Highlights

The exploration of space has fascinated humankind for decades. Along with this, establishing a colony on other celestial bodies, such as the moon or Mars, has gained increasing interest. For building such a colony, the use of extraterrestrial raw materials is of great importance. In order to make these raw materials usable, just as in terrestrial processes, the first tasks ...

One of the main challenges facing us today is the environment and how to protect it. Mining activities over the years have had an enormous impact on the three environmental elements water, soil and air. Ground movements in mining areas can be observed both during the mineral winning phase and after this has ended. This phenomenon may affect the water ...

High precipitation, dams and waterworks make the Harz Mountains a large freshwater supplier. But, challenges arise based on climate change and extreme weather events. Old mine working can support water management if integrated into the system. Successful planning and integration need a holistic understanding of the regional water cycle, the current situation of the mine workings and the interaction. The ...

Das Forschungsprojekt ARTUS zielte auf die Entwicklung von Systemen für die ganzheitliche Umsetzung eines vollständigen Belade-Entlade-Zyklus durch eine autonome Sonderfahrzeugflotte ab. Eine Herausforderung hierbei ist der Aufbau einer Kommunikationsinfrastruktur für Bergbauumgebungen und die Sicherstellung benötigter Maschine-zu-Maschine-Kommunikation (M2M). Dieser Artikel präsentiert Projektinhalte und Forschungsergebnisse des Institute for Advanced Mining Technologies (AMT) der RWTH Aachen University (RWTH), Aachen, im Bereich der M2M-Kommunikation ...

The ARTUS research project aimed to develop systems for a holistic implementation of a complete loading-unloading cycle conducted by an autonomous fleet of special-purpose mining vehicles. A key challenge in developing such systems is providing the communication infrastructure and ensuring technical capabilities to fulfil needs for machine-to-machine communication (M2M). This article presents project works and research results of the Institute ...

Every mining operation and mine site will, as such, come to an end one day and so will transition to the post-mining era. That is simply part of the economic evolution. As for the post-mining sector, which it has long neglected, conventional economic science still finds it hard to accept realistic explanations of evolutionary developments. And yet productive ideas on ...

Climate neutrality is a global goal that requires the high integration and use of renewable energies to ensure such a transition. In this regard, China in particular, as the largest mining country in the world, is at the forefront of renewable energy production, both through hard coal and rare earths. The great potential faces crucial negative aspects: The production of ...

Suspended monorail locomotives are an important mining equipment for the transport of personnel and material in underground coal mines in Europe. A wide variety of diesel-driven or battery-electric locomotives are available. The EU-funded research projects BUSDUCT and HEET II conceptualized two alternative methods of electric power supply for suspended monorail locomotives. The BUSDUCT project envisions a suspended monorail locomotive that ...

While there are no fundamental doubts about the direction of the energy transition in Germany – much less the goal of achieving sustainability – the changes in the general circumstances dictating energy policy that have occurred in 2022 give rise to sound arguments in favour of suspending the coal phase-out agreed in Germany. Current law requires the completion of the ...

Ventilation measurements and data from several days of underground monitoring were used to record the actual status of the mine climate and ventilation circuit at a rock salt mine. This provided the basis for identifying a number of critical parameters, including the problem of dust collection around boom-type heading machines. This information was then used to determine where potential improvements ...