ON THE INFLUENCE OF MINERAL IMPURITIES ON THE MANIFESTATION OF DANGEROUS PROPERTIES OF COAL SEAMS

Purpose: to establish a possible correspondence between metamorphic processes with artificial thermal destruction of coals and their ashing in order to identify the components of mineral impurities that can affect the manifestation of the hazardous properties of coal mine seams. Methodology is based on a comparison of metamorphic processes that took place at a certain temperature mode in the bowels of the Earth and the production of artificial coals and their ashing. Results: The research made it possible to reveal the important role of mineral impurities in the formation of the hazardous properties of coal seams. This is due to both the significant possible content of mineral impurities in fossil coals, and the simultaneous presence of the main components that determine the hazardous properties of coal seams (carbon, hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen and moisture), both in the organic and in the mineral parts of fossil coals. To improve the regulatory framework for the safe conduct of mining operations, it is necessary to take into account features of the properties of fossil coals due to the presence of mineral impurities in them. In modern regulatory documents on the safe conduct of mining operations, in general, several indicators are used without proper scientific justification: the mass yield of volatiles during the thermal decomposition of coal, the volumetric yield of volatile substances, the thickness of the plastic layer and the logarithm of the electrical resistivity of anthracites. Their values are related to the dry ash-free mass of organic matter only. This excludes consideration of the influence of mineral impurities on the manifestation of the hazardous properties of coal mine seams during mining operations. In many cases, the content of moisture and sulfur is a criterion for the manifestation of hazardous properties of coal seams. They belong to the integral components of both organic and mineral constituents of fossil coals. The share of mineral impurities in the coals of individual coal seams can be more than 40%. The presence of oxygen, hydrogen, sulfur and moisture in mineral impurities significantly affects the manifestation of the hazardous properties of coal seams during mining. The content of mineral impurities in fossil coals in engineering calculations can be determined on the basis of the ash content of coals according to known empirical relationships, corrected for the content of total sulfur and, in some cases, carbon dioxide. Scientific novelty: the significant influence of mineral impurities in fossil coals on the manifestation of hazardous properties of coal seams during mining operations has been proved. Practical value: the results obtained allow substantiating the methodology for the combined use of the composition of organic and mineral components of fossil coals for a reliable forecast of the manifestation of hazardous properties of coal seams and improving the regulatory framework for their safe mining.