Assessment and Modelling of Dust Concentration in an Opencast Coal mine in India

Dust pollution is a major problem in opencast mines. Many activities are associated with generation of dust that makes a cloud of pollutant at the work environment and the surrounding areas. Activities as drilling, blasting, transportation, surface miner etc. are the principle sources of generation of dust in mines. This paper focuses on the monitoring of dust level at different operational areas of the mine, characterization of dust collected from different sources, personal exposure of dust and finally prediction of dust concentration at different locations of the mine and nearby areas using AERMOD software. The study was conducted at Lakhanpur opencast mine of MCL (Mahanadi Coalfields Limited), a subsidiary body of CIL (Coal India Limited) the largest coal producing company of the world. The study was done in the month of December 2013, using DustTrakII at nine different locations in the mine. The quartz content of dust was determined using FTIR analysis. Personal Dust Sampler (PDS) was used to determine the personal dust exposure value for different workers. Dust dispersion modelling was done by using AERMOD and isopleths were plotted.