Summary

This review describes the control of dust in mines, including the use of water and proprietary chemicals to control the emanation of dust from mine roads, tailings impoundments, waste rock dumps, and other exposed surfaces. This review lists technology resources, websites, case histories, and consultants who work in and provide services to mines in the area of dust control.

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INTRODUCTION

Growing up at a mine I was surrounded by talk of men who had lung disease. They breathed silica dust, my father would say as he puffed deep on yet another cigarette. And then as an afterthought he would add that maybe it was just the war that did them in.

When the wind blew, dust from the slimes dam besides our school deposited a thick yellow layer on our desks and we delighted in tracing patterns to reveal the ink-stained wood beneath.

I was fascinated by the large yellow trucks that ceaselessly traversed the dry roads of my first construction site: a new dam in the desert being built by a consortium of French and South African mining companies. The trucks sprayed muddy water from the Orange River on the dry roads. A cool calm emanated from the newly wet roads as we sought to slide and skid in the few muddy parts where the trucks dumped too much water. Alas, all too soon the sun dried the roads and the warm, clean-smelling dust returned. Somehow the music of Mahler was right in this setting and we played tapes of his symphonies day in and day out. Still today Mahler brings images of desert, dust, spray, and cool relief.

Enough of memories. Let us proceed to the modern world and the science and technology of mining-related dust control and the companies that would sell you their products to keep the dust down in your mine workings.