Contribution of the Institute of Mining of the Ural branch of RAS to development of modern technologies for the diamond industry

Abstract

The paper presents an analysis of the research work carried out by the Institute of Mining of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences over the past decades by request of AK ALROSA. Their scientific novelty and practical significance are noted. Many works are based on the results of fundamental and applied research, which made it possible to implement them reasonably and with great efficiency at the existing operations. It is acknowledged that the Mining Institute of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences is one of the priority scientific partners of the Yakutniproalmaz Institute. Over the many years of cooperation, a team of researchers from the Mining Institute of UB of RAS has studied the mining, geological and climatic conditions of mining operations in the permafrost zone. Innovative techniques and technologies for mining kimberlite ores in confined conditions of deep open pits as well as methods to assess and select the type of transport and dump truck models have been developed for the open pits and underground mines of AK ALROSA. Recommendations are provided on the safe operation of open-pit transport, including the one with robotic control. Studies have been carried out which were used as the basis to develop technological regulations for projects of reaching and developing reserves of the Udachnaya Tube. A calculation method was proposed and standards were developed for drilling and blasting operations in open pits of diamond mining enterprises of the Russian Federation located in the permafrost zone. The correlation of rock categories aaccording to blastability grade and the specific consumption of explosives, which we recommended, allows to establish rational limits for changing the parameters of drilling and blasting operations within the permafrost zone. Based on field studies, numerical values of the stress-and-strain state of the rock mass were defined during the construction of underground workings. The geomechanical conditions of underground mining of the Udachnaya Tube diamond deposit were justified for the conditions of transition from the open-pit mining operations to the underground ones, considering the stress-and-strain state and geodynamic activity of various sections of the rock massif. Several sections have been developed for the national standard of the Russian Federation “Mining of diamond ore deposits with open-cast method in the permafrost zone”.