This article by David Handel, RST Solutions, was first published in World Coal, March 2026. Republished with permission of the publisher.
David Handel, RST Solutions, Australia, notes how fine particle management strengthens efficiency, reduces costs, and improves environmental performance across the global coal supply chain.
Coal conveyor belt system for fine particle management. (Suggested hero image; this was the full-page title photo in the magazine.)
Coal mining today operates under unprecedented complexity. The global industry must continue meeting rising energy and metallurgical coal demand, particularly in developing economies, while navigating long lead times for new supply and increasingly variable market conditions.
At the same time, producers are required to operate with far greater precision, improving efficiency, lowering costs, tightening water use, lifting safety outcomes, and meeting increasingly stringent environmental and ESG expectations. Together, these pressures demand new approaches for extracting maximum value from existing assets while staying within evolving regulatory boundaries.
Across both above-ground and underground mining operations, every stage of coal production, from excavation, loading, and haulage to crushing, conveying, processing, stockpiling, transport, and export, experiences performance losses linked to a single, often underestimated factor: fine particle behaviour.
Fine particles influence how fine particle material moves, how it responds to moisture, how easily it breaks down under mechanical stress, and how readily it becomes airborne or cohesive.
When uncontrolled, they can generate dust clouds, destabilise haul roads, accelerate machinery wear, reduce conveyor efficiency, degrade coal quality, and impair overall material flow. Their behaviour under shifting moisture, temperature, and handling conditions can create cascading challenges across the supply chain, undermining productivity and elevating risk.
Fine particles may originate as coal fines, dust, clays, tailings solids, or weathered surface materials, but their impact is consistent. Dry, they can lift easily into the air; wet, they can form cohesive masses that disrupt flow, destabilise road surfaces, impede equipment, and diminish product quality. Effective control of these particles is therefore fundamental to achieving stable, efficient, and optimised mine performance.
For more than 30 years, RST Solutions has developed advanced technologies that modify fine-particle behaviour in real mining environments worldwide at every stage of the coal supply chain.
Through its Fine Particle Management (FPM) framework, RST Solutions integrates advanced technologies, tailored chemistries, engineered application systems, and site-specific process optimisation to deliver measurable improvements in productivity, safety, water efficiency, environmental performance, and coal quality, supporting operations from pit to port.
Coal conveyor belt system.
Operational and environmental pressures across the coal sector
Coal operations worldwide are contending with deeper pits, wetter overburden, increasingly variable coal seams, and fast-changing climatic conditions spanning monsoonal rainfall, freezing winters, and hyper-arid deserts. Water scarcity, escalating haul-road traffic, stricter dust-exposure limits, and amplified environmental scrutiny further intensify these pressures. Mines must therefore operate more efficiently with fewer unplanned stoppages, while demonstrating strong environmental stewardship.
Above-ground operations
Surface mines frequently battle extremes of dust or mud, both outcomes of fine-particle behaviour. In dry climates, evaporation rates produce persistent dust events that reduce visibility, slow production, and heighten regulatory risk. In wet climates, excess moisture turns fines into mud, resulting in slippery haul roads, increased carryback, equipment blockages, and compromised coal condition.
Underground operations
Underground mines face different constraints but similar particle-related challenges. Float dust threatens air quality, wet or sticky coal impacts conveyors and chutes, and unstable floor materials disrupt mobility and increase maintenance. Predictable fine-particle behaviour is essential for maintaining safe operations in confined environments.
Across all conditions, the industry is expected to minimise water consumption, improve dust-capture efficiency, reduce sediment and tailings discharge, and maintain consistent coal quality throughout the supply chain.
Coal mining in wet weather conditions: excess moisture turns fines into mud, resulting in slippery haul roads.
FPM: RST Solutions’ integrated framework
RST Solutions’ FPM framework and extensive product range modifies particle behaviour so fines remain stable, predictable, and controllable throughout each stage of mining and material handling. Through engineered chemistries and system optimisation, it binds and controls dust, enhances moisture efficiency, improves conveyor and equipment performance, reduces fines losses, and protects coal quality.
RST Solutions’ technology suite supports six major operational pillars:
- Excavation and loading.
- Underground applications: controlling dust and improving stability.
- Haul roads: stability, traction, and dust control.
- Material handling, conveying, and processing.
- Coal moisture management and quality protection.
- Stockpiles, environmental management, and water efficiency.
Each pillar addresses different expressions of particle behaviour and contributes to more efficient system-wide performance.
Excavation and loading: establishing material stability early
Excavation is one of the earliest points at which fine particles influence productivity. Sticky, high-moisture clays and coals reduce bucket fill, increase carryback, and foul truck trays, while dry, fine-grained coal becomes airborne during digging and dumping.
RST Solutions supports this stage through:
- Release-It, which forms a thin release film on trays, buckets, and hoppers to reduce sticking and improve haulage efficiency.
- Wetting agents, speciality polymer/surfactant blends, which increase water penetration into hydrophobic coal surfaces, improving dust suppression during excavation without overwetting the material.
These treatments establish more predictable material behaviour at the beginning of the supply chain.
Underground applications: controlling dust and improving stability
In underground operations, fine particles present air-quality challenges and influence the performance of floor materials and conveyor systems.
RST Solutions’ underground-specific foams and wetting agents, polymer blends are designed to suppress float dust using minimal water, making them suitable for humid, confined conditions.
Stabilisation chemistries improve the bearing capacity of heaving or soft floors, supporting safer movement of equipment and personnel. Predictable fine-particle behaviour is critical to maintaining operational continuity underground.
Haul roads: stability, traction, and dust control
Haul roads underpin the productivity of any coal operation, and fine particles contribute significantly to road degradation, mud formation, dust release, and traction loss.
Stabilising subgrades and pavements
RST Solutions’ RT20 Dynamic and Compak-T stabilisation systems of polymers modify fines within road materials to increase strength, reduce plasticity, improve compaction, and extend pavement life, even under high traffic loads or wet-season conditions.
Controlling mud, slip, and surface deformation
Reactive clays become dangerously slick when wet. RST Solutions offers a range of products that reduce clay activity, improving safety, reducing rolling resistance, and lowering maintenance requirements.
Dust suppression and water efficiency
RST Solutions’ polymer dust suppressants reduce evaporation, extend water-cart cycles, and create longer-lasting dust control. For long-term sealing, crosslinked polymer treatments form durable surfaces, particularly effective in arid regions.
Haul road and dust control management solutions are extremely important.
Material handling, conveying, and processing
Loading, haulage, and reclaim
Fine particles readily become airborne during loading and reclaim. RST Solutions’ water-enhancement agents improve wetting efficiency, suppressing dust while maintaining flow characteristics.
Conveyors and transfer points
Transfer points are high-impact zones where dust is commonly liberated. RST Solutions’ foam-based suppression systems create fine, stable bubbles that bind dust with minimal moisture addition. Anti-stick agents reduce belt fouling, carryback, and blockages, supporting continuous operation and extending equipment life.
Rail transport and shiploading
Wind exposure, vibration, and free-fall transfer during transport and export can break coal further and liberate fines. RST Solutions’ spray-on crusting systems form durable surface coatings on rail wagons, while shiploading agents suppress dust in free-fall streams, maintaining product integrity through the final stages of export.
Coal moisture management and quality protection
Reducing DEM and improving water use
RST Solutions’ linear, crosslinked-polymer systems reduce dust-extinction moisture (DEM), enabling stable handling with less water. Lower moisture improves heating value, decreases transport weight, and reduces freeze-related issues.
Moisture addition control
Controlled moisture addition prevents fines re-entrainment during long transport intervals. RST Solutions’ moisture-control chemistries maintain optimal levels without overwetting.
Protecting coal quality
RST Solutions’ technologies bind coal fine particles to reduce oxidation and fragmentation, preserve lump integrity, and maintain consistent particle-size distribution from pit to port.
Stockpiles, environmental management, and water efficiency
Stockpile capping and crusting
RST Solutions’ polymer crusting agents stabilise exposed coal surfaces, reducing wind erosion and maintaining stockpile condition while minimising water use.
Optional extra image (conveyor belt close-up from the magazine title spread); no published caption.
Sediment and tailings control
Flocculants, RST Solutions’ linear and binding polymers, improve tailings settlement rates and increase the clarity of recycled water, supporting environmental compliance and reducing sediment discharge.
Climate adaptation
RST Solutions tailors treatments for a range of conditions:
- UV-stable, minimal-water systems for arid areas.
- Rapid-penetration stabilisers for wet tropics.
- Winter-grade binders for cold regions and dry polymer options.
Improved droplet distribution and moisture retention reduce water use and enhance overall efficiency.
Evolving industry expectations
As regulatory requirements intensify and operational expectations rise, coal producers increasingly recognise the value of advanced dust-control and fine-particle management systems.
RST Solutions’ FPM framework supports operations in maintaining efficiency, safety, and environmental responsibility for global coal mining operations. By stabilising haul roads, reducing dust emissions, optimising moisture, and preserving material flow, the approach delivers measurable improvements across diverse mining environments.
There is a clear shift toward precision dust and fines management, not only to meet compliance thresholds, but as a core management strategy for cost reduction, water efficiency, and consistent, high-performance operations.
RST Solutions aligns advanced innovative technologies, chemical, mechanical, and operational interventions into one coherent framework.
This integrated approach equips coal producers with the tools to meet rising efficiency demands, reduce environmental impact, and deliver consistent performance in an increasingly complex operating landscape.
RST Solutions’ end-to-end methodology shows how a holistic understanding of fine-particle behaviour can reshape the way coal is mined, moved, and managed across global supply chains, rather than treating dust flow disruptions or moisture variability as isolated issues.