M. Ataei; F. Sereshki
Abstract
Like most limestone mines, which produce the raw materials required for cement companies, the transportation cost of the raw materials used in the Shahrood Cement Company is high. It has been tried to build the crushing and grinding plant close to the mine as much as possible. On the other hand, blasting ...
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Like most limestone mines, which produce the raw materials required for cement companies, the transportation cost of the raw materials used in the Shahrood Cement Company is high. It has been tried to build the crushing and grinding plant close to the mine as much as possible. On the other hand, blasting has harmful effects, and the impacts of blast-induced damages on the sensitive machinery, equipment, and buildings are considerable. In such mines, among the blasting effects, blast-induced vibrations have a great deal of importance. This research work was conducted to analyze the blasting effects, and to propose a valid and reliable formula to predict the blast-induced vibration impacts in such regions, especially for the Shahrood Cement Company. Up to the present time, different indices have been introduced to quantify the blast vibration effects, among which peak particle velocity (PPV) has been widely considered by a majority of researchers. In order to establish a relationship between PPV and the blast site properties, different formulas have been proposed till now, and their frequently-used versions have been employed in the general form of , where W and D are the maximum charge per delay and the distance from the blast site, respectively, and , , and describe the site specifications. In this work, a series of tests and field measurements were carried out, and the required parameters were collected. Then in order to generalize the relationship between different limestone mines, and also to increase the prediction precision, the related data for similar limestone mines was gathered from the literature. In order to find the best equation fitting the real data, a simple regression model with genetic algorithm was used, and the best PPV predictor was achieved. At last, the results obtained for the best predictor model were compared with the real measured data by means of a correlation analysis.
M. Ataei; E. Tajvidi Asr; R. Khalokakaie; K. Ghanbari; M. R. Tavakoli Mohammadi
Abstract
Environmental impact assessment (EIA) has led to the dominance of planners on the natural environment of the regions, providing the possibility of continuously monitoring and controlling the status quo by management staff. In this regard, a new semi-quantitative model is presented for the EIA of the ...
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Environmental impact assessment (EIA) has led to the dominance of planners on the natural environment of the regions, providing the possibility of continuously monitoring and controlling the status quo by management staff. In this regard, a new semi-quantitative model is presented for the EIA of the Eastern Alborz Coal Mining complex using the matrix method, and determining the corresponding impacting factors and environmental components. For this purpose, the expert opinions are used to gather the preliminary data and score the parameters involved. The effect of each impacting factor involved on each environmental component is determined by quantifying the qualitative comments. According to the results obtained, the components air quality, human health and safety, and ecology and soil of the area undergo the most environmental damages from the mining activities. Then the EIA results obtained are used to assess the sustainability of the complex using the Phillips mathematical model. The results obtained indicate that the sustainability of this complex is weak, and, therefore, the preventive environmental measures with a preference must be recommended to reduce the environmental damages to its components.
M. Mohseni; M. Ataei
Abstract
In this work, the time series modeling was used to predict the Tazareh coal mine risks. For this purpose, initially, a monthly analysis of the risk constituents including frequency index and incidence severity index was performed. Next, a monthly time series diagram related to each one of these indices ...
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In this work, the time series modeling was used to predict the Tazareh coal mine risks. For this purpose, initially, a monthly analysis of the risk constituents including frequency index and incidence severity index was performed. Next, a monthly time series diagram related to each one of these indices was for a nine year period of time from 2005 to 2013. After extrusion of the trend, seasonality, and remainder constituents of the time series modeling, the final time series model of the indices was determined with high precision. The precision level of the resulting model was evaluated using the root mean square error (RMSE) method. The values obtained for the severity index and accident frequency index were 0.001 and 6.400, respectively. Evaluation of the seasonal time series constituent of the frequency index showed that, yearly, most number of accidents occurred in April, and the least one took place in January. Additionally, evaluation of the seasonal time series constituent of the severity index showed that, every year, the severest accidents occurred in October, and the least ones happened in January. Using the final model, a monthly prediction of indices was performed for a four year period of time from 2014 to 2017. Subsequently, using the known mean work hours in the mine, predictions of the number of accidents and the number of work days lost within a similar time period were made. The prediction results showed that in the future, the number of accidents and the number of work days lost would have a down-going trend such that for similar months, annually, an average 22% decrease in the number of accidents and an average 24% decrease in the number of work days lost are expected.
R. Mikaeil; M. Abdollahi Kamran; G. Sadegheslam; M. Ataei
Abstract
Predicting the sawability of the dimension stone is one of the most important factors involved in production planning. Moreover, this factor can be used as an important criterion in the cost estimation and planning of the stone plants. The main purpose for carrying out this work was to rank the sawability ...
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Predicting the sawability of the dimension stone is one of the most important factors involved in production planning. Moreover, this factor can be used as an important criterion in the cost estimation and planning of the stone plants. The main purpose for carrying out this work was to rank the sawability of the dimension stone using the PROMETHEE method. In this research work, four important physical and mechanical properties of rocks including the uniaxial compressive strength, Schmiazek F-abrasivity, mohs hardness, and Young's modulus were evaluated as the criteria. During the research process, two groups of dimension stones were selected and analyzed. The rock samples were collected from a number of Iranian factories for the laboratory tests. The production rate of each sawn stone was selected to verify the proposed sawability ranking method. The results obtained showed that the new ranking method can be reliably used for evaluating the sawability of the dimension stone at any stone factory with different rocks only by the physical and mechanical properties testing.
S. Mohammadi; M. Ataei; R. Khalokakaei; E. Pourzamani
Abstract
Optimization of the exploitation operation is one of the most important issues facing the mining engineers. Since several technical and economic parameters depend on the cut-off grade, optimization of this parameter is of particular importance. The aim of this optimization is to maximize the net present ...
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Optimization of the exploitation operation is one of the most important issues facing the mining engineers. Since several technical and economic parameters depend on the cut-off grade, optimization of this parameter is of particular importance. The aim of this optimization is to maximize the net present value (NPV). Since the objective function of this problem is non-linear, three methods can be used to solve it: analytical, numerical, and meta-heuristic. In this study, the Golden Section Search (GSS) method and the Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA) are used to optimize the cut-off grade in mine No. 1 of the Golgohar iron mine. Then the results obtained are compared. Consecuently, the optimum cut-off grades using both methods are calculated between 40.5% to 47.5%. The NPVs obtained using the GSS method and ICA were 18487 and 18142 billion Rials, respectively. Thus the value for GSS was higher. The annual number of iterations in the GSS method was equal to 18, and that for ICA was less than 18. Also computing and programming the process of golden section search method were easier than those for ICA. Therefore, the GSS method studied in this work is of a higher priority.
M. M Tahernejad; M. Ataei; R Khalokakaie
Abstract
Iran has high potential and unique stone reserves in terms of variety of color, texture, quality, and economic value; nevertheless, in spite of growing mine production during the past decade, in many instances this potential has been overlooked. Therefore it is necessary to investigate strategic factors ...
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Iran has high potential and unique stone reserves in terms of variety of color, texture, quality, and economic value; nevertheless, in spite of growing mine production during the past decade, in many instances this potential has been overlooked. Therefore it is necessary to investigate strategic factors of these mines. The purpose of this study is to evaluate and determine the best strategies for Iran’s quarries. To this end, the mines were analyzed using the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) approach in combination with Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP). Firstly, an environmental analysis was performed and then the SWOT factors were identified. In this way, the sub-factors which have very significant effects on the mines were determined. Using the SWOT matrix, alternative strategies were developed. Subsequently, the strategies were prioritized and the best strategies for these mines were determined. The results show that conservative strategies are the best strategy group for Iran’s quarries.
