Premium Essay

Advantages Of Surface Mining Method

Submitted By
Words 700
Pages 3
Surface mining method are classified into the following two classes: [12]
• Mechanical
• Aqueous
As the deposit which is discussed in this thesis will be extracted by methods which exist in mechanical class, thus the aqueous class is discussed briefly and methods of the mechanical class are studied in detail. Aqueous class is dependent on water, in the manner that water is used for mining and processing of mineral through jetting, slurring, and dissolving. [13] Aqueous class is divided into two subclasses which are indicated in the following: [12]
• Placer
• Solution
The methods which are used in placer subclass is Hydraulicking and Dredging, and the methods which are related to solution subclass is Borehole mining and Leaching.
The aqueous …show more content…
Open pit and open cast mining methods are the essential methods among four mechanical methods and also counted as most important methods between all eight surface mining methods. Open pit mining is done through one or numbers of horizontal benches. The removal ore and overburden is performed by the benches which vary in size starting from 9 meters up to 30 meters. A number of benches relate to the thickness of deposit, with increasing thickness of deposit the number of benches also increase and with decreasing of thickness it decreases. The shape of open pit may look like an inverted cone when the deposit is getting deep. If the deposit gets deep, also it can be extracted by adding benches. Some deposits can be extracted by single bench when the deposit thickness is between 15 to 45 meters. …show more content…
This method is mostly used for the extraction of deposits which are nearly horizontal and mostly used in coal mining.
Quarrying is a mining method which is used mostly in extraction of dimension stones. According to Hartman L & John M (2002), quarrying is same as open pit methods but the benches (which is called faces in this method) are smaller and vertical. The dimension stone which is produced by quarrying method is generally used in monuments, decorations and etc. [15]
Auger or high wall mining is defined accordingly by Hartman L & John M (2002): [15]
“Auger mining is a mining method that recovers coal or other minerals from under the highwall when the ultimate stripping ratio has been achieved in open cast mining operations.”
The method can be described that, holes which is parallel to the coal seam is drilled into coal seam and brings out the coal from the holes. This method is also generally used for the extraction of coal from seams which are

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Buying

... | |3/15/2010 | |FIN 573 | Contents Executive Summery 4 Business Overview 4 Introduction 4 Industry Analysis – Mining Industry 4 Industry Segments 5 Surface Mining 5 Underground Mining 6 Aftermarket 6 Industry Cycle 7 Industry Competition 7 Coal 7 Iron 9 Copper 9 Oil Sands 9 Mining Industry Historical Trends & Prospect 10 Business Description 11 Surface Mining Segment 11 Surface Mining Products 13 Production and Distribution 14 Suppliers & Raw Materials 15 Research & Development 15 Underground Mining Segment 15 Underground Mining Products 17 Production and Distribution 17 Suppliers & Raw Materials 18 Competitive Environment 18 Barriers to Entry 18 Bargaining Power of Suppliers 18 Bargaining Power of Buyers 19 Threat of Substitute 19 Degree of Rivalry 19 S.W.O.T 20 Business Strategy 20 Expand Product Lines 20 Products Efficiency 21...

Words: 9812 - Pages: 40

Premium Essay

The Earth Untold

...metallic and nonmetallic minerals? Provide two examples from each category and discuss their uses. Metallic minerals are those minerals which can be melted to obtain new products. Aluminum is one of the most abundant metallic minerals on earth.  It is used in the production of automobiles, construction, electrical, machinery materials. Copper also a metallic mineral is used in building construction for things such as cables and heating pipes. Non-metallic minerals are those which do not produce new products upon melting. Clay for example is used in floor and wall tile as an absorbent. Also zeolites which are used in animal feed and kitty litter. Mining 1. How are minerals extracted from the Earth and processed? A technique called mining is the way that this minerals are extracted from the earth. Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth from an orebody, lode, vein, seam, or reef. In the mineral...

Words: 1385 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Energy Conservation

...cannot replenish will be depleted forever, and future generations will need to create alternative sources of energy. Electricity is used to light homes and run appliances. Many electric companies use coal to create electricity. Oil and natural gas are used to heat our homes. This energy is wasted at an alarming rate and will soon be obsolete if we do not address the issues at hand. Nonliving and living factors are affected by the lack of energy, when mining for coal the environment is vastly affected. Valuable land is destroyed and can take years to replenish, if it ever does. Coal is mined two different ways, subsurface and surface mining. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. Strip mining, a form of surface mining is used for the retrieval of 60 % of the coal in the United States; is done if the coal is close to the surface, approximately 100 feet down. Surface mining, a less expensive form than subsurface mining, allows complete removal of coal and is safer for the miners. This is the preferred method, but with this comes an environmental impact. Large trenches are dug to mine coal and once this has been done, the trenches are usually left open. This leaves the land wide open to erosion and other forms of pollution. Plants are then unable to grow in these areas and therefore, water runoff becomes a concern and the land can remain unusable for years to come. Water from rain collects containments and becomes polluted. The topics discussed above create...

Words: 1792 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Minecraft Research Paper

...Minecraft Handbook: Tips and Tricks - How to Survive in the World of Monsters and Adventure, Build Shelters, Extract Minerals and Feed Themselves Introduction Minecraft is a popular game and a great number of people can attest to having played the game. The game has a lot to offer to all different types of players in the different facets of the game such as fighting, creating, mining and crafting. Additionally the game has the inherent characteristics of replayability, ownership and ease of use. Ownership comes about in that the Minecraft player creates a world that is actually theirs and they can tinker with their creations as they get deeper into the game. Ease of use is best manifest in the very few controls that an individual needs to play...

Words: 1988 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Power Tower

...population and technology has led to a corresponding increase in energy demand. This trend is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.The three primary methods of power production today are 1) fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, 2) hydroelectric dams, and 3) nuclear power. The undeveloped potential of each of these power methods is restricted by either the associated environmental impact or by the limits of the resource itself. Current methods of power production are in need of supplementation. An ideal source would be renewable and have minimal environmental impact. This paper presents one such method.1.3 Overview and Scope < A href="http://ljb.advertserve.com/servlet/click/zone?zid=29&pid=2&lookup=true&position=1" target="_top">< IMG src="http://ljb.advertserve.com/servlet/view/banner/image/zone?zid=29&pid=2&position=1" height="240" width="120" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" alt="Click Here!">< /A> | The paper begins with the background and description of the proposed power source, its advantages, and a tabular outline of three example sites. Concerns for each component of the system are briefly considered. The paper ends with a proposal for further research and a summarization.Due to the hazards of open-pit mining operations, building a Pit Power Tower in an active mining pit is not considered. Unfortunately, data concerning the water fill-rate and infrastructure of the Chuquicamata and Palabora mines was unavailable at the...

Words: 4934 - Pages: 20

Premium Essay

Surface Mining Dragline Protoype Final Report

...Letter of Transmittal Group Olive 01 June 2012 Hawken Engineering University of Queensland Sir Fred Schonell Drive St Lucia QLD 4072 Dr S Aminossadati, Dr M Nehring, Dr J Barth Hawken Engineering University of Queensland Sir Fred Schonell Drive St Lucia QLD 4072 Dear Dr Aminossadati, Dr Mehring and Dr Barth, Further to your request, please find attached Group Olive’s Final Report regarding our proof-of-concept design of a model Surface Mining Dragline. The report outlines a design of the Surface Mining Dragline that adheres to the project objectives and criteria with a supporting background literature review, calculations, design sketches and recommendations for a path forward. The Dragline Operating System has been analysed in terms of design concepts, cost effectiveness and ultimately productivity. Yours sincerely, Mr Jeremy Whereat 42935483 Ms Naomi Sinclair (Team Leader) 42884853 Mr Thomas Burrell 42651493 Ms Grace Harris 42930189 Mr Toby Schmidt 42930086 Mr Matthew Henry 42890247 Letter of Request Group Olive 01 June 2012 Hawken Engineering University of Queensland Sir Fred Schonell Drive St Lucia QLD 4072 W Guthrie, L Montgomery, R Ryan, J Londono Hawken Engineering University of Queensland Sir Fred Schonell Drive St Lucia QLD 4072 Dear Tutors, When generating the design and in the production of the Olive Group dragline, extension research was...

Words: 10134 - Pages: 41

Premium Essay

Company Positioning and Key Competitiors

...on being the best. For this reason, and many others that I will discuss here, I believe that their specific positioning method is attributes. The moment you visit their webpage you are bombarded with the many ways that they pride themselves on being the best at mining coal. The first thing they claim is that they one of the safest and largest producers of high quality coal in the United States. According to their 2011 Annual Corporate Report of the 1 billion tons of coal produced in the United States which generated 43 percent of the nation’s electricity in 2011, Cloud Peak contributed to 4 percent of that. Unfortunately, they suffered from 17 reportable injuries in 2011. However, they were fairly minor in nature and they claim to still keep safety as a core value and hope to achieve a goal of zero injuries in the future. These injuries gave them a Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) All Injury Frequency Rate (AIFR) of 1.18, which was quite an increase from 0.58 the prior year. Yet, they are told by MSHA that this rating is among the lowest of the large US coal producers. In our society today many of us feel that it is important to take care of our environment. Cloud Peak Energy recognizes the importance of this as well. In 2010 they were the recipient of the National Excellence in Surface Mining and Reclamation Award from the Office of Surface Mining. Additionally, in June of 2011 they were awarded the Good Neighbor Award from the Wyoming Department of Environmental...

Words: 1014 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Week 2 Case Analysis Article Review

...Complex Market Forces are challenging Appalachian Coal Mining Complex Market Forces are challenging Appalachian Coal Mining Article summary This paper describes how environmental forces affect the coal mining industry and plays an important role in our life. We will learn that environmental forces brings threats, uncertainty and opportunities to marketers and consumers . Although this paper focus on the coal mining industry, I believe that the main points focus on the environmental forces that marketer and consumers face every day. Appalachia’s coal communities were confronted by a confluence of market factors that developed over a period of years; resulting in numerous market factors, including low domestic and international prices for both thermal and metallurgical coal, soft natural gas prices, and increased imports—primarily from Colombia all contributing to the dwindling fortunes of coal mines in Appalachia. Low prices of natural gas combined with the air-quality benefits that come with burning gas rather than coal for electricity, have eroded coal’s position as the go-to energy source for power generation. Natural gas powered plants is now on the increase and it is projected that natural gas-fired plants will account for 73 percent of capacity additions through 2040, compared with just 1 percent for coal. Appalachian coal is more expensive than coal from other parts of the United States. The high cost of Appalachian is supplanted by lower-cost...

Words: 648 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Mineral Sands Overview

...and occasionally hundreds of kilometres inland from the present coastline. Mineral sands orebodies essentially fall into two categories based on the mode of deposition: alluvial or aeolian. Alluvial deposits are further split into marine beach placers (or strandlines) and lacustrine heavy mineral (HM) accumulations. Exploration for mineral sands involves the positive identification of key criteria leading to the focus of exploratory surface sampling, augering and drilling. Assaying is primarily focused around determining the percentage of HM contained within a given sample. Other results of interest include clay fines, sand and oversize. Metallurgical/mineralogical assessment is often undertaken by via laboratory scale bench tests that replicate the wet concentration and dry mill processing routes. The most critical component in resource assessment for mineral sands is about quantifying HM grade, then mineralogical assemblage and then quality of those mineral species. This will determine whether a mineral sand final product is marketable or not. Mining of mineral sands is conducted...

Words: 7933 - Pages: 32

Free Essay

Heliography

...of full-length movies on a single disc. CDs and DVDs are the primary data storage methods for music, software, personal computing and video. A CD can hold 783 megabytes of data. A double-sided, double-layer DVD can hold 15.9 GB of data, which is about eight hours of movies. These conventional storage mediums meet today's storage needs, but storage technologies have to evolve to keep pace with increasing consumer demand. CDs, DVDs and magnetic storage all store bits of information on the surface of a recording medium. In order to increase storage capabilities, scientists are now working on a new optical storage method called holographic memory that will go beneath the surface and use the volume of the recording medium for storage, instead of only the surface area. Three-dimensional data storage will be able to store more information in a smaller space and offer faster data transfer times. Holographic memory is developing technology that has promised to revolutionalise the storage systems. It can store data upto 1 Tb in a sugar cube sized crystal. Data from more than 1000 CDs can fit into a holographic memory System. Most of the computer hard drives available today can hold only 10 to 40 GB of data, a small fraction of what holographic memory system can hold. Conventional memories use only the surface to store the data. But...

Words: 3539 - Pages: 15

Free Essay

Yoyoyoyo

... 1.0 Introduction Iron is mined all over the world and contributes to a major part of the worlds economy. Especially in countries such as Australia, where mining is one of the main parts of the countries economy. For Australia, mining iron ore is key in keeping a strong foot in the worlds growing and changing market and for places like China, manufacturing steel is also a large part in their economy. Here we will show what exactly Iron ore is, how we get it, how much it costs and how it is important for you to invest in it as soon as you can. 2.0 Iron Iron is a heavy metal found almost everywhere on earth and has been used since ancient times for everything from construction work to medical application. On the periodic table it is shown in its pure form as 5526Fe and has a half-life of about 2.6 Million years. It is estimated that 1/3 of the earths entire mass is iron, mostly molten underneath the earths crust meaning there is enough iron to make 3 planets with the same amount of mass as mars. So as we can see we wont be running out of iron any time soon. 2.1 Where can we find It and how? Iron is the 4th most abundant element on earth. Iron is everywhere on Earth’s surface but is...

Words: 1440 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Environmental Resources Worksheet

...category and discuss their uses. Metallic and nonmetallic minerals are very different and the differences are not hard to see. Metallic minerals can be melted to make a new form; an example of a metallic mineral is iron. Nonmetallic minerals cannot be melted to create a new form; an example of nonmetallic mineral is salt. Mining 1. How are minerals extracted from the Earth and processed? Minerals can be extracted through mining, which consists of explosives, picks, and shovels. Minerals that are extracted are then processed through crushers and grinding mills to break down the minerals into small pieces. Once the more valuable minerals are detected, they will be separated from the rest of the rocks and kept. 2. What are the different ways minerals can be mined? Provide a brief description of at least three types of mining. The first type mining is underground; digging slopes underground that are hundreds of meters deep to find minerals is very dangerous for miners. Another method is open cut; open cut mining is when large rocks are moved from one area to another and they are crushed to find the minerals. The last method is puddling; this method...

Words: 1445 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Chile Miner's Rescue Summary

...FULFILLMENT FOR REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF DEGREE OF MASTERS OF ARTS IN PROJECT PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT. 3RD NOVEMBER, 2014 Chilean Miners’ Rescue On 5th August, 2010 Chile hit the headlines with 33 miners drilling 2300 feet below the surface in a copper and gold mine in Atacama Desert, 800 kilometres North of Chile’s Capital Santiago were trapped by a massive cave- in. Chilean Mining Minister, Laurence Golborne, who had accompanied President, Sebastian Pinera, on a state visit to Quito, Ecuador, got the news at 11pm shortly after their arrival. Golborne informed the president the following morning and flew to Santiago via Peru on commercial flights then took a Chilean Air force flight to Copiapo before a 45-kilometre drive to the mine, arriving on August 7. Golborne, an engineer and entrepreneur, was recruited by the business friendly president who was inaugurated in March 2010 after success as Chief Executive of Censoud A, a large Chilean retail firm. Just 4 months in office with no mining background, Golborne took charge of a widely viewed disaster recovery effort. 69 days later, all 33 miners were rescued. Crew Foreman Luiz Urzua led the 33 trapped miners to form a small society to ration food, preserve morale, and protect their scarce resources. A surface team numbering hundreds had emerged under Golborne and three key lieutenants: Andre Sougarret (Engineering team),Rene Aguilar,(Golborne’s deputy) and Cristian Barra, cabinet chief interior ministry. They managed relations with...

Words: 3583 - Pages: 15

Premium Essay

Coal Quality Control

...coal qualiTy conTrol COAL QUALITY CONTROL Source: Aker Solutions Daniel Mahr, P of US baSeD .e energy aSSociateS, P gives us .c, an in depTh look aT The major issues relaTing To coal qualiTy from The perspecTive of Thermal power generaTion. service, and reduced impacts. Different energy conversion technologies have their applications, but no single option does it all. Wind, solar, and hydro options don’t use any fuel, so shouldn’t we just rely on these technologies? Wind power is best sited where the duration/velocity makes sense, away from migration pathways, and away from neighbours who would object to noise and fluttering shadows. It will likely require 100 per cent back-up or additional energy storage systems, and new longer transmission lines to load centres are often required. There are similar requirements for solar power, just substitute lumens for velocity. With hydro power, there are concerns for fish migration/ spawning, land use, geological concerns for T he power industry is confronting challenges with seemingly conflicting goals – affordable rates, dependable Industrial Fuels and Power l COAL QUALITY CONTROL ‘‘As power plants face a growing need to reduce costs and environmental impacts, coal quality is increasingly an issue of interest, as a means to do more with less..‘‘ supporting the weight of a new lake, stability concerns for newly saturated perimeter hills that can result in landslides, and the impact of a drought on production. Its the delivered...

Words: 3960 - Pages: 16

Free Essay

Materials Science

...almost $300 billion per year at current prices, which translates to 3-4% of GDP. Besides the economic concern, corrosion may adversely affect the environment. Worse than all those mentioned, corrosion can cause unexpected death from corrosion-related accidents. For example, the sudden collapse caused by corrosion fatigue of the Silver Bridge over the Ohio River in 1967 cost 46 lives on top of the needless-to-say millions of dollars material loss. Therefore, the benefits brought about by corrosion are outweighed by its detriments. The fact is, about 33% of these costs could be diminished by using corrosion-resistant materials. Being defined as the sideways displacement of material from its original position on a solid surface performed by the action of another surface, wear is another mechanical property of materials that materials scientists consider when selecting materials in a design task. In order to be wear-resistant, a material must be hard and strong. The demand for corrosion- and wear- resistant coatings is nowadays rapidly increasing, especially in oil and gas industries. The most common solutions are Hard Cr and Quench-Polish-Quench (QPQ) processes. However, these two processes affect the environment adversely. As alternatives, coating layers can be introduced to metal samples. Coatings can be done with or without electricity. If electricity is involved, the process is called electroplating. It is done by immersing the sample that is going to be coated together with...

Words: 590 - Pages: 3