Mechanical behavior of coal under different mining rates:A case study from laboratory experiments to field testing

During the development of hot dry rock,the research on thermal fatigue damage caused by thermal shock of cold and heat cycles is the basis that ensures the long-term utilization of geothermal resources,but there are not enough relevant studies at present.Based on this,the thermal damage tests of granite at different temperatures(250,350,450°C)and quenching cycles(1,5,10,15 cycles)were carried out.Preliminary reveals the damage mechanism and heat transfer law of the quenching cycle effect on hot dry rock.The results show that with the increase of temperature and cycles,the uneven thermal expansion of minerals and the thermal shock caused by quenching promote the crack development of granite,resulting in the decrease of P-wave velocity,thermal conductivity and uniaxial compressive strength of granite.Meanwhile,the COMSOL was used to simulate the heat transfer of hot dry rock under different heat treatment conditions.It concluded that the increase in the number of quenching cycles reduced the heat transfer capacity of the granite,especially more than 10 quenching cycles,which also reflects that the thermal fatigue damage leads to a longer time for the temperature recovery of the hot dry rock mass.In addition,the three-dimensional nonlinear fitting relationship among thermal conductivity,temperature and cycle number was established for the first time,which can better reveal the change rule of thermal conductivity after quenching thermal fatigue effect of hot dry rock.The research results provide theoretical support for hot dry rock reservoir reconstruction and production efficiency evaluation.

Water protection in the western semiarid coal mining regions of China: A case study

The coal industry in China has been moving from the semiarid eastern to the drier western regions since the beginning of this century.Water protection is of the utmost concern for coal mining in these regions.Lu'an,as one of the state coal mining bases in China,has been seeing increasingly heavier pressure for the protection of water resources.This article considers Lu'an as an example and describes the ways these concerns may be alleviated.High mine-water utilization rates have effectively reduced wasting of water and,consequently,have reduced water demand.Using the top layers of the Ordavician as aquifuge barriers can prevent floor karst water inrush into the longwall face and can protect the regional Ordovician karst water resources at the same time.The strength of the overlying Quaternary clay can protect against roof collapse and has successfully preserved the Quaternary porous water resource.

Province-scale commonalities of some world-class gold deposits:Implications for mineral exploration

Discovery rates for all metals, including gold, are declining, the cost per significant discovery is increasing sharply, and the economic situation of the industry is one of low base rate. The current hierarchical structure of the exploration and mining industry makes this situation difficult to redress. Economic geologists can do little to influence the required changes to the overall structure and philosophy of an industry driven by business rather than geological principles, However, it should be possible to follow the lead of the oil industry and improve the success rate of greenfield exploration, necessary for the next group of lower-exploration-spend significant mineral deposit discoveries. Here we promote the concept that mineral explorers need to carefully consider the scale at which their exploration targets are viewed. It is necessary to carefully assess the potential of drill targets in terms of terrane to province to district scale, rather than deposit scale, where most current economic geology research and conceptual thinking is concentrated. If orogenic, IRGD, Carlin-style and IOCG gold-rich systems are viewed at the deposit scale, they appear quite different in terms of conventionally adop- ted research parameters. However, recent models for these deposit styles show increasingly similar source-region parameters when viewed at the lithosphere scale, suggesting common tectonic settings. It is only by assessing individual targets in their tectonic context that they can be more reliably ranked in terms of potential to provide a significant drill discovery. Targets adjacent to craton margins, other lithosphere boundaries, and suture zones are clearly favoured for all of these gold deposit styles, and such exploration could lead to incidental discovery of major deposits of other metals sited along the same tectonic boundaries.