When potash ore is mined, a large amount of the harmful impurities, including dust, are released into the mine environment. Although potash dust is not toxic, at constant high concentrations it adversely affects the miner health. Hygroscopic properties of rocks in the potash mines do not allow the use of water to control dust. Ventilation approaches to the normalization of the dust environment also do not give positive results. Forced method of the ventilation of the dead-end mine workings used in all the mines in Russia is distinguished by the long-range air jet from the ventilation stack. This allows to create intensive vortex formation in the bottomhole part of the mine working for avoiding the occurrence of stagnant zones. However, during forced ventilation, a large vortex occurs.
Results of studying the dynamics of dusty air streams in the space of a dead-end tunneling and cleaning working are presented in the article. In the mining face, there are two main sources of dust formation: the working face, where the rock mass is destroyed, and the bunker-loader, where the broken ore is poured. Both the first and second sources are identical in terms of dust formation power. The vortex formed during the forced ventilation method returns to the combine operator cab through the ore pouring area into the bunker. As a result, the composition of the atmosphere in the bottom hole significantly deteriorates. The greater the amount of air supplied during the forced ventilation method, the greater the dustiness of the bottomhole part of the mine.
Conducted studies allow to conclude that the injection method of the ventilation of dead-end combine workings of the potash mines is ineffective to normalize the dust environment.
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