Dust suppression specialists Global Road Technology (GRT) and its Australian distribution partner TotalEnergies Marketing Australia shone a spotlight on the dangers of particulate pollution generated by underground coal mining.
GRT and TotalEnergies Marketing Australia attended the 22nd annual Australian Longwall Mining Conference, a gathering for elite underground coal miners to raise awareness of the hazards inherent with dust generation in underground mining and to highlight that there are industry proven solutions to effectively engineer out these hazards from the workplace.
Longwall mining refers to an underground method of excavating coal, extracting it mechanically from a coalface typically around 250–350m in length. It is the primary method of coal mining in Australia.
GRT consulting engineer Daniel Grundy used the platform provided by the conference to highlight the company’s whole-of-site approach to reducing particulate pollution with a technical presentation focusing on ‘dust suppression in underground mining – an integrated approach’.
“Our goal is to increasingly raise awareness not just of the hazards inherent with dust generation in underground mining, but that there are industry proven solutions to effectively engineer out these hazards from the workplace,” Grundy said.
“Integrated dust management in underground mining makes use of GRT’s proven implementation strategies, chemical and hardware solutions, striving towards its target of eliminating dust as a workplace hazard in Australian industry.
“An integrated approach to dust suppression goes beyond monitoring and goes beyond gadgets and chemicals, it provides a four step framework around understanding the problem, quantifying the impacts – get data, doing something – implementing engineered dust suppression solutions and measuring performance and continual improvement.”
GRT’s innovative product suite of dust suppression non-toxic chemical applications twinned with its engineered dosing and application techniques has seen it emerge as a national leader in the development of infrastructure and process solutions for the global markets, and sees it well-placed to capitalise on this growth.
Its range of innovative products and techniques reduces the dust pollution generated by onsite industrial activity like drilling and stop it from spreading across the site and into local communities.
Automation is a core focus of GRT’s product offering for the mining sector with its SMART Dosage Units (SDU) being one of its most in-demand products.
Last year it received $100,000 in the Round 9 Ignite Ideas Funding through the Advance Queensland innovation initiative designed to support the state’s businesses undertaking commercialisation projects that will benefit the economy now and into the future.
Evidence of GRT’s philosophy of providing ‘whole-of-site’ dust solutions is seen in its polymer based products like GRT: Haul-Loc and GRT: Activate.
These products dovetail into autonomous systems to deliver effective dust control and provide critical data to customers. These products are also more effective in stopping particulate pollution than water alone.
GRT’s products and techniques are designed to mitigate dust at its source to ensure that only minimal amounts of particulates reach workers – to the point where protective clothing and masks can safely deal with the remaining trace particles.
GRT’s ACTIVATE product range works in tandem to reduce the spread of particulate pollutants with GRT: 12X targeting the dust generated by exploration drilling and using the drills themselves to stop the fine dust caused by drilling by saturating it.
“Global Road Technology enjoyed showcasing our approach at the Longwall Mining conference and highlighting our goal to remove these hazards from the workplace,” GRT chief executive officer Troy Adams said.
“We also valued collaborating with our partners at TotalEnergies Marketing Australia to educate the resource sector in Queensland around ways to reduce particulate pollution and showcase how the relevant GRT products like our autonomous SMART Dosing Units (sustainable, mining, autonomously, reporting technology) that use data and automation can suppress the spread of dust.”