UNDERGROU

ND MINE
ATMOSHPERE
.

The basic objective of an underground ventilation

system is clear and simple. It is to provide airflow
in sufficient quantity and quality to dilute
contaminants to safe concentrations in all parts of
the facility where personnel are required to work
or travel. This basic requirement is incorporated into
mining law in those countries that have such legislation.
The manner in which "quantity and quality are defined
varies from country to country depending on their mining
history, the pollutants of greatest concern, the perceived
dangers associated with those hazards and the political
and social structure of the country.
The overall requirement is that all persons must be able
to work and travel within an environment that is safe and
which provides reasonable comfort

The prime contaminants

produced during mining
are
1. dust
2. heat
3. gases (including water
vapour i.e. Humidity)
and the prime method
for dealing with these is
an effective ventilation
system that
1. supplies oxygen and
coolth
2. dilutes dust and gases
and
3. removes the

The search to identify specific substances and their

harmful concentrations is on going with limits
constantly under review. There are many factors which
must be considered including:
Variability in response of individuals to contaminants
Synergistic effects (i.e. combined effect of
simultaneous exposure to
several contaminants)
Work rate (affects respiration rate)
Work cycle (compressed work cycles give the body
less recuperation time between exposures)
Changes in scientific understanding
As a result of the above factors, recommended
maximum exposures to various contaminants are

Exposure Standards for Atmospheric

Contaminants in the Occupational Environment which
provides comprehensive information on the present
exposure standards for known hazardous substances.
This standard represents the concentration of
substances that should not cause undue discomfort or
impair the health of persons when exposed to these
substances.
Peak Limitation
For some rapidly acting substances and irritants, the
averaging of the airborne concentration over an eighthour period is inappropriate. These substances may
induce acute effects after relatively brief exposure to
high concentrations and so the exposure standard for
these substances represents a maximum or peak
concentration to which workers may be exposed.
Although it is recognized that there are analytical
limitations to the measurement of some substances,

Short Term Exposure Limit (STEL)

Some substances can cause intolerable irritation or other acute effects
upon brief
overexposure, although the primary toxic effects may be due to long
term exposure through accumulation of substances in the body or
through gradual health impairment with repeated exposures. Under
these circumstances, exposure should be controlled to avoid both acute
and chronic health effects.
Short-term exposure limits (STELs) provide guidelines for the control of
short-term exposure. These are important supplements to the eighthour TWA exposure standards that are more concerned with the total
intake over long periods of time. Generally, STELs are established to
minimise the risk of the occurrence in nearly all workers of:
intolerable irritation
chronic or irreversible tissue change, and
narcosis to an extent that could precipitate industrial
accidents.
STELs are expressed as airborne concentrations of substances,

Time-Weighted Average (TWA)

Except for short-term exposure limits, or where a peak value has been
assigned, the exposure
standards for airborne contaminants are expressed as a time-weighted
average (TWA)
concentration of that substance over an eight-hour working day, for a
five-day working week.
Adjusting the Eight-hour Exposure Standard for Longer Periods
Compressed work cycles (usually in fly-in/ fly out operations) consisting
of 12-hour shifts for up to (and sometimes exceeding) 14 days duration is
now commonplace. As yet, there is no agreement on the extent to which
TWA exposure standards should be reduced in response to various work
patterns. Specialist consideration and expert advice should be sought in
the specification of modified exposure standards.

NOHSC recommends the use of the Brief and Scala (1975)1 model to
adjust the time-weighted
average (TWA). This method was chosen because it is a simple
calculation, it is the most
conservative model developed and does not require any detailed
knowledge of the substance
Adjusted (TWA) Exposure Standard = 8x(24 - h)x Eight Hour
Exposure Standard
16 x h
Where h = hours worked per day

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY

There is a surprisingly broad range of environmental
hazards in underground mining, including poisonous,
asphyxiant, carcinogenic or explosive dusts and
gasses and extremes of heat and humidity. A
significant number of these hazards can result in
serious health problems, ranging from long-term
physical impairment (e.g. lung disease) to immediate
death (e.g. carbon monoxide poisoning, or heat
stroke). It is the role of a mines ventilation systems
to control these hazards, but before any ventilation
engineering design work is carried out, it is vital that
the hazards are well understood

The Respiration System

Gases, vapours and dusts may enter the human body in three ways
Inhaled into the respiratory system
Ingested with food and saliva into the digestive system
Absorbed through the skin

However it is the respiratory system which provides the major mode of entry

An adult breathes between 2.0 litres and 4.0 litres of air per minute (l/m)
and during times of hard work, this can increase to about 8.0 l/min.
Because more air is inhaled as work becomes harder, it is easy to
understand why workers in heavy dusty jobs such as mining and
construction are more likely to suffer from dust and other contaminantrelated lung disorders

The human respiratory system has a number

of defense systems which are designed to deal
with the concentrations and size ranges of dust
normally found in nature. These include:
Nasal hairs.
Cilia. The trachea and bronchi are lined with
sticky mucus that is wafted up these airways
via the action of cilia, which are hair-like cells
acting with a wave-like motion.

Macrophages. These are relatively large white cells

(up to 10 m diameter), which lie on the surfaces of the
alveoli. T he cells are mobile and their role is to
completely engulf the fine foreign particles which enter
the alveoli. The cells are mobile and their role is to
completely engulf the fine foreign particles which enter
the alveoli.

Dust
In mining dust is formed by powerful concentrated forces such as
blasting, drilling, crushing, and grinding and consequently forms much
smaller dust particles than those formed by nature. As an example of
dust production, crushing 1mm3 of rock to 1m particle sizes would yield
1,000 million dust particles. In a drill hole 3.6m deep and 32mm diameter
the volume of rock removed is 2,895,291 mm3 producing 2.89 x 1015
dust particles of 1m diameter. If it takes 10 minutes to bore the hole
and there is a ventilating airflow of 20m3/s each mm3 of air would be
contaminated with 241 particles.
Some of the more significant sources of dust in underground mines
include blasting, movement of rock in stopes, mucking operations,
mechanical rock cutting (e.g. raise drilling, road-header etc), ore passes,
rock breakers, crushers and conveyor transfer points. Dust is also
liberated to the ventilating air from by the tyres of passing traffic lifting
the dust from the surface of the mine roadway.