Managing mine dust pollution in near real time leveraging IoT and Analytics
The pollution levels are rapidly increasing due to continuous mining. This causes the air quality to deteriorate around mining complexes. On the other hand, increased focus on environmental compliance has led to monitoring and regulating the environment at mines and mineral/ore handling points. The dangerous emissions and dust generated due to mining operations have a significant impact on the habitats, environment and the equipment in the mines.
The poisonous gases, mineral particles getting mixed in the water bodies, air and the food chain are considered the adverse impacts of mining. The dust is generated from vehicle movement on haulage roads, excavation, crushing, milling, conveyors belts, blasting, loading, unloading, wind erosion of stockpiles and overburden. The gases, harmful particles emanate from vehicles, beneficiation plants at the mines and material handling points at mines and ports.
These dust and emissions are toxic in nature and impact flora and fauna, soil and air quality. Presently, the dust is controlled as a scheduled activity with process control systems and spray trucks. All the present systems work on dust suppression process control methods, based on measurement at a location and actionable insights are time-based schedules.