Knowledge and information based management has become an important feature in today's globalization of large commercial operations by using the intellectual capital of the company. Many countries are being transformed from industrial economies to knowledge and information based services and also manufacturing capabilities are being transferred to low wage economies. The data, information and also knowledge captured in a firm in terms of explicit and tacit knowledge can be used to gain competitive advantage and is important driver in digital companies. Knowledge management technologies, can be applied to traditional coal mining operations to assist in risk management inherent to mining operations particularly effected by the dangers of fire caused by spontaneous combustion. The paper describes a knowledge management system in the risk assessment of spontaneous combustion for longwall mining operations, the prevalent systems for deep mining operations. This risk assessment system comprises a laboratory or empirical assessment of intrinsic risk to spontaneous combustion of a coal, identification of environmental conditions promoting spontaneous combustion risk, determination of a gas ladder, adoption of adequate ventilation plan and a gas monitoring system. This information will lead to the development of a spontaneous combustion action plan to provide codification of knowledge and models for converting this knowledge into a corporate resource. The paper details a case history of spontaneous combustion knowledge management for risk assessment for a longwall operation within the mineral industry.
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