1495 measurement and prediction of the PM concentration emitted from mine workings are crucial for assessing the potential health risks to mine workers and adjoining communities. Mining operations in surface mine are not restricted to one level but are operated in tandem at different working locations. The nature of operations limits the accurate measurement of real-time PM emissions through conventional monitoring methods due to the cost and resources requirements like continuous electricity and manpower. Consequently, real-time measurements that provide information about the pollutant concentration and its variations during working hours remain unevaluated or poorly evaluated, leading to incorrect exposure estimates for mine workers. Several high-end portable monitoring instruments capable of providing PM concentration measurements at fine time resolution (e.g., 1 min interval) have been employed in surface mines (Gautam and Patra, 2015; Boente et al., 2022). Unlike filter-based instruments that provide weighted average measurements, these gold-standard devices rely on optical principles for detecting particles in the incoming airflow. Based on a similar working principle, compact and less expensive PM sensors emerged as an alternative tool for real-time PM monitoring. Recently, low-cost PM sensors (LCPMS) have been extensively calibrated and used in conjunction with standard regulatory instruments to monitor aerosol concentrations (Crilley et al., 2017). The sensors use the light scattering principle to detect particle size and provide real-time particle and mass concentrations (Alfano et al., 2020). Further, LCPMS are miniature, portable, and several times less expensive than the reference instruments. LCPMS are deployed in large numbers to obtain fine-scale temporal and spatial coverage of pollutant concentrations in real time. However, this transformative technology has not yet been widely adopted in the mining industry, where traditional monitoring methods continue to dominate. Several mining regulatory authorities mandate use of continuous personal dust monitor (CPDM) to evaluate the exposure to dust by mine workers. To protect miners from the health risk associated with inhalation of respirable coal mine dust, Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), a US federal agency, has recommended the use of CPDM. However, these samplers are several times expensive, weight more than 2kgs and are bulky to carry by miners during the working. Recently, compact, portable, and miniature sensors that can measure real-time dust concentration are being increasingly used across different indoor and outdoor environments (Dubey et al., 2024). These devices are several times less expensive in comparison to the CPDM and provide simultaneous readings of different sized particle mass concentrations. While low-cost sensors offer a more affordable and portable solution for air quality monitoring, their lower accuracy compared to reference-grade instruments highlight a trade-off that needs to be managed. Before deploying the sensor, the standard practice is to calibrate sensors along with reference instruments at the desired field of installation (Badura et al., 2018). Calibration is the process of adjusting the sensor's output to match a reference standard to ensure accurate data over time. Researchers have performed extensive site-specific calibration experiment and deployed sensors for real-time mobile monitoring of pollution concentration along haul roads in large sulfide open-pit (ZafraPérez et al., 2023a). Sensor was mounted on unmanned aerial vehicle for measuring airborne PM levels inside and around the surface mine to assess the air quality within and around the mine during different mining operation (Zafra-Pérez et al., 2023b). In order to investigate the comprehensive performance and evaluate the suitability of LCPMS for occupational exposure, LCPMS were exposed to uncontrolled dust concentrations prevailing at surface coal mine (Penchala et al., 2025). Exposure of heavy earth moving machinery operators in large coal mine was assessed by installing LCPMS inside the operators cabin close to the breathing zone (Pradhan et al., 2025). Based on the previous research on application of LCPMS in the mining environment, this study deployed multiple sensors at different benches across the depth of the surface iron ore mine. Further, LCPMS was coupled with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for assessing the vertical transport of PM generated from several in-pit mining operations in the coal mine.
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