Geosteering detectors for boring-type continuous miners

• US 7,360,844 B2
• Filed: 07/29/2004
• Issued: 04/22/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Mosaic Company
• Original Assignee: The Mosaic Company
• Inventors: Medley, Dwight, Tivas, Roy W., Frederick, Larry D.
• Primary Examiner(s): KRECK, JOHN J
• Application Number:
  US10/901,113
• Publication Number:
  US 20050023881A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,363 Days
• Field of Search: 299/1.05, 299/1.8, 299/1.4, 299/1.1, 299/1.2
• US Class Current: 299/1.2
• CPC Class Codes: E21C 27/24 by milling means acting on the full working face , i.e. the rotary axis of the tool carrier being substantially parallel to the working face similar machines for tunneling E21D9/1026
• CPC Class Codes: E21C 35/06 Equipment for positioning the whole machine in relation to its sub-structure
• CPC Class Codes: E21C 35/08 Guiding the machine
• CPC Class Codes: E21C 35/24 Remote control specially adapted for machines for slitting or completely freeing the mineral control in general G05
• CPC Class Codes: E21C 39/00 Devices for testing in situ the hardness or other properties of minerals, e.g. for giving information as to the selection of suitable mining tools
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/24 Earth materials G01N33/42 takes precedence

Abstract

The invention provides, in one embodiment, a detector for a miner comprising a gamma sensing element and a light sensing element coupled to the gamma sensing element. According to the embodiment, the detector is mounted on a rotary cutter of a boring-type continuous miner such that the gamma sensing element has a view of a geologic formation being mined. A mining control system is also provided, comprising a miner having at least two rotary cutters and a gamma detector on each of the at least two rotary cutters for receiving gamma emissions from a geologic formation. The mining control system also provides an accelerometer and a rate gyro, wherein the accelerometer and the rate gyro correlate the received gamma emissions with positions of the at least two rotary cutters, and a central module that utilizes the correlated readings to determine whether the cutters should be moved.

Claims

1. A mining control system comprising:

a miner having at least two rotary cutters, each said rotary cutter having arms extended from the rotary cutter;

a gamma detector on each of said at least two rotary cutters for receiving naturally emitted gamma emissions from a geologic formation, wherein each gamma detector is mounted on one of the arms of the rotary cutter such that the gamma detector has a small field of view relative to identifying bed boundaries in the geologic formation and a large field of view in a direction parallel to the geologic formation;

a position correlating system to correlate said received gamma emissions with positions of said at least two rotary cutters; and

a central module, wherein said central module utilizes said correlated readings to determine whether the cutters should be moved.

2. The mining control system of claim 1, wherein said central module compares readings corresponding to positions of said at least two rotary cutters and determines which way said at least two rotary cutters should be moved to keep said miner aligned up and down with mineral beds in said geologic formation.

3. The mining control system of claim 1, wherein said central module transmits signals to hydraulic cylinders for moving said at least two rotary cutters in a direction required to guide said miner within said geologic formation.

4. The mining control system of claim 1, further comprising a display which displays gamma counts versus cutter orientation to an operator or to a remote monitor.

5. The mining control system of claim 1, wherein the small field of view relative to identifying bed boundaries in the geologic formation defines a plurality of adjacent viewing segments which are cooperatively equivalent to a rotary cutter circumference and wherein comparison of naturally emitted gamma emissions form each adjacent viewing segment allows the central module to distinguish the bed boundaries.

6. The mining control system of claim 5, wherein the plurality of adjacent viewing segments can include from about 75 adjacent viewing segments to about 100 adjacent viewing segments.

7. The mining control system of claim 5, wherein said central module combines data from adjacent viewing segments to calculate a grade of an ore being extracted.

8. The mining control system of claim 1, wherein each gamma detector is mounted on the corresponding rotary cutter such that a gamma sensing element in each gamma detector is located within about 11 inches of a face of the geologic formation being cut by the rotary cutter.

9. The mining control system of claim 1, wherein the position correlating system includes an accelerometer and a rate gyro to correlate the gamma emissions with the positions of the at least two rotary cutters.

10. The mining control of claim 1, wherein the position correlating system includes a pulse encoder to correlate the gamma emissions with the positions of the at least two rotary cutters.

11. A mining control system comprising:

a miner having at least two rotary cutters, the cutters having extending arms;

a gamma detector on each of said at least two rotary cutters, the detector being mounted on one of the extending arms of the rotary cutter such that the detector is within about 11 inches of a cutting face of a geologic formation, the detector having a field of view along the cutting face small enough to define between about 75 to about 100 adjacent viewing segments within a cutter circumference defined by each rotary cutter;

a means to correlate gamma ray readings of the adjacent viewing segments with positions of the cutters,

a means to combine said position-correlated gamma ray readings to determine whether said at least two rotary cutters should be moved either up or down in order to plate said miner in a higher grade ore.