Mines Professors Awarded $1.25 Million Grant to Advance Safer Underground Mining Conditions in Adverse Conditions

Over the past 50 years, the mining industry has faced numerous catastrophic accidents linked to geotechnical failures, highlighting persistent risks despite advancements in safety.

Ground collapses in metal and non-metal mines, though less frequent than other types of accidents, account for a disproportionately higher number of fatalities. From 2012 to 2022, 34 mining workers lost their lives to ground failure.

Two South Dakota Mines professors are working to improve those statistics, thanks to a $1.25 million National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) grant focused on making safer underground mining conditions.

“These statistics highlight the critical need to proactively identify areas of potential failure and design mines to prevent them,” said Rudrajit Mitra, Ph.D., Mines associate professor of mining engineering and management and the Syd & Felicia Peng professor. Over the next five years, Mitra and Andrea Brickey, Ph.D., professor of mining engineering and management, in collaboration with Colorado School of Mines and Montana Tech, will explore mine design alternatives focused on ore pass placement, rock mechanics considerations and their integration into mining method selection and reinforcement strategies.

The team also plans to develop an operational plan that incorporates uncertainties in activity duration due to ground conditions and addresses emissions like heat and pollutants.

“We will draw on all our expertise to conduct field experiments and to construct mathematical models to optimally design and plan for safer underground hard rock mines,” Mitra said. “Each institution brings a unique set of skills that, combined, provide the ability to conduct multidisciplinary and robust research in the area of mine safety and health.”

The NIOSH grant will encompass three broad projects: borehole geotechnical analysis, ground support analysis and mine plan and design integration.

Mitra said that laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), a way to study materials using the light given off when a high-energy laser pulse excites atoms, will be used for geotechnical analysis. Prasoon Diwakar, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Mines Leslie A. Rose Department of Mechanical Engineering, will assist as senior personnel for this task. Scott Rosenthal, Ph.D., associate professor and department chair in the Montana Tech mining engineering department, will lead the ground support analysis task. Drs. Brickey and Alexandra Newman, Ph.D., professor of mechanical engineering at Colorado School of Mines, will work on the mine planning and design integration.

“Like all in the mining industry, we want to make sure everyone goes home at the end of their shift. By bringing together multiple disciplines and technologies, we are aiming to help better understand and improve mine safety and health challenges,” said Brickey.

In addition to enhancing mining safety, the collaboration will develop the next generation of skilled engineers adept in mine planning, geomechanics, excavation, blasting and ventilation.

“This project will connect students across all three universities to a vast network of experts while empowering them to build their own network through collaboration with peers,” Mitra said.