Analysis of The Causes of Self-Heating and Possible Endogenous Fires on The Example of The Orlovskii Mine

Almost all mining companies developing deposits of polymetallic ores are faced with the phenomenon of self-heating and spontaneous combustion of ore as a result of oxidation. Sometimes, when it is impossible to conduct mining operations, such exceptional measures are taken as the liquidation of the mine by flooding. The current state of knowledge of the causes of the occurrence of underground endogenous fires in the development of copper-sulfide deposits suggests that the presence of wood in the worked-out area contributes to the faster occurrence and more intense flow of endogenous fires, since spontaneous combustion of sulfide ore is possible at a temperature of 350-500°C, and the temperature ignition of hydrolyzed wood – 180-200°С. The purpose of the article was to establish the causes of self-heating of the ore body and contacts of host rocks based on studies of the thermodynamic consequences of the oxidation of sulfide ores. The evaluation of the results on the analysis of the problem of endogenous fire hazard in the underground development of sulfide ores at the stage of exploration of the Orlovsky deposit of copper-and-titanium ores was carried out. The research methods are thermographic studies of ores and host rocks that were carried out in the laboratory conditions of the UNIIPROmed and consisted in determining the ignition temperature and the conditional oxidation rate with a continuous uniform temperature increase.