You are on page 1of 4

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MANUFACTURING SCIENCE AND EDUCATION- MSE 2013- SIBIU-ROMANIA

INTELLIGENT DISPATCHING, A SOLUTION FOR INCREASING EFFICIENCY IN MINING


Ph.D. Lupu-Dima Lucian and Ph.D. Edelhauser Eduard
Romania, University of Petrosani, Departamentul de Inginerie Minier, Topografie i Construcii, lupu_lucian@yahoo.com Romania, University of Petrosani, Departamentul de Management, Ingineria Mediului i Geologie, edi1ro2001@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT: The evolution of mining in the world, but especially in Romania, with a focus on Jiu Valley showed that an increase in the efficiency of the activity is required, that a performing management and coordination system needs to be introduced. In addition to this system, a coordinated system to administrate all the activities is needed, a system that ultimately allows the executive managers to know the reality based on this information and in real-time for them to make the right decisions in order to achieve all the set goals and targets. In this respect, the present paper aims to investigate how dispatching works in the Jiu Valley mines at local level and centralized. At the same time, following the analysis and taking into account the existing world experience and combining several novel approaches related to this work, we propose a way of working at level idea at this point, for the development of a dispatching for mining and not only for mining but for other domains too.

KEYWORDS: mining, information technology, data acquisition, management

INTRODUCTION
The need for resources is significantly manifested, not only internationally, but also in Romania. Even if the national trend was of limiting the mining domain yet experts in the field, did not renounce of the professionalism, showing a continuing concern for increasing the mining efficiency. In this regard many activities strictly related to the coal extraction took place by trying appropriate mining methods for reservoir conditions specific to Jiu Valley underground and at the same time many readjustments have been made by the restructuring of the personnel. What came through all the actions was the need of information, of access to accurate and in realtime data, so that the data to be processed and transmitted to the executive management for them to be able to take the most appropriate decisions. At the same time the correct information leads to better forecasting elements. It has also been proved that a reception of collected information characteristic of data acquisition

leads to the avoidance of subjectivity and in addition the construction of primary data structure is advantageous for the final data attainment. DISPACHING AT THE PRESENT MOMENTS IN JIU VALLEY MINES In Jiu Valley, at present time, mining activity runs in 7 underground mining units. There is also an active operating coal preparation. Energy coal is extracted from depths of up to -250 m below sea level. Each mining unit has its own system dispatching the same as the preparation unit, where there is a permanent activity. The dispatcher tries to collect all the information in order to coordinate the activity and to transmit them to the executive management. There is no possibility of intervention on the equipment from the systemdispatching centre. The on and off status can be observed for the great majority of the significant equipment from the mining and in some mining units for some compressors there is a possibility for the starting and the operating under load to be known.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MANUFACTURING SCIENCE AND EDUCATION- MSE 2013- SIBIU-ROMANIA

In the mining exploitation Petrila there is a software application that does the same thing but without saving the log events or any other operations. It is noted, though, that besides the dispatching centre there is a firedamp detector station that by means of specific captor mounted in the underground, monitors the concentration of methane in the underground. The system is automated, so that when the admissible limit is exceeded, the system enters the event procedure, interrupting the power supply. It is important to be said that this working mode is automatic, but the operator of the firedamp detector station can also voluntarily discontinue the power supply.

Another example is the stabilization in terms of improved economic efficiency of an abandoned coal mine din Maryland. A component of ensuring reasonable costs is the cost-efficient and environmentally friendly management of coal combustion by-products (CCPs) generated by coal-fired power plants in and around the state. As a legacy of coal mining, western Maryland is associated with detailed but often nongeoreferenced maps. The threat of land subsidence from mine tunnel (void) collapse and acid mine discharge (AMD) from these abandoned mines has adversely impacted development in and around increasingly sprawling communities.

Fig. 1. The monitoring panel at the dispatching of Livezeni Mining Unit The existing dispatching system proves to be old and to lack the real useful information for an efficient management. THE GIS AND MINING GIS is ideal for integrating various exploration datasets such as geophysical images, geochemistry, geologic maps, radiometric surveys, boreholes, and mineral deposits. GIS gives the explorationist tools to manage, display, and analyse data, resulting in successful, costeffective discovery of new mineral deposits. Mapping of mineral potential using GIS is conducted to delineate areas with different probabilities of hosting certain types of mineralization. The main steps in generating mineral potential maps are: - establishing the exploration conceptual model; - building a spatial database; - spatial data analysis (extraction of evidence maps and assigning of weights); - combination of evidence maps to predict mineral potential. [1]

Fig. 2. Simulated grout movement through the mine tunnel voids starting from land surface to the lowest point in mine tunnels. When mixed in the proper proportions with water, CCP grout is a viable and much cheaper alternative to conventional concrete and can be used to effectively fill abandoned mine voids and restore structural integrity to the subsurface, as well as mitigate AMD. The tunnel voids are filled by pumping CCP grout through boreholes that are drilled specifically to penetrate the mine voids. Therefore, an accurately georeferenced mine map for optimal borehole placement and spacing over mine voids is a prerequisite for efficient planning and implementation of mine void stabilization operations. [2] THE USE OF DATA AQUISITION IN JIU VALLEY MINING As shown, nowadays there is a data acquisition system in the underground, but this is limited to measuring the level of methane in the atmosphere of the underground. In the past, were installed and run, anemometers, which conveyed to the surface information about the air movement on galleries.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MANUFACTURING SCIENCE AND EDUCATION- MSE 2013- SIBIU-ROMANIA

Fig. 3. The monitoring panel of the electric installation E.M. Petrila There are also status indicators that give the needed information to the dispatching system of the surface. It is important to note, that, there are met all the requirements for the number of sensors from the underground to be higher and at the same time to be used for the measurements of many more parameters. This fact shows that the conditions necessary to achieve a collecting and transmission of a large amount of information, from underground, are met.

PROPOSAL OF INFORMATICS SOLUTION FOR AN INTELLIGENT DISPATCHING SYSTEM CENTER AND FOR AN EFFICIENT LEADERSHIP
Our proposal, in terms of the dispatcher system center of mines in the Jiu Valley, is built on three pillars, all being backed by the force of the IT support.

development of a GIS of a mining unit, having as base layer the mining perimeter in threedimensional format. The first pillar consists in the development of a GIS of a mining unit, having as base layer the mining perimeter in three-dimensional format. The construction of the system is normal in the upper layers, having been put everything that an underground mine means, from mine workings and continuing with elements linked by the needed utilities for a proper functioning. In Figure 4, we show an example [3] which shows that GIS is most familiar in the form of displaying intelligent maps that show a range of data graphically, or in point form, related to the Earths surface. An example might be coloured contours showing rainfall levels on a 3D relief map. In mining and mineral exploration terms, the potential is endless. The second pillar, which becomes a layer of vital importance, is the structure of sensors, detectors, data acquisition elements that will be placed everywhere in the mine in order to collect and submit all the necessary data. The system we create includes individual sensors that could be found on the employees of the mining exploitation and with which they could identify themselves in the activity from their working place before and after work in everything they do in order to prepare for the day of work and in order to close it.

Fig. 5. Monitoring system with video capture [4] In Figure 5 we suggest a way of creating monitoring and control system of an installation with highly degree of criticality in the sense of those previously mentioned. We specify that the tools from National Instruments, of which we refer to in this paper, cover the whole range of needs, according to our idea of intelligent dispatching system. The third pillar is actually one that

Fig. 4. 3D relief map [3] The first pillar consists in the

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MANUFACTURING SCIENCE AND EDUCATION- MSE 2013- SIBIU-ROMANIA

comes to leverage the other two. In our view, an intelligent dispatching system must be connected to the mining ERP for the BI module to offer to the management of any level the useful and synthetic information in order for the management to take the most appropriate management decisions. In the ERP we speak about, it is necessary for all the modules that enable the proper functioning to be found and at the same time finances, human resources, maintenance, inventory, property, costs BI to be taken into account.

with a gradual implementation. At the beginning we develop a pilot, at one of the Jiu Valley mines, and eventually will generalize it. When we will have one system at each mine, we will interconnect them and we will have a whole that could be used by the management of the company, the owner of all mines.

REFERENCES
[1] Maurie Phifer (Montana Tech), GIS in Mining, Revised: February 2012,

BI ERP GIS
Fig. 6.The structure of the informatics system Intelligent Dispatching System In Figure 6, we suggested a schematic structure of the proposed system with the three mentioned pillars.

http://technology.infomine.com/reviews/ gis/welcome.asp?view=full Accessed


26.03.2013 [2] GIS Best practices, August 2006,

DAQ

http://www.esri.com/library/bestpractice s/mining.pdf Accessed 26.03.2013


[3] Paul Moore, GISamine of, Mining Magazine January/February 2009 [4] DIAdemTM, Data Acquisition and Visualization manual, National Instrument, Ireland

CONCLUSIONS AND INTENTIONS


Without being able to bring into focus arguments others than theoretical ones and much more linked to the advantages individually brought by the three pillars on which the proposed informatics structures relies, we concluded that this is one of the few real viable solutions in the Jiu Valley mining. Modern dispatching systems are also found in world mining, but in none of the countries, as far as we know, there is not developed a complex system. In the former communist countries, like Poland or Czech Republic for example the dispatching system is more developed, but it does not have a powerful GIS and does not use such a powerful ERP as the one we proposed. At the same time in mines from Chine where huge investments have been made one can find very complex control management, where even the employee can be controlled as physical presence inside the mine. We intend to develop a project to detail the idea of intelligent dispatching system and to make simulations that allow us to show the motivation for the development of a real project

You might also like