Mining Engineer Department, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Avenida Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins 3363, comuna de Estación Central, Santiago, Chile.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2020 Jul;27(19):23769-23782. doi: 10.1007/s11356-020-08657-9. Epub 2020 Apr 16.
Mining generates a significant quantity of waste material including ballast, gravel, and slags, which are often deposited in areas without taking into account the environment impacts and the need to ensure the physical and chemical stability of the disposed waste. One of the less studied problems is the emission of particulate matter produced by wind erosion at the dumpsites. This erosion is mainly caused by two factors, wind speed and turbulence, due to surface phenomenon. Until now, the design of waste dumpsites in the Chilean mining industry has not considered these environmental conditions. Efforts to minimize disposal costs have always been achieved by depositing ballast without considering these variables. When wind impacts this unprotected surface, it creates a source of dust that requires some special attention. The problem that this research tries to solve is to reduce particulate material to the atmosphere from waste dumps in which, under certain atmospherics and geographic conditions, specifically on winter season, its concentrations overpass the maximum limit allowed by law, generating bronchopulmonary diseases and even closing partially or totally mine operation. The result is the creation of a waste dumpsite design model, with its corresponding algorithms, which will allow optimization of the waste dumpsite design. From these results, future researches could explore more sustainable mining, such as unit operations, drilling, blasting, load and crushing material, reducing particulate material emissions to the atmosphere, and minimizing environmental impact due to exploitation.
采矿会产生大量的废弃物，包括压载物、砾石和炉渣，这些废弃物通常被倾倒在没有考虑环境影响和确保处置废物的物理和化学稳定性的区域。其中一个研究较少的问题是垃圾场风蚀产生的颗粒物排放。这种侵蚀主要是由两个因素引起的，即风速和湍流，这是由于表面现象。到目前为止，智利采矿业的垃圾场设计并未考虑这些环境条件。为了尽量降低处置成本，人们总是通过倾倒压载物来实现，而不考虑这些变量。当风冲击未受保护的表面时，它会产生尘埃源，需要特别注意。这项研究试图解决的问题是减少冬季特定大气和地理条件下，特别是冬季，废物堆中向大气排放的颗粒物，其浓度超过法律允许的最大值，从而导致支气管肺部疾病，甚至部分或完全关闭矿山作业。其结果是创建了一个废物堆设计模型，并带有相应的算法，这将允许优化废物堆设计。从这些结果中，未来的研究可以探索更可持续的采矿方法，例如单元操作、钻探、爆破、装载和破碎材料，从而减少向大气排放的颗粒物，并最大限度地减少开采造成的环境影响。
