Fundamental Studies on the Relationship between Quartz Levels in the Host Material and the Respirable Dust Generated during Mining. Volume 1. Experiments, Results and Analyses

摘要

The overall objective of the study is to contribute to the reduction of the quartz dust hazard in underground coal mines through a better understanding of the sources and generation of airborne quartz dust. The research project has included extensive experiments in operating mines for (1) documenting the amount of respirable dust generated, (2) measuring the quartz levels in host materials and airborne dust, (3) analyzing the size consist of the mined product, and (4) establishing the relationship between these various parameters. The results of the study indicate that the amount of dust airborne is a very small fraction of the total (<15 micrometers) and respirable (<7 micrometers) dust generated. The quartz contents in the total and respirable airborne dust are generally higher than those in the host material. Quartz content increases with decreasing size of airborne dust. Also, it appears that rock breaks into a different size distribution than coal.