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The Research Institute for Brown Coal j. s. c. (VÚHU) has been involved in the research project of the EU Research Fund of Coal and Steel - The impact of extreme weather events on mining operations for four years. The project is focused on assessing the impact of climate change on mining activities in major European coal basins. Other participants are scientific teams from Poland, Great Britain, Spain, Germany and Greece. This is the last year of the project solving, so this paper summarizes the results of the solution for the Czech Republic. The first part of the paper summarizes the knowledge of the historical development of the climate, including significant climatic disasters. Attempts to reconstruct the paleoclimate in the Tertiary based on the evaluation of preserved geological phenomena are also briefly evaluated here. The next part of the paper evaluates the development of temperature and precipitation in the wider area of the Most Basin, including the forecast for the future and the impact of climate change on mining and reclamation. Therefore, the greatest attention is paid to the proposed adaptation strategies. All laboratory analyses carried out as part of this research were carried out by VÚHU testing laboratories accredited by CIA according to CSN EN 150-IEC 17025 on the basis of internal methodological procedures based on relevant standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Brown Coal Research Institute j. s. c. is realising the long term research and survey in the field of restoration problems and it is realising the long term research of climate changes in the Czech Republic including impacts to mining operations during research programme of the European Union TEXMIN solving too. The input of expected temperature increasing and precipitation decreasing is favourable for mining operation from point of view of overburden and mining cuts stability, safety of mining and mining costs. The different situation is the field of reclamation works. The input of expected climatic change is very unfavourable in this case. The main reasons are primarily high level of the loss of seedlings during forest reclamation because of hot and dry periods and the necessity of very expensive, radical change of technical and biological reclamation methodology. The first results of this research are presented in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Brown Coal Research Institute j. s. c. is realising the long term research and survey in the field of restoration problems. The target of these works changed during development of localities. The main problems of present days are reclamation during frequent hot and dry periods, the extreme alkaline soil reaction of any localities soils, occurrence of phytotoxic and sterile areas and methodology of areas retained to natural succession founding. The article is devoted to the methodology of research and to the description of main case study areas. The methodology is composed of terrain mapping, sampling and sample analysis. It is grain-size determination, X-RAY analyses, determinations of pH/KCl, pH/H2O soil reactions, Cox, CaCO3, Nc contents, S, T, V sorption capacities, acceptable P, K, Mg nutrients contents and. determination of the content of risk trace elements. The main case study areas are primarily Mariánské Radčice with the loss of seedlings because of hot and dry periods. Next case study areas are Libouš internal dump, Prunéřov and Bílina internal dumps and Pokrok external dump. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Brown Coal Research Institute started the solving of the research project based on the optimisation of the shape and material of ground and mining machines in 2018. This research is necessary for increasing of efficiency of mining process in conditions of the Most Basin. The very important part of the research was the geological characteristic of the Most Basin main mining localities. Evaluation of the geological situation of the Bílina, Vršany and Libouš mines (mining of the overburden rocks in the ČSA mine finished) is the first stage of the solving of the project described in this article. The occurrence of sandy strata and the parameters of hard rocks are the most important parameters. The Brown Coal Research Institute is working in the field of overburden rocks parameters lots of years. It was gained much information about overburden rocks, hard rocks and sands during long term sampling and laboratory works. The most important used laboratory analyses were the content of crystalline quartz, content of siderite, content of calcite and compressive strength. The location of the overburden cuts with similar mining conditions in different mining localities, very important for need of future research, is described in the end of this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expense of restoring of excavators cutting bodies is increasing these days in the Most Basin area, primarily the replacement of tooth because of abrasion expense. The main reason is the complicated geological situation of overburden rocks, first of all the occurrence of sands and hard structures in the overburden cuts rocks in the deep horizons of open pit mines. The main target of this article is the brief description of realised research. It is design of the optimum methodology of bucket tooth cutting body heat and chemical treatment. These excavators are in operations during brown coal mining in all the Czech Republic and tooth wear hardness is necessary. This research is the part of solving of the project No. TH03020368 from the programme EPSILON titled „The optimisation of the shape and material of ground and mining machines research“. The main expected benefit is the optimization of the shapes and materials of excavators and ground machines in concrete mining conditions. It was applied modern data in the field of material engineering, cryogenic nanotechnologies and metallurgy for the increasing of the lifetime period and efficiency of key nodes of the mining and ground machines. We realised laboratory material tests of mostly used tooth named VP-7 during 2018 – 2019. This article gives the first information about heat and chemical treatment methodology, about testing of excavators key nodes life time increasing and about first analyses results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of this paper is the description of experimental operation of new bucket in real conditions of the open pit mine and the evaluation of surface temperature increasing in the case of new bucket application. The experiment was realised in two excavators KU 300 operated in the same mining conditions. The target of this experiment is the bucket surface temperature increasing evaluation and the verification of new bucket tooth geometry with tooth ESCO U35T possibilities in comparison with original variety. The next target is selection of optimum tooth geometry for operation in ČSA mine conditions. The lignite mining in the main coalface is very difficult in the ČSA mine conditions, primarily in the law part of the cut near the contact with underlying hard clay. Cutting bodies of the excavator operate in hard stress. It is the reason of hard abrasion, breaking of parts of tooth and the bucket bandage destruction. The brown coal mining is realised by bucket wheel excavators KU 300. The wheel of the KU 300 excavator is without cell, 13 buckets are situated in the perimeter, volume of every bucket is 650 l. Original construction of these bucket was proposed by producer of the excavator, UNEX company. The buckets are welded from cast iron bandage and next parts from the construction steel. The tooth are fixed in the fixture, which is a part of cast iron bandage, The shape of the fixture are comply with tooth body, which is wedge shaped. These excavators are in operations during brown coal mining in all the Czech Republic and tooth wear hardness is necessary. This research is the part of solving of the project No. TH03020368 from the programme EPSILON titled „The optimisation of the shape and material of ground and mining machines research“. The main expected benefit is the optimization of the shapes and materials of excavators and ground machines in concrete mining conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The solving of the project of the Czech Republic Technology Agency TAČR dedicated to microbial methane genesis in geological conditions of the Czech coal basins is under way from 2018. The target of the project is clean methodology of coal. The main attention of the 2018 research was devoted to the geological research of the brown and hard coal basins and to the selection of the optimum localities for sampling. This paper briefly summarises the geological situation of coal basins, stratigraphy of different coal seams, technological coal parameters and the possibilities of coal and mine water sampling. Realisation of brown coal from this point of view is the first in the Czech Republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expense of restoring of excavators cutting bodies is increasing these days in the Most Basin area, primarily the replacement of tooth because of abrasion expense. The main reason is the complicated geological situation of overburden rocks, first of all the occurrence of sands and hard structures in the overburden cuts rocks in the deep horizons of open pit mines. The main target of this article is the brief description of realised research. It is design of the optimum methodology of bucket tooth cutting body heat and chemical treatment. These excavators are in operations during brown coal mining in all the Czech Republic and tooth wear hardness is necessary. This research is the part of solving of the project No. TH03020368 from the programme EPSILON titled „The optimisation of the shape and material of ground and mining machines research“. The main expected benefit is the optimization of the shapes and materials of excavators and ground machines in concrete mining conditions. It was applied modern data in the field of material engineering, cryogenic nanotechnologies and metallurgy for the increasing of the lifetime period and efficiency of key nodes of the mining and ground machines. We realised laboratory material tests of mostly used tooth named VP-7 during 2018 – 2019. This article gives the first information about heat and chemical treatment methodology, about testing of excavators key nodes life time increasing and about first analyses results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The solving of the project of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic dedicated to sustainable agricultural management in the North Western Bohemia is under way from 2015 to 2018. The main attention of the 2017 and 2018 research is devoted to the research of experimental areas retained to the natural succession. The second research problem was the development of the geological parks as a part of the restoration activities. The last part of the paper is the brief information about first step of historical climate changes geological imprints in the Most and Sokolov Coal Basins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The target of this article is the presentation of the first steps of solving the project No. TH03020368 from the programme EPSILON titled „The optimisation of the shape and material of ground and mining machines research”. The main topic of this article is the optimization of the tooth shape and primarily the optimization of the materials used for manufacturing of cutting bodies of the ground and mining machines. This research is necessary for increasing of efficiency of mining process in conditions of the Most Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New results of the main bentonite localities mineralogical research in the Most Basin area are the main topic of this paper. The main attention is devoted to the quarry Rokle near Kadaň city. The first part of this article briefly summarises geological situation of these localities, parameters of the mined raw material and possibilities of bentonite application. The second part of the paper describes result of the long term mineralogical research of these localities. The last part of this article presents new mineralogical discoveries in the bentonite quarry Rokle [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The solving of the project of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic dedicated to sustainable agricultural management in the North Western Bohemia is under way from 2015 to 2018. The Brown Coal Research Institute is the main participant of the project. This article briefly summarises new results of the research of the Most Basin localities restoration problems. The main attention is devoted to the research of experimental areas founded in different dump localities with different dump rocks and different application of fertilisable rocks. The research is based on a comparison of long term survey of the areas with a different history of restoration and natural succession areas in the Most Basin. We prefer the localities with a long history of research. The result of pedological survey, biological survey and survey of pollutants is the recommendation of the restoration method for every dump location including expected succession areas according to its soil properties and restoration target after detail mapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The solving of European Commission (Research Fund for Coal and Steel) research project "Bucket wheel excavators operating under difficult mining conditions including unmineable inclusions and geological structures with excessive mining resistance" is under way from 2015 to 2018. The Brown Coal Research Institute j.s.c. is a member of the research team comprising Czech, Polish, Romanian and Greek technical universities and companies. The main task of the year 2016 was the realisation of the three long term measurements in the Libous Mine. The target of these measurements was verification of working parameters of the excavator SChRs 1550-4x30/K109 during the relocation from the first overburden cut to the second overburden cut with worse mining conditions. The paper briefly summarises the geological situation in these positions, results of a long term complex testing of the excavator and possibilities of overburden rocks mining in the new position. The relocation of the excavatot is possible according to the results of this research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contribution is focused on a research of thermal and mineral water resources in areas located in the norther Bohemia regions. The main monitoring parameter is their heat potential. Other goal of the paper is to suggest a use of that thermal potential as an alternative energy source in selected areas. The Czech Republic does not have such geothermal potential in comparison with other geothermal superpowers such as Iceland, New Zealand, the USA or Philippines, but the northern Bohemia region has the highest heat flow, and thermal gradient in the country. There is an increasing pressure from international agreements on a higher share of renewable energy sources of the total energy production of the country nowadays. It is necessary to analyse the energy potential of an area individually in terms of geological structures, and geographical and climate conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The important part of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic new research project "Methodology of sustainable agricultural management in anthropogenic damaged landscape" is the research of the products of combustion usability during reclamation works and the dumps consolidation. Obtaining the missing information about the character of the different types of solid products after combustion of brown coal and biomass is the first stage of this research. The main part of the paper summarises the characterisation of the basic properties and the chemical composition of combustion products and their boundary conditions in relation to real use. Results indicate that these materials are potentially interesting, but, due to their variable composition, they must be characterised before use in order to avoid unwanted consequences for the environment. The first results of the laboratory analyses of samples and the evaluation of the characteristics in the first research dump areas are summarised in the conclusion of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The solving of the new project of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic dedicated to sustainable agricultural management in the North Western Bohemia started in 2015. The Brown Coal Research Institute is the main participant of this project. The restoration problems of the region are the field of this institute research. The paper briefly summarises first restoration research results achieved during the first year of the solution. The general characteristics of the new project, the methodology of the terrain works, laboratory analyses and the methodology of the research areas selection are shown in the first part of this work. The main part of the paper is devoted to the research of the Radovesice dump, primarily to the areas retained to the natural succession research. Determination of the content of risk trace elements in this locality was the research problem too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research of the North - Eastern Bohemia volcanic area follows in the last year results. The survey of of deep sources of geothermal energy in the hopeful area (from point if geological situation), without concrete surface outfalls, achieved first results. We confirmed the existence of thermal water in the boreholes (1960 - 1990) and in new boreholes realized during the large survey of the Czech Republic drink water sources. The paper summarizes the specification and the completion of data obtained last year. We realized the reconnaissance of the complete area of the České středohoří Mts. boreholes and their revision based on newly obtained data. Next step of our research was the mapping of the České středohoří Mts. geological situation and the tectonics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]