SEPTEMBER 2005 NEWSLETTER: WEBSITE EDITION
From
the Chairman
As we kick off another season for our Chicago Section of SME, I welcome each of you to participate by attending our meetings. This provides each of you an opportunity to rub shoulders (and bend elbows) with an incredible bunch of individuals with mining on their minds. As you can see our upcoming meeting slate is beginning to fill with great speakers and relevant topics. You will also notice that our venue has changed (at least temporarily). Actually, the Ramada Inn where we met last season accommodated us well. However, we received many complaints from attendees that the location was a problem to reach during a normal evening rush hour. So we will try a little “south of the border” fare at Las Palmas, at least for the short run. We encourage you to offer other good ideas for meeting localities and venues. We are trying to keep the price for dinner close to $25. That means we need to find a suitable restaurant that can feed us for under $20 if we have any hope of collecting enough money to donate to our favorite GEM causes. You may have noticed we haven’t changed our meeting price in several years. Enough said. See you on the 28th. --Gordie
From the Program ChairmanThis Meeting“Wirtgen Mechanized Surface Cutter Miner: A viable Alternative to Conventional Mining Methods" A presentation of the Wirtgen Surface Miner technology and its future implications for the mining world in the US. The extensive research and development efforts of Wirtgen GmbH is taking mechanical excavation with Surface Miner to new performance levels by allowing it to realize the advantages of mechanical excavation in soft and medium hard rock. An optimized, completely redesigned machine concept consisting of new designed cutting drums, cutter gear, reinforces and adapted machine body, and increased motor power, allows the machine to be more cost effective and efficient than conventional mining methods. For the first time in modern mining history mechanized cutting is capable of competing successfully against traditional drill and blast methods. About the Speaker Robert Bauer, native of Austria, is the current Surface Miner Manager for North America, Canada and Mexico. In this function he leads the mining department for Wirtgen America Inc. out of Denver, CO. He has a Master of Science in Mining from the Mining University in Leoben, Austria, and an MBA from CU Denver. He has been in the mechanized cutting business for underground as well as surface applications for more than 15 years. During his career he was stationed in Europe, South America and then for the last 8 years in the US. Before he joined Wirtgen he had his own consulting company, specializing in tunnel construction support and cost comparisons between conventional mining methods and mechanized cutting with equipment such as roadheaders, TBM’s, and excavator attachments. His company, Wirtgen Germany GmbH, is an engineering and manufacturing company out of Windhagen, near Frankfurt Germany with a worldwide distribution and service network that specializes in the manufacturing of mechanical cutting equipment for the road milling, mining and construction industry. Last MeetingY.J. Zhang, Chief Engineer of Indiana Limestone Company, opened with a brief history of Indiana Limestone Company, which goes back over 80 years. He also included a description of the quarry location and its geological conditions. This history included supplying much of the limestone used in building the Pentagon over 60 years ago. He described quarry operations and the technology applied, both historically and currently. Some of this technology had to be rapidly resurrected to supply stone fro the rebuilding of the Pentagon after 9-11. The technical description started with the exploration process for this type of stone and continued through the planning and production scheduling process. Mr. Zhang gave a through description of the production sawing operation and the procedures used for limestone block quarrying and finishing. Grading, tagging and staging of the product will be the final element of the technical discussion. He included a description of the marketing and inventory process for this type of product. Due to grade and lead time considerations, there is normally a large product inventory in the company yard. He finished with a description of the challenges currently facing the operation Back to TopUpcoming Speakers
October 26:
Terry Tilly of Dynatech Mining, SME Krumb Lecturer talking on “Specialty Tunneling Methods under Low Cover
Conditions” November 30: David
Pitchford, VP of MMD Group on sizing equipment and roll crushers.
Some new developments in mechanical excavation are making it a viable
alternative in some cases to traditional drill and blast excavation. January 25: DPM Crossfire: MSHA’s Bill Pomroy and our very own John Head of CPI will take part in a debate on the DPM regulations at the SME January 2006 meeting. John’s vigorous support for industry during the rulemaking is well known. Bill is the lead technical expert for MSHA in the process. They will bring their sometimes diverging, always interesting opinions to bear on this difficult and contentious subject. The audience will be encouraged to get involved, both verbally and physically – soft fruit and vegetables only, please...! Submitted by John Head
GEM/PIE NewsMeyer Material Open House
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The 10TH Annual Safety Seminar for Underground Stone
Mines December
6-7, 2005 Executive
Inn (502-367-6161) Louisville, Kentucky Early
Bird Session Dec
6 4:00-5:30 PM Fire
Safety in the Metal & Nonmetal Mining Industry Dec.
7 1:30-4:30 PM Concurrent
Afternoon Seminars (1) Update on Diesel Particulate:
MSHA/NIOSH Workshop (2) Hearing Loss Prevention
Workshop For
information and registration Contact: Lou Prosser via email at lfp2@cdc.gov or by phone at 412-386-4423 Or Kim Mitchell via e-mail at khm8@cdc.gov or by phone at 412-386-6552
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Great
Lakes Chapter Of
the International
Society of Explosives
Engineers 2005 VENDORS TRADE SHOW There will be door
prizes and a raffle! Thursday
Evening October
20, 2005 At the Holiday Inn at Willow
Brook At 6:00 to 9:00 PM Vendor
tables are $100 plus dues For information contact Paul Rezmer (708) 432-0484 X13 or (708) 203-4886 or e-mail paul.rezmer@itt.com
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National
Stone, Sand & Gravel Association Training Courses If
you click on the NSSGA link below, it will take you to the list of
training courses. Click on
any contact to e-mail for information, or click on the underline
seminars for the brochure. For
a link to all the training courses:
http://www.nssga.org/ look at the events on the lower left side, or click on the MEETINGS
and PUBLICATIONS link on the right side. NSSGA courses include Drilling & Blasting Seminar October 2-4 in Hershey, PA Basic Supervisory Training Course Nov. 11-14 in Downers Grove, IL This
course is taught by Hersh Hayden
and Bill Huber from Weir International Mining Consultants. Plant Operators Conference & Expo
01/29-02/01 Long Beach, CA 2006 Annual
Convention 03/08-03/12 Tampa, FL Provided by John Head, cell # 630-750-0652 |
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Saturday, September 17, 2005 Cost:
$5.00-Adults Location: Intersection of Route 6 and Interstate 39. Shuttle buses provided, watch for signs. Activities: Rock bowling, Treasure Hunt, Fossil Molds, Stone Throw, Rock Painting, Face Painting, and much more!! What to wear: Appropriate clothing and closed-toe shoes. Displays:
Office of Mines and Minerals of the Illinois Department of
Natural Resources, Mine Safety and Health Administration, Peru Volunteer
Ambulance Service, LaSalle Fire Department, LaSalle Police Department,
Illinois State Police Department, and many more!! Sponsored by: LaSalle-Peru Township High School Foundation and Illinois Cement Company For
information, call Linda Hiltabrand at 815-433-7050or
e-mail her at lhiltabrand@dnrmail.state.il.us |
Last April Bruno Reumueller of VOEST ALPINE talked on the application of Roadheaders to the mining and tunneling industries. This talk was given as he and his team were delivering and assembling a Voest Alpine roadheader model ATM-105 at Fox River Stone. Currently the ATM-105 is driving twin -17.5% declines at Fox River Stone. One decline will be for access and conveyor, while the second decline will be for ventilation.
On September 15th Bob Archibald, Vice President of Fox River Stone, will lead a SME organized tour of the operation. The e-mail notices went out at the beginning of the summer, and those that responded have been waiting patiently for the tour. On Thursday, September 15th, 39 industry people will get to look at the roadheader while it is cutting, and then move over to the second heading and look at the ground support installation.
This project has generated great interest among the mining and engineering community around the Chicago area. The SME wishes to express thanks for all of us to Bob Archibald and his company for providing this interesting and valuable technical tour.
Bob
has told us that a separate tour will be given to the media at a later date.
There are several staff from aggregate publications based in Chicago who
are interested in that tour, so expect to see something in one or more aggregate
and mining publications relating to this project.
By Rick Ackermann
SME member Doug Hambley, Phd, PG, PE is now doing environmental and mining consulting as a independent. Doug is a mining graduate of Queens University, Ontario, CA. and Phd thesis from Univ.of Waterloo, Canada, was in rock mechanics with coursework in hydrogeology. His operations experience includes three years as rock mechanics engineer at a 20,000 TPD room & pillar mine. He can be reached on his cell phone at (773) 343-7292 or fax at (630) 456-4051, or e-mail at dfhambley@comcast.net.
The following two pages are a special section in this newsletter, designed to inform our readers concerning the September 7th MSHA revised rules on DPM standards. This is a major shift of position by MHSA to a sliding scale for DPM standards with an annual tightening of the regulations over the next six years to the Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL) of 160 µg/m3 Total Carbon (TC), which was scheduled for Jan 20 enforcement. The existing 308 µg/m3 Elemental Carbon (EC) will be in force until 20 Jan 2007. Apparently the general inability to meet the standard plus the threat of lawsuits caused a change with four months before the deadline. MSHA made some significant admissions that they had been overly optimistic on the ease of developing some of the technology solutions and to problems with surrogate sample methods and standards.
Pay
particular attention to the Respirator
Rules. MSHA is seeking comments
on a draft rules on respirators for miners that were published along with the DPM rules.
Public Hearings: MSHA will hold three public hearings in late September in Salt Lake City, UT (9/26), Kansas City, KS (9/28) and Louisville, KY (9/30) to take comments on this latest proposal. The record is open now, and will remain open to a CUT OFF DATE of Oct. 14, 2005.
For more information go to
http://www.msha.gov/newsinfo.htm.
Then click on the two DPM items.
MSHA FINALLY SHOWS ITS HAND ON DPM COMPLIANCE
Facing an unrealistic compliance deadline of January 2006
that drew ever nearer with each passing day, under-ground Metal/Nonmetal mine
operators have been waiting in a rising state of suspense for what MSHA planned
to do about it. Now they have their answer.
On Sept. 7, the Agency released a proposed rule that would
set a staggered schedule over five years for compliance with a series of
increasingly tougher permissible exposure limits (PELs) for diesel particulate
matter (DPM). If the schedule is adopted, it will bring a measure of
certainty to the PEL process in this protracted rulemaking. Even then,
questions will remain, which the Agency says it will attempt to resolve through
yet another round of rulemaking.
Controversy has swirled around the final PEL of 160 µg/m3
ever since it was promulgated in a final rule dating to early 2001.
Industry argued it was both technically and economically infeasible as well as
unjustifiable based on scientific research. But until now, MSHA has barely
flinched in its resolve— even in the face of a flurry of litigation—to begin
enforcing the limit beginning on Jan. 20, 2006. MSHA’s proposal retains
the final limit, but gives industry five more years to come into compliance by
gradually ratcheting down the allowable limit over the period.
The Harsh Bite of Reality
MSHA relented because a reality check revealed it had
little other choice. Its own data showed between 65-73% of its
exposure samples were out of com- pliance with the final PEL. Operators
simply could not get down to the limit in time. Then there were all those
pesky lawsuits, which, if nothing more, may have led to a judicial stay of
enforcement of the PEL. But the feasibility issue, something
operators had been vocal about all along, appeared to carry the day.
In the original 2001 rulemaking, the Agency decreed that
reaching the final limit was both economically and technically feasible.
Among the numerous control strategies the Agency recommended were filters and
alternative fuels. But these had not been tested in the harsh reality of
the underground mining workplace. Soon after such evaluations began,
serious problems arose, forcing the Agency to backpedal.
Regarding filters, once regarded as a panacea for sharply
reducing DPM exposures, MSHA said this in the preamble to the proposed rule:
“We projected that by this time, practical and effective filter
technology would be available… However we have become aware that this
assumption may not be valid… The applications, engineering and related
technological implementation issues that we believed would have been easily
solved by now are more complex and extensive than previously thought.”
On biofuels: “...use of alternative fuels can cause
equipment operation issues...These operational issues have included initial
clogging of the fuel filters when bio-diesel is used, reduction in horsepower
with the use of water emulsion fuel, and management of proper fueling of the
correct fuel for specific machines...The most common problem ...is lack of
geographic proximity of most mines to a fuel distributor.”
MSHA also insisted that total carbon (TC) could be
used as a surrogate for DPM in measurements of miners’ exposure, even though
other sources of carbon that could produce inaccurate sampling results existed
in nearly all underground mines. In the preamble, MSHA said, “Evidence
in the rulemaking record after January 2001 suggests that, in many cases, there
is no practical sampling strategy that would adequately remove organic carbon
interferences that occur when TC is used as the surrogate.”
TC to EC
Most sampling interference problems are solved by
switching the DPM surrogate from TC to elemental carbon (EC). To make the
change, a conversion factor had to be developed that is based on the ratio of TC
to EC. For controls needed to comply with the current interim PEL, which
is measured as EC, a consistent ratio was found. But not so with the
proposed phase-in limits because the ratio has been found to vary markedly due
to the variety of controls needed to comply with these limits.
“The actual TC to EC ratio could vary from mine to mine,
and even from one section of a mine to another, based on the mix of controls at
a mine,” MSHA said. This issue is
so significant MSHA said it would initiate a separate rule-making — the
fifth in nearly 5 years on DPM—to determine the correct TC to EC conversion
factor for the phased-in final limits. If that rule-making is not complete
by Jan. 20, 2007, the Agency said, it would consider using 1.3 to convert TC to
EC for enforcement purposes from that point forward.
Staggered Implementation Schedule
Under the proposal, a PEL of 308 EC
µg/m3 would be enforced until Jan. 20, 2007. After that,
the PEL would drop according to the following schedule:
PEL
(TC µg/m3)
Effective Date
350
1/20/07
300
1/20/08
250
1/20/09
200
1/20/10
160
1/20/11
The Agency also took the
opportunity to propose dropping restrictions on allowing extensions of time for
newer mines to comply. The restriction was based on the assumption newer
mines would have fewer design issues to confound compliance and/or cleaner
engines than would mines in operation before October 1998. “Now, we
believe our assumptions were incorrect,” the Agency said.
Respirator Program
In its notice, the Agency highlighted
numerous questions and issues on which it seeks further information.
One issue is whether or not medical evaluations should be required for miners
who must wear respirators. Secondly, should a transfer provision be
included that would guarantee wage protection for any miner who could not wear a
respirator for medical reasons? Curiously, MSHA included a draft of the
precise language that might appear in the final rule and asked for comment on
it. Have officials already made up their minds on this matter?
Public Hearings, Plus Cut-off Date for
Comments
MSHA will hold three public hearings in
late September in Salt Lake City, Kansas City and Louisville to take comment on
this latest proposal. The record is open now, and will remain so through
Oct. 14. The Agency should anticipate a boisterous response to this latest
initiative.
Reproduced
with permission from SHARPE’S POINT, A Newsletter on Safety and Health for the
Construction Materials Industry
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