Method of binding dust

Claim 1

In a method of collecting and binding dust created when drilling rock, by collecting the dust laden air that flows out of the borehole being drilled and conveying the dust to a separating means and feeding the separated dust to a mixing chamber to which a liquid binder is applied, the improvement comprising the steps of; conveying dust laden air from said borehole through a coarse dust separator to separate coarse dust from fine dust, feeding fine dust to the mixing chamber in batches of given size, and supplying said liquid binder to the mixing chamber in amounts related to the size of the batches of fine dust, mixing the fine dust and liquid by stirring while a further batch of fine dust is collected in the separating means, and discharging the resultant mixture before the next batch of fine dust is fed to the mixing chamber.

Claim 5

A method according to claims 1, 2 or 3 comprising the step of supplying said liquid binder first to said mixing chamber at a pressure of such magnitude and in such a manner to provide a cleaning effect on the mixing chamber, and then feeding the fine dust batch to the mixing chamber.

Claim 6

A method according to claims 1, 2 or 3 wherein said separating means comprises a filter unit and further including the step of applying suction to the filter unit to convey the dust laden air from the borehole and through the filter unit.