I'm sorry - the title is a bit deceiving - I meant that air is moist in the mine, some gyp is moist, but some is bone dry. The dry stuff is the worst...

The problem with a spraybar are as follows:

1. waterlines are pricey to install - some sections are no where near sumps, or water, mine sump water supply is unreliable, piping in water from public water supply too costly (for this project).

2. Gypsum is water soluble - not only that, but when it gets really wet, it becomes similar to cement - starts out mucky, then gets hard & dry.

3. Main dust pointsource is right at crusher - it probably wouldn't be really good for the crusher to have water constantly spraying on it. Ultra-fine nozzles might work, but water would have to be filtered, and perhaps softened (to prevent rapid mineral build-up in nozzles).

I initially thought some sort of fog system would be perfect, but was shot down when I tried to suggest it to my supervisor with the above. I'm still curious as to exactly what it would cost to pipe sump water over to the sections - for the purpose of using in the scrubbers somehow.... but either way - it's still probably a no-go.

As for why collect - suppression methods just didn't seam to work. Right now, a dilution method is in effect (blowing dust away from section, into exhaust ventilation), but it just isn't very effective & simply moves the dust (and is done hap-hazzardly at that) - into the tram line .... not good.

I don't know too much about the foam dust suppression systems, but am under the impression that they work well when water usage is a concern. What is involved there?

As for the joy environmental scrubber, I will look into that as well - although there is no website I've found on them - only contact (phone & address) info. So that will have to be more personal.

Thank you for your suggestions, I really do appreciate them. Any other good ideas out there? - 'cause personally, I'm running out.

Thanks again -

Steve ■