other operations reduce the shift time of
high risk personnel. Due to lack of criteria for prediction of surface
structural damage and aquifer dewatering, some mines leave large blocks
of coal for surface structural support. In addition to wasting valuable
resources, this method complicates the panel layout and operational
sequence, and has caused legal disputes with surface property owners.
Ground Control
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