Rational Organization of Work in Driving Mineral Exploration Workings at the Karamken Geological Exploration Expedition of the North-Eastern Geological Administration

RATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF WORK IN CARRYING OUT EXPLORATION MINE WORKINGS IN THE KARAMKEN GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATION EXPEDITION OF THE SVGU

A. D. GROMOV, V. G. LUKYANOV

(Presented by the scientific seminar of the Department of Geodesy, Mining, and Construction)

The provision of the national economy with mineral raw-material resources and the fulfillment of the plan for increasing reserves of useful minerals depend to a considerable degree on technical progress in the field of mining operations carried out during the exploration of deposits.

The directives of the Twenty-Fifth Congress provide for raising labor productivity in industry by 36–40% and obtaining, on this basis, 87–90% of the total increase in production.

It is planned to expand work on the geological study of the earth’s interior and the exploration of mineral raw-material resources in the regions most economically advantageous for industrial development, to increase the economic efficiency of geological exploration work, and to increase the rates of driving mine workings.

The existing rates of driving underground exploration workings, carried out by organizations of the Ministry of Geology of the USSR, still do not ensure the necessary pace of deposit exploration.

At present, in the system of the Ministry of Geology of the USSR, about 250 thousand m of underground exploration mine workings are driven annually, and about 32–36% of the total expenditures on geological exploration work are spent on this. This is explained by the fact that approximately 98% of workings (by length) are driven in rock, while about 45% of the workings are driven in hard and very hard rocks, which at the present stage necessitates the use of the expensive and low-efficiency drilling-and-blasting method of rock breaking. Only 8.2% of workings are driven manually in soft rocks without the use of explosives.

The workings are driven with various cross sections and lengths. Approximately 35% have a cross section of 1.8–2.7 m²; 40%, 2.7–4 m²; and 25%, 5–7 m². About 70% of workings with a cross section of 1.8–4 m² have a length of less than 100 m; the remaining part is driven to a length of more than 100 m. Workings with a cross section of 5–7 m² and more are driven to lengths of 500–600 m and, under certain conditions, more than 1500 m.

The rates of driving exploration mine workings have increased to 80 m per crew per month; at the same time, 28% of workings are driven at a rate of 100 m per month or more.

The decisive factor ensuring growth in the rates of driving workings, an increase in labor productivity, and a reduction in the cost of work is the improvement of the drilling-and-blasting complex, mechani-

…ization of all the main and auxiliary driving processes, organization of labor and material-and-technical supply, and improvement of the qualifications of drivage workers, blasting workers, and engineering-and-technical personnel.

If the drilling of blast-holes has been mechanized practically completely, then the loading and haulage of rock has been mechanized only by 60%. For drilling blast-holes in horizontal workings, pneumatic drills of the PR-30LU, PR-30K, PR-20, and PR-25 types are used chiefly; bits 40–43 mm in diameter, of cross and chisel shape with a solid blade, are used. The use of small-diameter blast-holes, 28–36 mm, makes it possible to increase the net drilling rate by 1.3 to 2 times.

In addition to increasing the drilling rate and raising labor productivity when small-diameter blast-holes are used, the specific consumption of explosives and blast-hole meters is noticeably reduced, the contouring of faces is improved, and the dustiness of the air in the faces is lowered.

A substantial reserve for increasing the efficiency of drilling-and-blasting operations is the introduction of mechanized methods for charging blast-holes.

Rock loading in the driving of geological-exploration mine workings is carried out mainly by pneumatic machines of the PML-5 type and its modifications PML-5 MO, PPN-1S. Recently, work has been carried out on the development and testing of loading machines (1PPN-1, PPNB-1, PNB-1) of high productivity and, in terms of their dimensions, suitable for small cross sections of workings; but the rational limit for increasing the technical productivity of loading machines for geological-exploration workings with a cross section of 5.8 m² is 0.8–0.9 m³/min (Fig. 1). A further increase in the technical productivity of the loading time

Fig. 1. Graphs of changes in time expenditure for rock loading as a function of changes in the technical productivity of loading machines: 1 — loading into cars with a capacity of 0.8 m³; 2 — loading into cars with a capacity of 1.4 m³; 3 — non-container loading

for loading does not decrease substantially, while at the same time it leads to higher costs under the item “depreciation.” This makes it necessary to seek other ways of increasing loading productivity.

Because of differences in natural, geological, and especially organizational-and-technical conditions, in geological-exploration mining practice there are large fluctuations in the values of technical-and-economic indica-

... of the organizers of driving work. The indicators of high-speed driving vary over a wide range; they are obtained with clear organization of labor, strict observance of the cyclic schedule, the use of progressive methods and techniques for carrying out the work, and good material and technical supply. Even under approximately equal mining-and-geological conditions, when identical sets of driving equipment are used, different technical-and-economic driving indicators occur. If we take the data for the Northern Expedition, KGU, and the Karamken Expedition of SVTGU, then the maximum rates of driving workings in the first were 145 m per month, and in the second, 342 m per month, with a crew size of 12 people. The workings were driven in rocks with a strength of 16.5–17 according to the Unified Time Standards, 1969, with a cross section of 5.8 m². The drilling machines in both expeditions were mainly PR-30 LU on P-18LK pneumatic supports, and PPN-1S rock-loading machines. The rock was loaded into UVO-0.8 mine cars with a capacity of 0.8 m³. Haulage was carried out by AK-2U battery electric locomotives; the haulage distance varied from 350 to 1350 m. The exchange of cars was carried out by means of portable turnouts (Northern Expedition) and dead-end sidings (Karamken Expedition). The distance from the face to the turnout was 30–80 m.

The face was drilled by two drift miners. The number of blastholes varied from 18 to 22. The blasthole depth was 1.7–1.8 m. The cut was vertical-wedge. The method of blasting was by fuse. The explosive, respectively by expedition, was detonit 10A and ammonite No. 6 ZhV. The blastholes were charged to their full depth. The blasthole diameter was 40 mm. Two people were occupied in mucking the rock.

The advance of the face per blast ranged from 1.3 to 1.53 m, with the KISH varying from 0.8 to 0.9.

To determine one of the ways of intensifying the driving of horizontal geological-exploration mine workings under conditions equated to those of the Northern and Karamken expeditions, let us analyze the well-known formula of N. M. Pokrovskii, introducing into the formula the downtime of the machine during unloading of the train at the dump:

\[ l_1 = \frac{T_{\mathrm{c}} - (t_{\mathrm{z}} + t_{\mathrm{pr}} + t_{\mathrm{os}})} {\frac{N l_0}{K v} + \eta_1 \frac{S l_0 \cos \alpha}{P}}, \]

representing it in the form

\[ T_{\mathrm{c}} = l_1 \left( \frac{N l_0}{K v} + \eta_1 \frac{S l_0 \cos \alpha}{P} \right) + (t_{\mathrm{z}} + t_{\mathrm{pr}} + t_{\mathrm{os}}), \]

where \(T_{\mathrm{c}}\) is the duration of the driving cycle, hours;

\(l_1\) is the average length of a blasthole in the set, m;

\(t_{\mathrm{z}}\) is the time for charging the blastholes, hours;

\(t_{\mathrm{pr}}\) is the duration of blasting of the blastholes and ventilation of the face, hours;

\(t_{\mathrm{os}}\) is the time for delivering the train to the dump, unloading it, and delivering it back to the face, hours;

\(N\) is the number of blastholes in the face, pcs.;

\(l_0\) is the average length of the blastholes, m;

\(K\) is the number of drilling machines operating simultaneously in the face;

\(v\) is the drilling speed of a blasthole by one machine per unit time;

\(\eta\) is the KISH;

\(S\) is the cross-sectional area of the working during driving, m²;

\(a\) — angle of inclination of the blast holes, degrees;

\(P\) — productivity of rock loading (in situ) per unit of total time, \(m^3/\text{h}\).

It is necessary to organize the driving of workings in such a way that face operations are carried out according to a cyclic schedule, with no fewer than 3–4 cycles completed per day under 3–4-shift operation; for this purpose, the driving crews must consist of no fewer than 12–16 people. All high rates of driving workings have been achieved as a result of increasing the number of workers in the driving crews. With a crew of 12 people and three-shift operation, a unit of 4 people goes out per shift. In this case from 2 to 6 faces are in operation, and the drivage workers are distributed two people per face. Depending on the situation at the face, they either drill the first and second faces, or two drill the face while two others at another face are engaged in loading and hauling the rock.

Let us consider various schemes for organizing the work, using the indicators of mechanical drilling speed, rock-loading productivity, time for exchanging mine cars, and time for exchanging trains with unloading at the waste dump for the Severnaya and Karamken expeditions.

We shall divide all schemes into 3 groups according to the number of drivage workers engaged in the main operations and according to the different length of train haulage: the first—all four drivage workers are engaged in drilling the face, loading rock, etc. The scheme for carrying out the cycle operations is sequential; the second—three drivage workers are engaged in loading rock in one face, and one in drilling blast holes in another face. Loading and drilling are carried out partially according to a parallel scheme; the third—two drivage workers are engaged in loading rock, and two drill the face. The scheme for carrying out the main operations of the cycle is parallel.

Analyzing the above formula, for the various schemes we shall determine which scheme of work organization creates the best conditions for increasing labor productivity and increasing the rate of driving the workings.

The initial data for the calculation were taken from time-study observations made by staff members of the Department of Mining of Tomsk Polytechnic Institute during the driving of workings at the Severnaya Geological Exploration Expedition of KSU and the Karamken Geological Exploration Expedition of SVTGU and are given in Table 1.

Table 1

The results of the calculations are summarized in Table 2.

Comparison of the results of calculating the duration of the cycle under different schemes of work organization makes it possible to draw the following conclusions:

1. Organization of work according to the first scheme is irrational, since it is poss-

Fig. 2. Cyclogram of work when driving workings with two faces

Face No. 1

Face No. 2

The cyclogram is divided by shifts: Shift I — hours 1–8; Shift II — hours 9–16; Shift III — hours 17–24.

Fig. 3. Cyclogram of work when driving workings with three faces

Diagram headings:

• Face No.
• Name of operation
• Number of workers
• Duration of cycle, min
• Shift I
• Shift II
• Shift I
• Shift II

Face No. 1:

1. Rock loading — 3 workers — 150 min
2. Drilling blast-holes — 2 workers — 130 min
3. Charging — 2 workers — 20 min
4. Blasting, ventilation — 30 min

Face No. 2:

1. Rock loading — 3 workers — 150 min
2. Drilling blast-holes — 1–2 workers — 210 min
3. Charging — 2 workers — 20 min
4. Blasting, ventilation — 30 min

Face No. 3:

1. Rock loading — 3 workers — 150 min
2. Drilling blast-holes — 1 worker — 200 min
3. Charging — 1 worker — 40 min
4. Blasting, ventilation — 30 min

Table 2

NOTE: The data are presented for comparison, when the number of persons in the brigade is 6, in the crew—2, and the work is carried out in a single face.

but to perform no more than 1.5 cycles per shift, whereas under the schemes presented below there is the possibility of performing two or more cycles per shift.

1. When driving workings with two faces, the best results in increasing labor productivity are achieved when work is organized according to the third scheme (Fig. 2).

2. When driving workings with three faces, the most rational organization of work is according to the second scheme (Fig. 3). As can be seen from the graph, there is a real possibility of performing seven cycles per day and achieving a rate of driving underground mine workings of 300 m per month.

LITERATURE

V. A. Gilenko, O. V. Rumyantsev. Rational productivity of loading machines in driving geological-exploration mine workings. TsNIGRI, Issue 90, 1970.

Yu. T. Smirnov, S. M. Zenkov. The influence of technology and organization of the rock-removal process on indicators for the driving of horizontal geological-exploration workings. TsNIGRI, Issue 90, 1970.