Mineral Dust Emissions at Metalliferous Mine Sites

Mineral dusts produced from mining activities pose a risk to human health and the surrounding environment. The particle size distribution of dust is important for determining environmental, occupational health and physiological impacts. Dust is generally thought of as particulates with a diameter of between 1 and 60 μm, but it can be further divided into nuisance dust or total suspended particulates, fugitive dust, inhalable dust, thoracic dust, and respirable dust. This review considers aspects of mineral dust related to the mining of metalliferous ores including: (a) sources of mineral dust at mine sites (i.e. land clearing, drilling and blasting, transport operations, crushing, milling, screening, stockpiles); (b) control measures to reduce dust generation; (c) monitoring techniques; (d) mineral dust characterization to quantify particle concentration, size and morphology and chemical composition; and (e) prediction of mineral dust properties. Predicting the physical and mineralogical characteristics of dust is important for effective dust management and control strategies. At present, there are no appropriate testing procedures available to predict the chemical and mineralogical properties of mineral dust from mining operations. Further work is required to understand mineral fractionation according to grain size and to provide a rapid test methodology that would predict dust composition.