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The provision of a healthy and
safe working environment is a priority for the South African
Mining Industry dictated both by the need to exploit mineral
resources while ensuring workers’ health and to attract investor
funding for the creation of world-class mining projects.
A considerable portion of the
capital and running costs of modern mines is earmarked for the
creation and management of healthy working environments. In
ventilating and cooling deep mines, these costs are significant
and impact on the profit margins of existing operations and on the
viability of future projects.
An assessment of needs of the
mining industry has shown that software simulation tools are
required to model mine environmental conditions encountered in a
wide variety of mining methodologies.
The VUMA II Software will offer
the answer to this need by incorporating features such as:
- Incorporating expert knowledge for
geo-technical data, psychrometry, mine equipment operation and
surface weather.
- Simulating dispersion modes of air pollutants
such as gases and particulates;
- Simulating variations of environmental
barometric, thermal and humidity conditions;
- Data transfer from and to most popular mine
planning software packages
The models generated using VUMA
II would be used to analyse, synthesize and optimise the design of
new mine environmental control systems as well as to assist in the
management of systems already employed on existing operations.
Although the project is focusing primarily on the application of
this software in the Mining Industry, the knowledge and technology
developed through this project can be implemented in the study of
designs and performance and in the optimisation of systems
governing environmental conditions in buildings in other
industrial sectors. |