Responses of soil stoichiometry and soil enzyme activities in the different distance around opencast coal mine of the Hulun Buir Grassland of China

The objectives of this study were to explore the changes in soil stoichiometry and enzyme activities at different distances from an opencast coal mine in the Hulun Buir Grassland of China. Four transects were established on north and east sides of the opencast coal mining area, and samples were collected at 50 m, 550 m, and 1550 m from the pit on each transect. Control samples were collected from a grassland station 8 km from the opencast coal mining area that was not disturbed by mining. Four replicate soil samples were collected at each point on the four transects. Soil physicochemical properties and enzyme activities were determined, and correlations between soil properties and stoichiometric ratios and enzyme activities were explored using redundancy analysis. The increase in distance from mining did not significantly affect soil properties, although soil urease activity was significantly lower than that of the control area. Soil properties 1550 m from the mine pit were similar to those at the grassland control. In addition, soil total nitrogen had the greatest effect on soil stoichiometry, and soil total potassium had the greatest effect on soil enzyme activities. Coal dust from opencast mining might be the main factor affecting soil stoichiometry and enzyme activities. The results of this study provide direction for the next step in studying the influence of mining areas on soil properties and processes.

Geochemical and petrological studies of high sulfur coal and overburden from Makum coalfield (Northeast India) towards understanding and mitigation of acid mine drainage

Opencast coal mining produces trash of soil and rock containing various minerals,that are usually dumped nearby the abandoned sites which causes severe environmental concern including the production of acid mine drainage(AMD)through oxidation pyrite minerals.The current study entailed assessing the potential production of AMD from an opencast coal mining region in Northeast part of India.In order to have a comprehensive overview of the AMD problem in Makum coalfield,the physico-chemical,geochemical,and petrological characteristics of the coal and overburden(OB)samples collected from the Makum coalfield(Northeast India)were thoroughly investigated.The maceral compositions reveal that coal features all three groups of macerals(liptinite,vitrinite,and inertinite),with a high concentration of liptinite indicating the coal of perhydrous,thereby rendering it more reactive.Pyrite(FeS_(2))oxidation kinetics were studied by conducting the aqueous leaching experiments of coal and(OB)samples to interpret the chemical weathering under controlled laboratory conditions of various temperature and time periods,and to replicate the actual mine site leaching.Inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy(ICP-OES)was operated to detect the disposal of some precarious elements from coal and OB samples to the leachates during our controlled leaching experiment.The Rare earth element(REE)enrichment in the samples shows the anthropogenic incorporation of the REE in the coal and OB.These experiments reveal the change in conductivity,acid producing tendency,total dissolved solid(TDS),total Iron(Fe)and dissolved Sulfate(SO_(4)^(2−))ions on progress of the leaching experiments.Moreover,the discharge of FeS_(2) via atmospheric oxidation in laboratory condition undergoes a significant growth with the rise of temperature of the reaction systems in the environment and follows pseudo first order kinetics.A bio-remediative strategies is also reported in this paper to mitigate AMD water by employing size-segregated powdered limestone and water hyacinth plant in an indigenously developed site-specific prototype station.Apart from neutralisation of AMD water,this eco-friendly AMD remediation strategy demonstrates a reduction in PHEs concentrations in the treated AMD water.

Discussion on Land Use Mode Reform in Coal Opencast Mining

The existing land supply mode of opencast mining is"land requisition first,then transfer",which lacks an effective recovery and withdrawal mechanism,and the reclaimed mining land is difficult to withdraw.According to the regular rules of coal opencast mining and the periodic characteristics of land use,this paper puts forward a new mode of temporary land use for coal opencast mining.It is conducive to im-proving the quality and scale of land use and reclamation utilization of opencast coal mining,and is of great significance for exploring and for-mulating reasonable land use policies for mineral resources development projects.

面向终身学习的人工智能教育应用研究--欧洲X5GON项目的特征、服务与实践

面对推进全民终身学习的需要,人工智能教育应用展现出其独特的优势,其智能化、自动化和个性化特点可以提供强大的助力。X5GON是欧洲著名的人工智能教育应用项目,它具有根据用户需求进行学习资源推荐、系统透明度高和提供特殊人群服务的特征。为了满足终身学习的需要,X5GON项目能够提供跨国界的高质量翻译、贯穿学习过程的数据分析以及个性化学习资源推荐服务。德国奥斯纳布吕克大学和西班牙瓦伦西亚大学积极参与人工智能教育应用实践,分别依托Opencast发布在线课程和X5GON的翻译技术取得突破。当前,我国正处于推进全民终身学习和建设学习型社会的关键阶段,有必要充分发挥人工智能技术的助力,因而可以学习和借鉴X5GON项目的经验,从翻译服务和数据采集、分析入手,进一步促进我国面向终身学习的人工智能应用的发展。

Natural vegetation recovery on waste dump in opencast coalmine area

The changes of vegetation compositions, plant species diversity, species important value and succession of plant community were studied on waste dumps in Haizhou opencast coalmine which is located in the west of Liaoning Province, China (41°41(-42°56( N, 121°1(-122°56(E). Four kinds of terraces with different ages (5, 10, 20 and 40 years) were selected for investigation of plants. Total of 63 species of natural colonized plants were recorded on the waste dump and they belong to 23 families. The main families were Compositae (15 species), Fabaceae (11 species) and Leguminosae (8 species), which accounted for 54.0% of total species and play an important role in natural vegetation recovery in waste dump area. The dominant species on 5-, 10-, 20-, 40-year-old terraces were Tribulus terrestris + Echinochloa hispidula + Salsola collina, Echinochloa hispidula + Artemisia sieversiana + Artemisia scoparia, Echinochloa hispidula + Clinelymus dahuricus + Artemisia scoparia + Artemisia sieversiana + Melilotus officinalis, Clinelymus dahuricus+Phragmites communis + Echinochloa hispidula+ Setaria viridis, respectively. According to the important value of species calculated. It is determined that Tribulus terrestris can act as pioneer species on waste dump and Clinelymus dahuricus, Phragmites communis and Echinochloah hispidula are important dominant species in vegetation restoration in Haizhou opencast coalmine. The study results can provide scientific basis for selecting and disposing appropriately plant species and rehabilitating vegetation on waste dumps of coalmine.

Rock fragmentation control in opencast blasting

The blasting operation plays a pivotal role in the overall economics of opencast mines.The blasting subsystem affects all the other associated sub-systems,i.e.loading,transport,crushing and milling operations.Fragmentation control through effective blast design and its effect on productivity are the challenging tasks for practicing blasting engineer due to inadequate knowledge of actual explosive energy released in the borehole,varying initiation practice in blast design and its effect on explosive energy release characteristic.This paper describes the result of a systematic study on the impact of blast design parameters on rock fragmentation at three mines in India.The mines use draglines and shoveledumper combination for removal of overburden.Despite its pivotal role in controlling the overall economics of a mining operation,the expected blasting performance is often judged almost exclusively on the basis of poorly defined parameters such as powder factor and is often qualitative which results in very subjective assessment of blasting performance.Such an approach is very poor substitutes for accurate assessment of explosive and blasting performance.Ninety one blasts were conducted with varying blast designs and charging patterns,and their impacts on the rock fragmentation were documented.A high-speed camera was deployed to record the detonation sequences of the blasts.The efficiency of the loading machines was also correlated with the mean fragment size obtained from the fragmentation analyses.

Spatio-temporal dynamics of vegetation in Jungar Banner of China during 2000–2017

It is known that the exploitation of opencast coal mines has seriously damaged the environments in the semi-arid areas.Vegetation status can reliably reflect the ecological degeneration and restoration in the opencast mining areas in the semi-arid areas.Long-time series MODIS NDVI data are widely used to simulate the vegetation cover to reflect the disturbance and restoration of local ecosystems.In this study, both qualitative(linear regression method and coefficient of variation(CoV)) and quantitative(spatial buffer analysis, and change amplitude and the rate of change in the average NDVI) analyses were conducted to analyze the spatio-temporal dynamics of vegetation during 2000–2017 in Jungar Banner of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China, at the large(Jungar Banner and three mine groups) and small(three types of functional areas: opencast coal mining excavation areas, reclamation areas and natural areas) scales.The results show that the rates of change in the average NDVI in the reclamation areas(20%–60%) and opencast coal mining excavation areas(10%–20%) were considerably higher than that in the natural areas(<7%).The vegetation in the reclamation areas experienced a trend of increase(3–5 a after reclamation)-decrease(the sixth year of reclamation)-stability.The vegetation in Jungar Banner has a spatial heterogeneity under the influences of mining and reclamation activities.The ratio of vegetation improvement area to vegetation degradation area in the west, southwest and east mine groups during 2000–2017 was 8:1, 20:1 and 33:1, respectively.The regions with the high CoV of NDVI above 0.45 were mainly distributed around the opencast coal mining excavation areas, and the regions with the CoV of NDVI above 0.25 were mostly located in areas with low(28.8%) and medium-low(10.2%) vegetation cover.The average disturbance distances of mining activities on vegetation in the three mine groups(west, southwest and east) were 800, 800 and 1000 m, respectively.The greater the scale of mining, the farther the disturbance distances of mining activities on vegetation.We conclude that vegetation reclamation will certainly compensate for the negative impacts of opencast coal mining activities on vegetation.Sufficient attention should be paid to the proportional allocation of plant species(herbs and shrubs) in the reclamation areas, and the restored vegetation in these areas needs to be protected for more than 6 a.Then, as the repair time increased, the vegetation condition of the reclamation areas would exceed that of the natural areas.

GPS/GIS based vehicle dispatching for opencast mines

An integrated GPS and GIS based vehicle dispatching system was presented. The system uses GIS technology for the development of digital mine map database and GPS for vehicle positioning. The system consists of five modules: position module incorporated GPS and dead reckoning (DR); a map database structure for displaying and guidance purposes; a routing module based on the map database is able to give out the best route for the vehicles; map matching and route guidance module put the vehicle position to its exact location on the road despite of errors in positioning and map data; and the client-server module allows client exchange information between driver and control centre. The system can be operated in client-server level in which users can request routing and guidance with devices such as hand phone and PDA by communicating their current positions to the server or runs in autonomous mode when users cannot reach the server.

Estimation of carbon sequestration in reclaimed coalmine degraded land dominated by Albizia lebbeck, Dalbergia sissoo and Bambusa arundinacea plantation： a case study from Jharia Coalfields, India

Reclaimed mined lands provide an excellent opportunity to sequester carbon and combat global warming. Carbon sequestration on reclaimed sites depend on age of reclamation, composition of species, geomining conditions （soil characteristics） and prevailing climate. The aims of the present study were to calculate carbon （C）--stock of biomass of 4 years old plantation （dominated by Albizia lebbeck, Dalbergia sissoo and Bambusa arundinacea）, understorey vegetation and litter, soil organic carbon in reclaimed minesoil （RMS） and compare with reference forest site. Allometric equation was used for the estimation of biomass C stock and found 13.0 Mg C ha i （A lebbeck 7.8 Mg C ha-I, D sissoo 3.5 Mg C ha-l and B. arundincea 1.2 Mg C ha-l）, while stock of understorey vegetation was 0.98 Mg C ha-~. In RMS, C stock was 16.3 Mg C ha-1, out of which inorganic C contributed 1.7 g kg-l （8 % of total soil C）, Coal C 8.7 g kg^-1 （43 % of total soil C） and biogenic C 9.8 g kg^-1 （49 % of total soil C）. Total C stock in reclaimed site was calculated as 30.3 Mg C ha^-1（equivalent to 111 Mg CO2 ha-b. The study concluded that （i） coal C is responsible for overestimation of C stock in RMS （ii） Maximun C stock stored in aboveground biomass component and （iii） reclaimed mined lands will take approximately 17 years to reach the level of C stock of reference forest site in dry tropical climate.

Analysis of key technologies and development of integrated digital processing system for cast blasting design

Casting blast can greatly reduce the stripping cost and improve the production capacity of opencast coal mines. Key technologies including high bench blasting, inclined hole, millisecond blasting, pre-splitting blasting and casting blast parameters determination which have influence on the effect of casting blast have been researched with the combination of the ballistic theory and experience in mines. The integrated digital processing system of casting blast was developed in order to simplify the design process of casting blast, improve working efficiency and veracity of design result and comprehensively adopt the software programming method and the theory of casting blast. This system has achieved five functions, namely, the 3D visualization graphics management, the intelligent management of geological information, the intelligent design of casting blast, the analysis and prediction of the blasting effect and the automatic output of the design results. Long-term application in opencast coal mines has shown that research results can not only reduce the specific explosive consumption and improve the blasting effect, but also have high value of popularization and application.

Applying real time seismic monitoring technology for slope stability assessment—An Indian opencast coal mine perspective

This paper outlines the results obtained from real time microseismic monitoring of an opencast coal mine in South India.The objective of the study is to investigate the stress changes within the rockmass along the slope due to underground mine development operation and their impact on the stability of the highwall slope.The installed microseismic systems recorded the seismic triggerings down toà2 moment magnitude.In general,most of the events recorded during the monitoring period are weak in seismic energy.The study adopts a simple and more reliable tool to characterize the seismically active zone for assessing the stability of the highwall in real time.The impact of underground working on the slope is studied on the basis of the seismic event impact contours and seismic clusters.During the monitoring period,it is observed that the intensity of the overall microseismic activity along the slope due to the mine development operations did not cause any adverse impact on the highwall stability.

Spatial-temporal variance of reclamation soil physical and chemical character in opencast mine region

In order to study the effects of soil compaction, and soil physical and chemicalcharacteristics after land reclamation, selected lands that were reclaimed after 1, 2, 3, 4,and 5 a, respectively, in the Majiata Mine of the Shendong Open Pit; tested the effects ofsoil compaction; and collected soil samples from 5 different depths, which are 0-7.62,7.62-15.24, 15.24-22.86, 22.86-30.48, and 30.48-38.10 cm, respectively. The resultsshow that: Land reclamation leads to soil compaction. The lowest effect of soil compaction is in the top layer and the highest one at the depth of 20-30 cm; The bulk density of reclaimed soil is higher than that of undisturbed soil; this declines with the reclamation and nearly reaches the level of undisturbed soil after 5-year reclamation;The content of reclaimed soil nutrients is lower than that of undisturbed soil. The lowest one is inthe soil dumping site, which reaches the level of undisturbed soil after 5-year reclamation;The pH value of reclaimed soil is lower than that of undisturbed soil. The highest one isin the soil dumping site; this declines with the reclamation.

Prediction of blast-induced flyrock in Indian limestone mines using neural networks

Frequency and scale of the blasting events are increasing to boost limestone production. Mines areapproaching close to inhabited areas due to growing population and limited availability of land resourceswhich has challenged the management to go for safe blasts with special reference to opencast mining.The study aims to predict the distance covered by the flyrock induced by blasting using artificial neuralnetwork （ANN） and multi-variate regression analysis （MVRA） for better assessment. Blast design andgeotechnical parameters, such as linear charge concentration, burden, stemming length, specific charge,unconfined compressive strength （UCS）, and rock quality designation （RQD）, have been selected as inputparameters and flyrock distance used as output parameter. ANN has been trained using 95 datasets ofexperimental blasts conducted in 4 opencast limestone mines in India. Thirty datasets have been used fortesting and validation of trained neural network. Flyrock distances have been predicted by ANN, MVRA,as well as further calculated using motion analysis of flyrock projectiles and compared with the observeddata. Back propagation neural network （BPNN） has been proven to be a superior predictive tool whencompared with MVRA. 2014 Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Production and hosting byElsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

E24 profile slope stability analysis in Haizhou Opencast Coal Mine of Fuxin

The E24 profile slope analyzed belongs to a series of excavated slopes of the Haizhou Opencast Coal Mine. It seems to be divided into Downslope Part and Upslope Part. Its profile comprises two noticeable coal seams, called the 8# and 9# weak layers, considered as the potential failure surfaces. In consideration of the actual configuration as in the perspective of any modification, assessing the stability of this slope with various profile forms under given conditions, and assessing the risk of instability and quantifying the influence of earthworks or other modifications to the stability of this slope, have constituted the primordial objectives carried out. From assumed potential failure surfaces, any specific profiles and specified slip surfaces are defined. A factor of safety (FoS) is computed for each specified slip surface; the smallest FoS found corresponds to the least favorable slip surface. The safety factor values obtained are compared to the suggested safety factor. Limit equilibrium methods of vertical slices implemented in Slope/W, computer program for slope stability analyses, have been adopted to perform the E24 slope stability analysis. The safety factor values computed with 9# weak layer are lower than for 8#; the factors of safety obtained with Sarma's method are the smallest; more, without groundwater (long term) overall values are greater than those determined under groundwater condition (short term). The lowest safety factor value is found for a profile depending on an adopted earthwork sequence. The E24 profile slope stability analysis shows the instability risk for the deepest weak layer, and also shows the short and long term stability of this slope for the envisaged earth movements. However it demonstrates the existence of instability risk for any earthwork firstly affecting the downslope part.

DISPATCHING REAL-TIME MODEL OF COMPUTER-CONTROLLED TRUCK

In order to recover ore as much as possible, a computer-controlled truck real-time dispatching model is conducted under the conditions of Qidashan lron Mine. It can not only acquire the optimization of shovel and truck operation, but also satisfy requirements of blending ores.The simulation results indicate the effectiveness of the model developed.

Study of Soil Seed Banks in Antaibao Opencast Mine

A seed germinating method was used to study soil seed banks in dump sites of the Antaibao opencast mine for soil reclamation and ecological rehabilitation. Based on a richness index, a diversity index and an evenness index, the diversity of species of soil seed banks was studied. As well, the progress of vegetation succession in this thoroughly destroyed ecosystem is discussed and the self-renewal ability of the soil seed banks is analyzed. The results indicate that 1） there are 17 plant species belonging to five families with annuals as the dominant species; 2） the soil seed banks at the dump site show great temporal and spatial heterogeneity and 3） the model of Robinia pseudoacacia x Pinus tabulaeformis × Caragana korshinskii in the anaphase is the best among several reclamation models studied. Therefore, with the extension of reclamation time, the correct choice of a reclamation model is quite helpful for the improvement of the self-renewal ability of soil seed banks and for the stability of the ecosystem, which is very important for land reclamation and ecological rehabilitation of the dump sites of the ATB opencast coal mine.

Pollen and Spores from the Lower Cretaceous of Central Mongolia and Their Paleoclimatic Significance

The present study focuses on the Lower Cretaceous Khukhteeg Formation (Central Mongolia), which yields palynological assemblage that is used to understand the paleoclimate. Palynology samples from the Khovil opencast mine Choir-Nyalga Basin in the Central Mongolia have been analyzed for palynomorphs with SEM. The assemblage is dominated by pollen to conifers, such as Pinaceae, Podocarpaceae and Taxodiaceae, indicating the vegetation of conifer forests. The assemblage contains abundant spores Schizaeaceae, Cyatheaceae, which are generally associated with wet habitats. According to the detailed analyses, the plant community indicates that warm and humid subtropical paleoclimate controlled the study area during the Early Cretaceous.