Statistics for Mining Engineering

Many areas within mining engineering gather and use information that is statistical in nature. This information is provided by observing the realities of activities such as the operation of pieces of equipment and their systems, the processes of the development of mining works, the surface subsidence that accompanies underground mining, the displacement of rocks surrounding surface pits and underground drives and longwalls, etc.

In addition, the actual modern machines that are used in surface mining are equipped with diagnostic systems that automatically trace all important machine parameters and send this information to the main producer’s computer. Such data not only provide information on the technical properties of the machine but it also has a statistical nature. Furthermore, all information gathered during stand and lab investigations where parts, assemblies and whole devices are tested in order to prove their usefulness, has a stochastic character. All of these materials need to be developed statistically and, what is important, mining engineers must make decisions based on these results whether to undertake some necessary actions, connected with the further operation of the machines, the further development of the works, etc.

For these reasons, knowledge about modern statistics is necessary for mining engineers; not only on how statistical analysis of data should be conducted and statistical synthesis should be done, but also on understanding the results obtained and how to use them to make appropriate decisions connected with a mining operation.

This book on statistical analysis and synthesis is preceded by a short repetition of the probability theory. A special section about statistical prediction is also included. The text is illustrated by many examples taken from mine practice, moreover the tables required to conduct statistical inference are attached.

Jacek M. Czaplicki has been an academic lecturer for forty years and is continuously associated with his home University. He did, however, leave his school for a couple of years’ lecturing in African universities.

He worked for three years at the School of Mines of the Kwara State College of Technology, Ilorin, Nigeria on a UNESCO project. A few years later, he was appointed to Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Ltd for three years and worked as a lecturer at the School of Mines of the University of Zambia, Lusaka as part of a World Bank project.

Jacek Czaplicki received a Master of Science in Mine Mechanization from the Silesian University of Technology, Gliwice, Poland. He also obtained a Doctorate degree in Technical Sciences. Later, he submitted a dissertation and passed all of the requirements and was awarded a D.Sc. degree in Mining and Geological Engineering with a specialisation in Mine Machinery at the same home University. Currently, he is a Professor of Mining Engineering.

He has published about a hundred and forty papers and ten books in Poland and abroad. His specialization comprises mine transport, the reliability and computation of mine machinery systems and the reliability of hoist head ropes. In his research, he applies methods and models from mathematical statistics. He is an internationally recognized specialist in mine mechanization.