A project to investigate the use of particulate traps is currently underway at Noranda Inc. - Brunswick Mine in Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada. The purpose is to demonstrate the efficiency and overall effectiveness of these new systems in an underground mining production environment. The project has been planned for an on vehicle test period of 18 months. Four heavy production vehicles will be equipped with the traps along with monitoring instrumentation. There are really no alternatives to very large size diesel engines used in the materials handling applications of the mining ore, at least none that have similar benefits of reliability, durability, fuel efficiency and the mobility of diesels.
All large materials handling machinery rely on diesel engines.
The entire report, an executive summary, graphs and pictures are available in the features section under economic news . In 1997, there were 26,000 establishments in the United States engaged primarily in mining and energy production of oil and gas. The American mining and mineral extraction sector depends heavily on diesel power. Two of its major subsectors, surface mining and the production of oil and gas, are especially dependent on diesel power. Surface mining is typified by the production of low-sulfur coal in Wyoming's Powder River Basin.