Midwest - Dust Control For Extreme Mining Conditions

Midwest was founded in 1975. Our first customers were miners. Every day for 45 years, we have invented and developed innovative intended-use products and programs to get extreme results in solving dust problems for diamond mines and hard mineral mining operations.

When it comes to dust, Midwest is the answer. Our comprehensive solution starts with proprietary products that are more effective and greener alternatives to 1) water; 2) water used with magnesium or calcium chloride; or 3) any other ordinary commodity dust suppressant products.

Midwest has unsurpassed experience in solving issues of dust control for diamond mines and hard mineral mining operations:

• Up to 95% water reduction
• Up to 75% grading reduction
• 80-85% (or greater) consistent dust control 24/7/365
• MSHA health and safety compliance
• Title V emissions compliance
• Eliminate commodity products which cause corrosion and concern
• Eliminate excessive water-related operating issues requiring road maintenance
• Better utilization of personnel and equipment
• Single source of accountability

All this while preventing catastrophic dust events caused by high winds.

Haul Road
Controlling dust on your haul roads with water is an expensive and resource intensive endeavor that typically results in very limited short-term results.

Midwest balances the use of water and chemical dust suppressants for a solution that combines the right products, people, application, equipment and environmental compliance services, whether with existing water trucks, custom-designed application equipment or a fully managed service dust control solution.

Access and Transport Roads
Heavy traffic from cars, trucks, tankers and small mine support equipment creates significant dust events. Worse still, it’s difficult for water trucks to operate on these roads. When they do, it takes the resources away from watering your main haul roads, which reduces the effectiveness of that process — certainly a lose-lose situation.

Midwest will deploy the custom-planned products, people and application to improve the overall effectiveness of your program for continuous dust control, while balancing the costs of maintaining these roads.

Underground
You have important issues with which to deal, such as strict underground dust emissions in volumes measured by g/m2 on a continuous basis; high air flow rates that create even more dusting events and a concentration of dust on ribs, roads and roof.
Midwest helps you effectively treat road ribs and roofs without interrupting operations through the best combination of proven products, expert field people and job-specific application equipment made for optimum results.

Tailings
You need to achieve cost-effective continuous dust control that’s integrated into the mine’s tailings operational process, and that meet compliance requirements. Your issues include the potential for a catastrophic dusting event that puts compliance at risk and reaches the public as news.

Midwest best meets your needs, with the optimum combination of products, people, application and equipment to address your critical issues.

Material Handling
Are you are experiencing a high consumption of water, yet not getting the dust control results you need?
Midwest will improve performance while reducing costly waste with the products, people, application equipment and environmental compliance testing within a full program. We will design, install and optimize the use of both water and chemical suppressants to balance the cost-per-ton and its overall effectiveness to achieve optimal dust control levels.

A product alone is not enough. The Midwest program seamlessly integrates into your mine plan for extreme performance results.

Midwest’s comprehensive 30-day trial helps you see real improvements on your real site. Your mining site is different than others, with its own conditions and day-to-day challenges. Unlike buy-it-and-hope-for-the-best products, our customized solution will be implemented to demonstrate actual economic and operational benefits. The trial, co-developed with you to determine your best solution, provides accurate data for predictable performance assurance to achieve proper scale-up and overcome obstacles to success.

Otherwise, how could you know it will work unless you see how it performs throughout daily operations? After all, you get carry-over and track-on from untreated areas, as well as spillage from loaded trucks. Midwest offers the only customized and dynamically managed road, tailing and material handling program. Anyone can sell you a product, but Midwest’s full solution combines product chemistry for dust control in a diamond mine and hard mineral mining environment with expert application, supported by ongoing service and testing.

MIDWEST COMPREHENSIVE, CUSTOMIZED SOLUTION

A Partnership

• Product chemistry + expert application + ongoing service/testing
• 30-day trial on your own site to co-develop your best solution
• Icon Evaporate White

ORDINARY, SIMPLE PRODUCTS

• On your own
• Hope for the best
• Once you bought it, you use it

HAUL ORE, NOT WATER
The Midwest program is proven and green, water is costly and has limited effectiveness.

Depending upon conditions, water can play a role in suppressing dust. We help you determine where water is the right solution and where further dust suppressant technology is your best option.

Midwest integrates your co-developed, comprehensive solution into your diamond mine and hard mineral mining operation, rather than disrupting it. Innovative chemistry and state-of-the art green technologies provide significant economic advantages, with operational and environmental performance improvements.

The commonplace, default reliance upon water as a dust suppressant can do more harm than good, and is no longer your only option. Water may not perform adequately; it evaporates quickly; it can create runoff and unstable driving surfaces; and requires reapplication after reapplication — which requires vehicles to haul more water and personnel to do more work.

The Midwest solution has been designed for extreme mining conditions, with typical outcomes including:

• UP TO 95% REDUCTION IN WATER
• ON MIDWEST TREATED SURFACES
• UP TO 95% FUNCTIONAL
• DUST CONTROL vs. 50%
• WITH WATER
• EXPECT UP TO 75%
• REDUCTION IN GRADING
• vs. WATER

YOUR MINING SITE, YOUR REQUIREMENTS, YOUR CUSTOMIZED SOLUTION

Get the positive benefits of a trial with your Midwest solution. The Midwest trial process helps determine the goals, needs and competing interests to design and implement your dust control solution in a controlled way to ensure its effectiveness and scalability within the challenge area.
4 Steps to Building Your Dynamically Managed Dust Control Solution.

Midwest is proud to be the only provider of comprehensive and completely customized dust control solutions that are dynamically managed for the most extreme mining operational challenges. We discover, diagnose, design and deliver what you need in the way you need it and when you need each interval.

DISCOVER
We custom-design our hypothesis with you based on broad value propositions:

• you decide whether to investigate further
• you decide if the potential improvements work for you

This begins the mutual respect and trust that governs our relationship.

Site survey and interviews with site managers accumulate critical knowledge to describe, define and create value objectives collaboratively. Our conversation starts by exploring and defining decision criteria: 

• increase productivity
• reduce dust consistently
• improve site safety
• enhance environmental conditions
• meet Title V and MSHA regulatory compliance
• identify economic improvements

DIAGNOSE

• We test the validity of the value hypothesis:
• in-depth determination of improvements and financial impact
• collaboratively uncover physical evidence to compare against hypothesis
• This allows you to make an informed decision about the derived benefits.

Considerations include:

• traffic flows and road-usage patterns
• dust sources
• challenges to effective dust control
• current watering and grading costs
• operational issues
• restraints of current practice on future production requirements

DESIGN

• We work together to create the optimum design for the best results:
• define a custom solution to address your specific needs and situation
• includes the financial impact and value
• This is a highly interactive effort to arrive at the best possible solution.

The design phase is both collaborative and exploratory, a process to uncover the optimum solution:

• establish a combination of product and service parameters, that will...
• minimize your risk of change while optimizing your return on investment
• We help you make the business decision that is best for you.

DELIVER
Midwest will summarize and document the diagnosis and design work to implement your solution:

• meet your goals and objectives at the best cost
• Midwest on-site for implementation and training of your personnel
• health and safety compliance result

We assist in measuring and documenting the actual value you achieve:

• ensuring you obtain the value as committed
• you will be able to measure and verify your financial impact