This paper examines the adoption of environmental practices in small and medium sized companies in the surface mining industry in Catalonia (Spain). To fulfill this aim, a survey of 41 items concerning environmental management systems and environmentally sustainable practices has been conducted. Results show that companies have committed themselves to environmental and sustainable issues. The majority of companies claim to understand the effects of their activities on the environment and they care for responsible access and management of natural resources. Restoration plans and the annual waste declaration are mandatory in Catalonia, and rational resources exploitation practices have been adopted by a high percentage of mines. Finally, some examples of good environmentally sustainable practices are introduced.
Abstract:The modelling of high pressure grinding rolls is described by the population balance model, a mass balance which includes several functions that are related to the mineral characteristics, material kinetics and operative conditions of the device. The breakage distribution function is one of these functions and refers to the way in which the daughter particles are generated by the process of comminution. The piston-die press is presented as a methodology to determine the breakage distribution function of two different materials, from the mechanical response point of view: altered granite and a cal-silicate material. The aim is to determine the relation between the operative conditions and the mineral characteristics in order to explain and predict the breakage function parameters. The materials were characterised using XRD and single compression strength tests. The altered granite is a brittle material, which generates more fines under single compression conditions compared to bed compression conditions, mainly due to the mineral composition and the response of the material to the breakage action. The cal-silicate material shows a normal trend in its breakage behaviour. As is expected, the mineralogical characterisation is a useful tool to predict the values of the parameters of the breakage distribution function.
An analysis of occupational accidents in the mining sector was conducted using the data from the Spanish Ministry of Employment and Social Safety between 2005 and 2015, and data-mining techniques were applied. Data was processed with the software Weka. Two scenarios were chosen from the accidents database: surface and underground mining. The most important variables involved in occupational accidents and their association rules were determined. These rules are composed of several predictor variables that cause accidents, defining its characteristics and context. This study exposes the 20 most important association rules in the sector—either surface or underground mining—based on the statistical confidence levels of each rule as obtained by Weka. The outcomes display the most typical immediate causes, along with the percentage of accidents with a basis in each association rule. The most important immediate cause is body movement with physical effort or overexertion, and the type of accident is physical effort or overexertion. On the other hand, the second most important immediate cause and type of accident are different between the two scenarios. Data-mining techniques were chosen as a useful tool to find out the root cause of the accidents.
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