On Ensuring the Safe Operation of the Main Dewatering Plant at the Udachny Mine

Abstract

Safety of the underground mining operations largely depends on the reliability of the functioning of the drainage facilities system. Practice shows that over the past few years, the reliability of the main drainage system of the underground kimberlite mine Udachny was noticeably decreased. One of the reasons for this was the low operational reliability of pumping equipment. External examinations of the failed parts of the flow part of pumps operating in the drainage systems of domestic kimberlite mines indicate the dominance of hydroabrasive wear in the overall picture of their multifactorial destruction. Mine waters pumped from the drainage mine workings of the Udachny mine is considered the most polluted among the mines of ALROSA. The main reason for the increase in the concentration of solid particles in the mine waters pumped to the daytime surface by the pumping equipment of the main drainage plant of the Udachny mine was the growing pollution of the waters coming from the drainage basins of the district drainage into its clarifying reservoirs. Such an intensive removal of mechanical impurities from the catchments of the district drainage into the clarifying tanks of the main drainage system is explained by an increase in the rate of siltation of the catchment tanks. And the rapid siltation of the catchments, in turn, is caused by the systematic removal of sludge-slurry pulp from the lower part of the skip trunk. It is established that the sludge slurry is formed during the overload of the extracted kimberlite ore from the feeder to the conveyor belt. There, its spilled part is washed off with water used for irrigation of diamond-bearing raw materials into the skip barrel. To reduce the rate of siltation of the drainage basins of the district drainage system, a mechanized complex for cleaning spilled rock mass was developed, described in the article.