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METHOD
Continued
OC Mining is subdivided into two methods
i. Strip Mining
ii.Terrace Mining
i. Strip Mining
This method is ideal under the following
conditions:
a)Relatively thin overburden
b)Extensive area of reserves
c)Regular horizontal/flat topography and seams
Cont.
b)This is a multi bench lateral advance
method, the whole mine moving
across the deposit, but not in a
single stage operation as with
strip mining
Cont.
c) Upper levels are usually transported
by truck and shovel, or by a
combination of bucket wheel excavators
(BWE), conveyors and stackers
d) If a dragline is used in terrace mine
it can only operate on the bottom
benches where direct casting of
overburden is possible.
Terrace Mining-cont.
box cut
For a thick deposit a box cut may be made
near the center, or at the highest part, so that
a series of benches may be taken outwards
Striping Dragline
Indirect Backfilling
When either the overburden or
coal seam is too thick the reach
of the dragline or stripping shovel
becomes small, and the overburden
has to go round the pit and be filled
in from behind.
Indirect backfilling-cont.
Cont.
Top soil can be stockpiled at the side
of the pit area for later redistribution
or may be hauled immediately to the
graded area for redistribution.
The method of redistributing the topsoil
is dictated by economics considering
quantity and distance it may be by
Loader/Truck method or by selfelevating scrapers, etc
cont.
Cont.
Where the overburden is very thick,
e.g. 41m. At Wankie colliery in
Zimbabwe, overburden stripping is
divided into 2-Benches.
15 m on top is worked by a power
- shovel bench, or (supplementary
strip bench) and
The bottom 25m. is worked by a
Dragline hence called Dragline bench.
Cont.
iv) Coal Extraction
Coal mining may be by :
A single bench or two depending on
thickness or quality of the coal seam.
E.g at wankie colliery in Zimbabwe a 10 m
thick seam is mined in two benches
because the top 5 m is power coal and
the bottom 5 m is coking coal. The main
equipment here is the power shovel.
OC operations
v) Regrading of Spoils
Large Bulldozers and Graders grade
filled mined out areas before topsoil is
re-placed.
OC Operations
vii) Re-vegetation or
replanting :
[The mining (environmental management
and Protection) Regulations 1999]
Planting of vegetation is accomplished by
a convenient farm implement, and is done
as soon as practical. Seed selection is
based on post mining land use.
Classification of bedded/
deposits for open cast
mining.
Cont.
The rocks that is to be handled must be of low
density of 1-2.5 T/ M3 and with low abrasive
property.
The machines are electrically operated. A
dragline bucket system consists of a large
bucket which is suspended from a boom (a
large truss-like structure) with wire ropes. The
bucket is maneuvered by means of a number
of ropes and chains.
The hoist rope, powered by large diesel or
electric motors, supports the bucket and hoistcoupler assembly from the boom.
Cont.
The dragrope is used to draw the
bucket assembly horizontally. By
skillful maneuver of the hoist and the
dragropes the bucket is controlled for
various operations. A schematic
diagram of a large dragline
bucket system is shown below
Dragline cont.
Dragline operation
In a typical cycle of excavation:
the bucket is positioned above the material to be
excavated.
The bucket is then lowered on the material
The dragrope is then drawn or pulled so that the
bucket is dragged along the surface of the material.
The bucket is then lifted by using the hoist
rope.
A swing operation is then performed to move the
bucket to the place where the material is to be
dumped.
The dragrope is then released causing the
bucket to tilt and empty. This is called a dump
operation.
Limitation of Use of
Draglines
The primary limitations of draglines are :
boom height and
boom length,
which limits where the dragline can dump
the waste material.
dig depth, which is limited by the length
of rope the dragline can utilize. Inherent
with their construction, a dragline is most
efficient excavating material below the
level of their base. can).
Draglines cont.
Despite these limitations, and their
extremely high capital cost,
draglines remain popular with many
mines, due to their reliability, and
extremely low waste removal cost
POWER SHOVEL
A Power shovel (also called a Stripping or
Front Shovel in some markets) is a bucket
equipped machine, usually electrically
powered, used for digging and loading earth
or fragmented rock, and mineral extraction
A power shovel is second to the dragline in
size, but is more powerful when it comes
to digging hard coal or overburden.
Large machines are electrically operated.
Small size of shovels may have: a.c, dc,
diesel, diesel hydraulic or diesel electric,
transmission.
Cont.
Overburden stripping in opencast
coalmines.
(Not used for truck loading) up to 138 m 3
Bucket fill factor for hard rock is about
65%, but small buckets in soft rocks can
have over 90% fill factor.
A shovel should fill a truck in 4-5 passes,
as a rule of thumb.
Cont.
Normally a shovel runs on the floor
level it digs for itself and works from
that height up.
A bulldozer is kept for clean up
duties and floor grading, the shovel
is not sufficiently mobile to perform
its own cleanup.
Size of Power
shovel/Draglines
Marion 5760 The Mountaineer - The Story
Imagine a machine that stood as high as a 16story building that was still able to move by its
own motive power. A machine that had an
operating weight of 2570 tons, swung a 65
cubic yard bucket that took 100 ton bites of
earth and rock, and moved it over the length
of a football field to place it on top of a giant
spoil pile. this stripping shovel, was type 5760
and was manufactured and erected by the
Marion Power Shovel company during 1955 / 56
in USA This shovel was better known under its
unofficial name, the Mountaineer.
Cont.
c) Swing -to take the bucket round and empty it
through its back door.
d) propel - moving the shovel unit to different locations
or dig positions
Cont.
The crowding action of the dipper stick
and its heavy, stiffly-mounted bucket, give
a shovel a much stronger loading
breakout force than either a dragline or
a front end loader, e.g. a 4.6 m3 power
shovel has a breakout force of 90T
while a 7.6 m3 loader has a breakout
force of 35T. A shovel can break out
shales or coal without blasting and
also give a smooth bench surface.
Cont.
There are other small machines
used in open cast mining for auxiliary
operations e.g. Backhoes for
ditching etc, wheel loaders,
graders, Bulldozers, scraper
loaders, tractors etc.
Grader
Scraper loaders
Tractor