Spontaneous combustion of carbonaceous shale at an iron ore mine, South Africa
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17159/Abstract
Spontaneous combustion incidents are known to occur at coal mining operations, it is a major problem that affects health and safety of the workers and causes environmental problems. Spontaneous combustion is associated with the presence of coal, coal-shale, and pyrite. In 2020, a premature detonation incident occurred at an iron ore mine consisting black carbonaceous shale unit known to be associated with the presence of pyrite. The spontaneous combustion liability and coal properties of samples of these carbonaceous shales were examined. The spontaneous combustion liability index of these samples were correlated with X-ray fluorescence and proximate and ultimate analyses using the linear regression. The spontaneous combustion liability classification using the Wits-Ehac Index shows that these samples are between medium and high risk and these results were used to establish a spatial risk map. The linear regression plots showed very poor correlations between the Wits-Ehac Index results and the XRF and proximate and ultimate results. The most valuable relationship found in this study is between the presence of relatively high sulphur (greater than 3%) that is related to the presence of pyrite which may increase the risk for spontaneous combustion and ground reactivity with nitrate-bearing explosive emulsion.
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Copyright (c) 2024 Cornelia Gous, Bekir Genc
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