Home – Home – Jornals – Journal of Mining Sciences 2015 number 1

In focus is the current objective of energy efficiency improvement in mining in Russia and other countries of the world. The world tendencies toward new unconventional renewable energy sources and their introduction in closed–cycle resource–saving technologies are reviewed. In the capacity of the renewable energy sources, the authors discuss lithological pressure and elastic vibrations of rock mass, kinetic energy of gravity flow of backfill mixtures and fluids during backfilling and mine drainage, potential energy of gravity force of heavy trucks, energy of return air flows in mine ventilation and this energy recovery, etc. The authors think that conversion of these kinds of energy into electric energy during hard mineral mining will allow solution to ecological problems and enable development of allied branches in “small power engineering,” including essential reduction of external energy consumption in underground mines.