Dust pollution in open-pit coal mines severely restricts the green development of mines. Therefore, dust control has become an important requirement for the sustainable development of the mining industry. With the goal of dust pollution prevention and control in open-pit coal mines, this paper puts forward the concept of a non-disturbance area of an open-pit coal mine. It clarifies the characteristics of dust generation, the coverage area, and the dust particle size distribution characteristics of the non-disturbance area. Taking the dust control at the dump site as an example, the study comprehensively utilizes indoor tests and field tests to develop a dust suppressant for the dump site and determine its dust suppression efficiency and effective service cycle. The results show that the D10, D50, and D90 particle sizes of dust in the non-disturbance area are smaller than those in the disturbance area, and the difference in particle size of D90 is the most obvious. Gelatinized starch and non-ionic polyacrylamide, as the main components of the dust suppressant, can effectively reduce dust pollution in the dump; the optimal concentration is 1.0%, and the dust suppression service cycle is more than one month. The developed dust suppressant does not contain corrosive, toxic, or heavy metal elements. Although the application of a dust suppressant will cause plant growth to lag, it does not affect plant health. The research findings serve as a reference for the zoning treatment of dust in open-pit mines.

Surface coal mining procedures include piercing—blasting—mining and loading—transportation—discharging, blasting link exists due to the poor blasting effect leads to low loading efficiency, blasting dust caused by environmental pollution and other problems. In this paper, from the mechanical characteristics of the water medium, we analyze in detail the transferring effect, transducing effect and bubble pulsation phenomenon of the water medium in the blasting process. The results show that when the blasting medium is water medium, the maximum principal stress is 1.53 times that of air medium; the peak energy transfer can be up to 2.73 times that of air medium. With the help of TrueGrid/LS-DYNA finite element analysis software to simulate the dynamic process of blasting, the study of the maximum principal stresses around the hole, the top of the slope, the foot of the slope on the maximum principal stress changes, the results show that the maximum principal stresses around the hole, the top of the slope, the foot of the slope unit with the increase in the water content is gradually increasing trend. Finally, combined with the actual mine production conditions for blasting field test, water-mediated blasting dust reduction rate of 75%, the use of AHP—fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method of two groups of traditional dry hole blasting and three groups of water-mediated blasting comprehensive evaluation, the results show that the water-mediated blasting scores are higher than the traditional dry hole blasting, proving that the water-mediated blasting has a certain prospect of engineering applications.

The instability of geological slopes in mining environments poses a significant challenge to the safety and efficiency of operations. Waste Dump#2 at the Ziluoyi Iron Mine in China is a notable case study that highlights the challenges associated with sizable base slopes and large step heights. To address hidden hazards in the mine and the above issues, an inclusive investigation is carried out to examine the physical and mechanical properties of the soil–rock slope through indoor testing and analyze the deformation mechanisms of the slope using numerical simulations, taking various factors into account. The study reveals that the stability of Waste Dump#2 is deeply affected by weight, groundwater conditions, earthquake loading, and rainfall. To this end, the cohesion and internal friction parameters of the soil–rock slope are first determined through direct shear tests, which show a cohesion of 6.215 kPa at the top of the slope and an internal friction angle of 34.12°. By adopting GEO-SLOPE, 3D Mine, and AutoCAD software, stability calculations of the slope are performed, which give stability coefficients of 1.547 under normal conditions, 1.276 in rainfall, and 1.352 in seismic conditions. These results meet safety standards and ensure the safe and efficient operation of the mine.

Step blasting is an important part of open-pit mining, which is accompanied by hazards such as large blasting blocks, flying stone splashing, blasting noises, and blasting dust during the blasting process. In order to reduce the harm caused by blasting, this paper uses impact dynamics and rock dynamics to explain the deformation damage and motion law caused by detonation of the material blocked by the gun hole. By simulating the motion of the blocked material in the gun hole, the motion and failure characteristics of the blocked material in the gun hole are revealed. In this paper, geological polymer is introduced into the field of open-pit mine blasting, and 700 g rock powder, 200 g slag, 40 g NaOH solution (30%), and 140 g water glass with a modulus of 3.2 and 80 g of water are selected to prepare geological polymer-modified plugging materials to change rock powder blockage from bulk to solid, and improve the plugging performance. Finally, a field test was carried out in the open-pit mine explosion area, and a comparative test was carried out through the high-speed photography system; it is demonstrated that the modified blocking material could improve the blockage ability of the gun hole, reduce the large block rate of the upper part of the step, reduce the amount of dust, reduce the amount of flying stone, and improve the production efficiency and safety.

Among the slope hazards caused by rainfall, not all of them occur directly during storm washout, and the wetting–drying cycles’ effect on the rainfall–evaporation process is an important cause of shallow slope instability. In this study, taking the slope of the open-pit coal mine dumps in Cam Pha, in the Quang Ninh region of Vietnam, as the research object, we carry out experiments on the physical properties of the rock body under different wetting–drying cycles, as well as numerical analyses. The results show that the wetting–drying cycles significantly affect the physical and mechanical parameters and permeability of the rock body. In the process of the wetting–drying cycle, a transient saturated zone occurs on the surface of the slope, and the range of the unsaturated zone inside the slope body decreases with the increase in the number of wetting–drying cycles. Moreover, the infiltration line keeps moving downward, but the rate of downward movement is slowed down by the decrease in the gradient of matrix suction affected by rainfall. Under the influence of the wetting–drying cycles, the slope displacement, plastic zone, and maximum shear strain increment range gradually approach the slope surface with the wetting–drying cycles, and the displacement peak gradually increases. A dump is a site for the centralized discharge of mining waste, formed by the crushing and stockpiling of the original rock formation. Bang Nau is the name of the dump considered in this study. After multiple rainfall events, the slope stability under five wetting–drying cycles decreases from 1.721 to 1.055, and the landslide mode changes from a whole landslide to a single-step shallow landslide, with a certain landslide risk. It is necessary to strengthen the slope stability as the landslide risk is very high, and it is necessary to strengthen the monitoring and inspection of the slope.

The coal shed is an enclosed space where raw coal is stored and handled. The intensive operation of the machinery inside the coal shed generates a large amount of dust, and the wind speed inside the enclosed space easily leads to a high concentration of dust, which endangers the physical and mental health of the workers. In this paper, we first studied the particle size distribution of dust samples in the coal shed and found that 12.2% of the dust in the air of the coal shed was 10–100 μm, 87.8% was less than 10 μm, and 72.9% was less than 2.5 μm. Fluent was used to simulate the law of dust dispersion in the coal shed under different working conditions, and finally, the simulation results were used to guide the design of the ventilation site and dust-reduction scenario. The experimental and simulation results show that under the same working conditions, the average dust reduction efficiency of the ventilation method in which the north side and south side pump air outside was 9.9%. The ventilation method in which the north side blows inside and the south side pumps outside was 23.7%. The average dust reduction efficiency of the ventilation method in which the north side blows inside and the south side pumps outside + placing the fan in the middle was 59.9%. The research results can provide some reference value for indoor air quality improvement.