Yakutniproalmaz, ALROSA’s research institute working for the diamond industry, marked its 50th anniversary on February 22, 2011.
To celebrate the occasion, the City of Mirny in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) hosted an international scientific conference on "Problems and ways of efficient mining on diamond fields” held on April 11-15, 2011 along the following lines:
- Open-pit development of diamond fields;
- Equipment and techniques used in underground diamond mining;
- Dressing of diamond ores and sands;
- Methods for efficient extraction and processing of lean diamond ores;
- Mining geology, hydrogeology, environmental and general problems of the diamond industry.
The conference was meant to exchange scientific and technical information; identify perspective ways of creating and developing new techniques and technologies; draw up joint research programs; and establish business contacts.
The conference brought together leading experts of scientific and industrial enterprises and organizations from the United Kingdom, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Canada, Ukraine and Russia. There were more than 150 reports submitted by institutes belonging to the Yakutsk, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk and Novosibirsk Scientific Centers, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as by the Institute for Regional Economy of the North, Research Institute of Comprehensive Exploitation of Mineral Resources, North-Eastern Federal University, Mirny Polytechnic Institute (a branch of the North-Eastern Federal University), Northern (Arctic) Federal University, Ural State Mining University, Krivoi Rog Technical University, ALROSA’s Yakutniproalmaz and Analytical Center, Saint-Petersburg State Institute of Technology (Technical University), Scientific and Technical Center of BelAZ, OOO NTZ Gornoye Delo, Bucyrus Europe GmbH, WENCO INTERNATIONAL MINING SYSTEMS, Mining Company "L&C" LTD, OOO EZSM Continent, OOO Nordelast and SRK Consulting.
Yakutniproalmaz has developed and implemented new methods to open up deep levels in open pits by way of near-vertical workings.
The Institute of Mining Engineering in the North of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences obtained new fundamental results on the behavior of rocks under alternating temperature influence, which is the basis for developing new mining techniques in the permafrost zone.
Significant scientific results have been reached by scientists from the Institute of Mining belonging to the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences in developing deepening mining units and remotely controlled mining transportation machinery.
Specialists working with WENCO INTERNATIONAL MINING SYSTEMS have developed a whole range of solutions for automation and control of mining equipment, including techniques allowing to position mining equipment with high accuracy (based on GPS and GLONASS) to increase the efficiency of open-pit machinery.
OOO NTZ Gornoye Delo has devised a method permitting to outline the structure of integrated machinery for open-pit mining.
Bucyrus Europe GmbH proposed new engineering solutions under the trade mark of BUCYRUS for developing diamond deposits.
The Spetstechnomash Company offered new solutions to develop small ore bodies using tower hoists.
The conference outlined major areas of future research:
- Developing efficient techniques for mining lean deposits;
- Developing secure mining techniques for ultra-deep kimberlite open pits using remote-control mining transportation equipment and deepening units to complete the development of open pits;
- Investigating the regularities of changes in rock properties under alternating temperature conditions;
- Developing new designs of open-pit edges and benches, as well as developing methods to calculate their stability;
- Studying the methods of how to keep rough diamonds intact in the course of mining and dressing operations;
- Developing and implementing promising types of open-pit transportation vehicles, as well as mining and dressing equipment;
- Further development of block modeling methods for diamond fields, as well as working out ways to estimate reserves and evaluate the possibility of mining lean deposits.
It should be noted that the scientific level of the works presented at the conference was very high. The Organizing Committee of the conference did really a great job. The participants were invited to join excursions to ALROSA’s Diamond Aggregation Center, Internatsionalny Underground Mine, Factory Number 3 and Mir Open-Pit Mine. They also visited the Museum of Kimberlites and went on a sightseeing tour of Mirny.
Yuri Danilov, Ph. D., Institute for Regional Economics of the North
