Most Common Types of Mining Equipment * Mel-ann Barcenal

Each type of mining equipment comes with its own set of mining activities. The most
common types of mining equipment vary depending whether the work is being carried
out above or below ground or mining for gold, metals, coal or crude oil. From drilling
machines to excavators, crushing and grinding equipment the mining industry comes
complete with all the right tools.

Mining Drills
Probably one of the most common pieces of mining equipment, drills are an important
part of the underground mining operation. Underground mining is carried out when
rocks or minerals are located at a fair distance beneath the ground. But then they need
to be brought to the surface. Underground specialized mining equipment such as
trucks, loaders, diggers etc. are used to excavate the material and are normally hauled
to the surface with skips or lifts for further processing. Drilling is normally required to
place explosive charges to liberate the minerals from the overburden material.
Underground mining techniques have progressed significantly over the past years,
including using remote controlled machinery.

Drills assist in creating holes descending underground. If miners are required to work
underground, drills can also be used in ensuring the holes are large enough to serve as
a portal for miners to enter. Directional drilling is also a type of mining technology
where miners will use the tools and certain methods to drill wells.

Blasting Tools
Blasting tools are an essential part of the mining industry and are used to break down
and fracture materials (usually rocks) by use of a calculated amount of explosive to
liberate the sought-after product from the waste material. Blasting is also used to
remove pockets of unwanted material that are preventing mining machines and
personnel to get to the seam containing the materials of interest. Unmanned drill rigs
will drill holes at pre-determined depths and positions on a blast face to ensure that a
particular size fraction is achieved and that little of the overburden is liberated with
the blasting to reduce material handling costs. Once this process has been completed,
an excavator is used to recover the blasted rocks and other debris that has been
dislodged during the blasting. The material is then conveyed to a central conveying
system which will take it directly to the surface or via a skip and hoist system.

Blasting equipment is used for both underground and open pit mining operations and
is known to be one of the most hazardous aspects of the job.
For mining operations to be successful good blast designs are absolutely vital as poor
practices and excessive explosives can result in damage to rock structures causing
unwanted caving.
Earth Movers
For above ground mining, earth movers are utilised regularly to carry loose soil and
earth from one location to another. Earth movers play an important role in the mining
industry because the equipment is specifically designed to work on large earth-
moving and mining projects for a faster and more practical process. Used for digging,
pushing and transporting the earth, they require the specialised skills of an operator.

Earth movers are heavy mining equipment that the industry would struggle to survive
without and work hand in hand with bulldozers. Earth movers are normally used for
removing overburden or waste material, which enables the excavators to remove the
material or mineral of interest. Bulldozers are used to move this overburden material
around to create a working surface for other equipment such as haul trucks and
excavators.

Crushing Equipment
As its name suggests, crushing equipment is used to crush rock and stone. Designed to
achieve maximum productivity and high reduction rate, mining crushing equipment
can come in a variety of different types for a range of jobs.

Crushing equipment is specially configured to break down the hard rock matter or
gravel to a manageable size for transportation or conveying. They are valuable pieces
of equipment in the industry because they reduce the costs associated with handling of
larger sized material and also ensure efficient liberation of elements of interest in
downstream processing of the material. In an opencast or strip mining operation, the
run of mine (ROM) material is normally transported to the primary crusher by haul
trucks, and in underground mining operations it is conveyed to the primary crusher.
Crushing equipment is important to the mining process because it reduces the use of
precious excavated resources and eliminates the amount of material on site.

Feeding, Conveying, and On-line Elemental Analysis Equipment

Once the excavator transporter brings the raw material to the crusher for processing,
the feeding device feeds the material into the crusher and in return the material is
screened and all oversized material is recirculate back to the crusher to ensure correct
size fraction is obtained. This weigh belt feeding equipment, usually referred to as
Weigh feeders, conveys and controls the feed rate into the crusher to improve
crusher efficiency.

Feeding and conveying equipment are necessary to the mining industry to move and
control material flow within a mining and processing operation to facilitate efficient
operation of equipment and determine operating rates and yields. In some instances
secondary crushing is required prior to processing of the material. Once the material is
at the correct size, fraction processing can occur which could include, milling,
flotation, leaching etc.
Belt scale systems let you monitor production output and inventory, or regulate
product load out, while providing vital information for the effective management and
efficient operation of your business. There are elemental cross belt analyzers that
provide real-time quality analysis of critical process streams to facilitate sorting,
blending and out-of-seam dilution control. While materials are on the troughed belt
conveyor, an automatic sampling system (which could be single or multi-stage) can
take a representative sample directly from the moving material stream. (Take a look
at this video to see how a sampling system works.) Weigh belt Feeders that convey
and control feed rate accurately and reliably can reduce material consumption, help
maintain blend consistency, and increase profits.

Flow measurement systems provide continuous, real-time flow measurement of free-

falling materials or dense phase, pneumatically conveyed bulk solids, which is
important to ensure and maintain product quality and process efficiency.

Complex Underground Equipment

Complex underground machines used directly or as support in the mineral extraction
process:
Long wall machines Shuttle cars Rock dusters
Continuous miners Underground Rail Personnel vehicles
Roof bolters Ventilation fans Scoops

Complex surface mining equipment is used directly or as support in the mineral

extraction process:
Draglines High wall Miner Mining Transportation
Shovels Blast hole Drills & the Tools of Coal
Loaders Dozers Preparation
Haul Trucks Graders

Devices related to the transportation of coal from the mine to processing facilities to
rail loading and finally to the consumer:
conveyors, underground and overland railroad
barge trucks
ship
Also includes devices related to the processing of coal including:
coal sampling and testing laboratories coal preparation equipment

Author References:
This article was co-written by Jayde Ferguson, who writes for Direct Mining a
leading supplier of premier mining equipment, products and services throughout
Australia and the Asia Pacific region. Stephan Nel, Global Product/Applications
Manager for Coal & Sinter at Thermo Fisher Scientific, co-wrote and edited the piece
as well.
Active Mining Companies in the
Philippines:

Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co.

www.lepantomining.com

Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company was

established in 1936. 2011 marks the
company's 75th year in the business.
Lepanto is a Filipino primary gold producer. The Lepanto mines are located in
Mankayan, Benguet where the Company has about a thousand employees.
From 1948 to 1996, Lepanto's Enargite operations produced 1.58 billion pounds of
copper, 2.9 million ounces of gold and 12.0 million ounces of silver, recovered from
34.4 million MT of ore averaging 2.2% Cu and 3.5 g/t Au. Lepanto suspended its
Enargite operations in 1996 and in 1997 commenced its Victoria gold operations.
Lepanto presently operates the Victoria and Teresa deposits, from which it has
produced over 1. 2 million ounces of gold.
Lepanto has a 60% interest in Far Southeast Gold Resources, Inc. which owns the Far
Southeast Project, a world-class, high-grade gold and copper porphyry deposit.
Lepanto is looking to develop the Far Southeast Project through a partnership with
Gold Fields Limited of South Africa, one of the biggest gold miners in the world, with
whom Lepanto executed an Option and Shareholders' Agreement in September 2010.
Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co.
Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co.
www.lepantomining.com
Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company was established in 1936. 2011 marks the
company's 75th year in the business.
Lepanto is a Filipino primary gold producer. The Lepanto mines are located in
Mankayan, Benguet where the Company has about a thousand employees.
From 1948 to 1996, Lepanto's Enargite operations produced 1.58 billion pounds of
copper, 2.9 million ounces of gold and 12.0 million ounces of silver, recovered from
34.4 million MT of ore averaging 2.2% Cu and 3.5 g/t Au. Lepanto suspended its
Enargite operations in 1996 and in 1997 commenced its Victoria gold operations.
Lepanto presently operates
the Victoria and Teresa
deposits, from which it has
produced over 1. 2 million
ounces of gold.
Lepanto has a 60% interest
in Far Southeast Gold
Resources, Inc. which owns
the Far Southeast Project, a world-class, high-grade gold and copper porphyry
deposit. Lepanto is looking to develop the Far Southeast Project through a partnership
with Gold Fields Limited of South
Africa, one of the biggest gold
miners in the world, with whom
Lepanto executed an Option and
Shareholders' Agreement in
September 2010.

Philex Mining Corp.

www.philexmining.com.ph

Philex Mining Corporation is the

largest gold and copper producer in the Philippines, having continuously operated the
Sto. Tomas II deposit at Padcal, Tuba, Benguet, Philippines since 1958. The Padcal
gold-copper mine is the first underground block cave operation in the Far East and has
produced since 1958 a total of 928.9 million
kilograms of copper (2,050 million pounds),
170.1 million grams of gold (5,471.1
thousand ounces) and 185.6 million grams
of silver (5,981.5 thousand ounces).
In 1996, Philex Mining commenced
commercial operation of the Bulawan gold
mine in Negros Occidental, Philippines under its subsidiary, Philex Gold Philippines,
Inc. (PGPI). The mine was eventually decommissioned in 2002 and since then placed
under care and maintenance. PGPI focused on its Surigao property where the
Boyongan and Bayugo copper-gold porphyry deposits were discovered and explored
under Silangan Mindanao Mining Co. Inc. The Silangan Project is currently in its pre-
feasibility study stage.

The two companies who are

now inactive:

Acoje Mining Company

http://acoje-

zambales.blogspot.com/2017/08/story-of-acoje.html.

The Acoje Mining Company was organized in 1935 to take over and operate the
present group of claims, located in the municipality of Santa Cruz, Province of
Zambales Philippines Islands. These claims were located by a group of prospectors
during the big mining Boom that existed in the Islands just previous date.

The original capital of the company was one million pesos, divided into Ten Million
shares, of a par value of ten centavos each. Of this amount five hundred thousand
pesos in stock was issued to the original locators and claim owners in payment for the
property, from hundred thousand pesos worth of stock was sold at par, this being the
working capital of the company, and one hundred thousand pesos worth of stock
remained in the treasury, to be sold at some future time. Apart from current bank
loans, previous to the outbreak of the war, this was the only cash capital invested by
the company.

Antamok open pit mine

tapped for Minahang
Bayan in Benguet
http://newsinfo.inquirer
net/868124/antamok-open-pit-
mine-tapped-for-minahang-
bayan-in-
benguet#ixzz4pjGrSa8

Meeting with miners of

Barangay Loacan in Itogon,
Lopez said the communities
surrounding the open pit
mine thrived solely on small-scale mining.
The mine used to form part of the grand Antamok project of Benguet Corp., the
countrys first and oldest mining firm.

Lawyer Froilan Lawilao, head of administration of Benguet Corp.s operations in

Itogon, said converting a portion of the Antamok mine into a Minahang Bayan was
part of the companys mine rehabilitation plan.He said the company intended to have
the Minahang Bayan share the area with an engineered sanitary landfill where it
proposed to put up a waste-to-energy facility.
He said several applications for Minahang Bayan in Benguet had been filed since
2004 but these had not been processed by government regulators.
In August last year, Lopez stopped all small-scale mining operations outside the
designated Minahang Bayan. Only five Minahang Bayan sites operate in the
provinces of Quezon, Agusan del Sur, Davao Oriental, Eastern Samar and Dinagat
Island.
Fay Apil, MGB Cordillera director, said the agency had been instructed to process the
Minahang Bayan application in Benguet.

She asked the applicants to secure the prior and informed consent of the indigenous
community or their certification allowing the conversion of the area into a pocket
mining site. In 2004, a Minahang Bayan was proposed for Bakun town in Benguet but
the application was never resolved by the provincial mining regulatory board.

Types of mining * Sheilamae Buen Espinosa

Open-cut mining
A pit is dug, progressively deeper as the ore, technical considerations, consents and
economics allow.
When complete, the pit is left as a lake for community use, or modified as agreed in
the consent conditions. This is the method adopted at the Martha gold mine at Waihi.
The footprint of an open cut mine is similar to an open cast mine.
Typical open cut grades
Gold is generally extracted in open-pit mines at 1 to 2 ppm (parts per million) but in
certain cases, 0.75 ppm gold is economical. This was achieved by bulk heap leaching
at the Peak Hill mine in western New South Wales, near Dubbo, Australia.

Nickel, generally as laterite, is extracted via open-pit down to 0.2%. Copper is

extracted at grades as low as 0.15% to 0.2%, generally in massive open-pit mines in
Chile, where the size of the resources and favorable metallurgy allows economies of
scale.

Materials typically extracted from open-pit mines include:

Bitumen
Clay
Coal
Copper
Coquina
Diamonds
Gravel and stone
Granite
Gritstone
Gypsum
Limestone
Marble
Metal ores, such as copper, iron, gold, silver and molybdenum
Uranium
Phosphate

Sea bed mining

The technologies for extracting resources off the seafloor, e.g., ironsands, rock
phosphate, precious and base metal sulphides, are very different to that deployed on
land, with the added challenges of working at depth and often by remote control.
Material has to be scooped off the seafloor and pumped via a pipe to the surface to a
purpose-built vessel. Separation of ore from waste rock is carried out on board, and
the waste rock is then returned to the seafloor via a pipe to minimise sediment
dispersion. Any project proposal is subject to independent scrutiny that establishes the
environmental impacts and remediation requirements specific to that proposal

Processing
In all metal mines and many coal mines there will be a processing facility to
upgrade/refine the ore into a saleable product. At the Macraes mine for example, the
processing plant crushes, grinds and chemically treats the ore to recover the gold.
Any chemicals used are neutralised before discharge. All water (including from
rainfall) in the process plant area is collected and treated, and recycled where
possible. Any discharge is monitored and controlled to meet volume and quality
standards required in RMA consent conditions.

Rehabilitation
Requirements for rehabilitation are set out in consent conditions. An opencast mine
will rehabilitate land progressively as mining advances, usually returning to grazing
which is typically more productive than pre-mining.

Bonds
Mining companies are required to put in place bonds as insurance for the regulator, in
the event the company fails.
The bond amount is typically based on an engineers peer reviewed assessment of the
cost of closure.

Underground mining
An underground mine will normally have a surface footprint of 5-10 ha.
There are a multitude of underground mining techniques to extract the maximum
amount of ore in a safe manner.

Placer
Placer mining involves any type of mining where raw minerals are deposited in sand
or gravel or on the surface and are picked up without having to drive, use dynamite or
any other significant means. The word placer means "sand bank" in Spanish. Specific
types of placer mining are panning, dredging, sluicing, using a Rocker, or just picking
up what lies on the ground.

Hydraulic
Hydraulic mining involves high pressure water. The water is operating hydraulic
mining elevator and impounding works at North Bloomfield Mine sprayed at an area
of rock and/or gravel and the water breaks the rock up, dislodging ore and placer
deposits. The water/ore mixture is then milled. This is a very destructive way to mine
and has been outlawed in most areas.
Hard rock
Hard rock mining entails digging into solid rock to fine minerals usually in their ore
form (the metal plus oxygen). To do this, miners used picks and shovels, rock drills,
dynamite and more. Miners dug either shafts that went straight down to follow ore
bodies and veins, or tunnels which went somewhat horizontal into rock faces. Shafts
usually had some sort of head frame (pictured left) standing above them to support the
hoists. Shafts and tunnels were often supported with large timbers to prevent cave-ins.
Most shaft or tunnel mines would eventually flood as they hit the water table and
water would have to be continually pumped out. Sometimes there was so much water
they had to abandon the mines.

Types of Mining Claims and Sites

There are two types of mining claims:

Lode Claims
- Deposits subject to lode claims include classic veins or lodes having well defined
boundaries. They also include other rock in place bearing valuable minerals and may
be broad zones of mineralized rock. Examples include quartz or other veins bearing
gold or other metallic minerals and large volume but low grade disseminated metallic
deposits. Federal statute limits their size to a maximum of 1,500 feet in length along
the vein or lode. Their width is a maximum of 600 feet, 300 feet on either side of the
centerline of the vein or lode. The end lines of the lode claim must be parallel to
qualify for underground extra-lateral rights. Extra lateral rights involve the rights to
minerals that extend at depth beyond the vertical boundaries of the claim.

Placer Claims
- Mineral deposits subject to placer claims include all those deposits not subject to
lode claims. Originally, these included only deposits of unconsolidated materials, such
as sand and gravel, containing free gold or other minerals. By Congressional acts and
judicial interpretations, many nonmetallic bedded or layered deposits, such as gypsum
and high calcium limestone, are also considered placer deposits. The maximum size
of a placer claim is 20 acres per locator. An association of two locators may locate 40
acres, and three may locate 60 acres, etc. The maximum area of an association placer
claim is 160 acres for eight or more persons. The maximum size of a placer claim for
corporations is 20 acres per claim. Corporations may not locate association placer
claims unless they are in association with other private individuals or other
corporations as co-locators.

Two types of sites:

Mill Sites
A mill site must be located on non-mineral land with its purpose being to either
support a lode or placer mining claim operation or, support itself independent of any
particular claim. A mill site must include the erection of a mill or reduction works
and/or may include other uses reasonably incident to the support of a mining
operation. Descriptions of mill sites are by metes and bounds surveys or legal
subdivision. The maximum size of a mill site is 5 acres.

Tunnel Sites
A tunnel site is where a tunnel is run to develop a vein or lode. It may also be used for
the discovery of unknown veins or lodes. To stake a tunnel site, two stakes are placed
up to 3,000 feet apart on the line of the proposed tunnel. Recordation is the same as a
lode claim. Some States require additional centerline stakes.

Advantages of Mining

Mining has a lot of benefits in ones daily life, it provides job to people by means of
operating in a mining company, raising the standard of the community. Materials
generated from mining produces helps in developing facilities like school, hospitals
and other social amenities. Mining is also important for the growth of the countrys
economy. From the things around us, mining has a very big impact in ones daily
need. From the fuel of every transportation vehicle like airplane, from the materials
used in developing a structure up until our personal needs like jewelries, accessories
or the material that composes the things around us. Mining has a place of
improvement in ones life; it is also the way of improving our lives through these
processes. It helps our work to become easier and faster, more comfortable and easy.
Mining has a very big help towards achieving more innovated and improved living.

Disadvantages of Mining

Even though mining has a very big help in peoples lives still, it has a very big impact
especially in our environment. Mining processes causes big effect in our Climate due
to the gases produced by this processes which leads to Global warming. Mining also
causes a lot of pollution from Land up until Water pollution affecting every living
organisms habituating that certain place. Mining also causes deforestation which can
lead to wider problem such Flooding and Landslide as mentioned. Erosion and
distraction of landform as well as the contamination of water. Mining can also affect
peoples health due to chemical hazards and can also harm animals and even the
habitats they are habituating. Mining can lead to more serious problems in our
environment causing bigger effects that could affect ones life and the environment.
Mining can cause damage to our natural habitat that may affect the next generation
and the life of every living thing. There are a lot of things that mining can affect to us.
From our health up to the environment we are living.
Mining and its Purpose *Romano Corpuz

Mining means removing of minerals from the ground (Taylor, R.B., 1974). It is the
process of obtaining minerals or metals on Earth. It is very destructive to the environment
and one of the major causes of deforestation. When mining you need to cut down and
burn trees. It occurs to many places around the world including the Philippines.
Philippines is rich in mineral deposits. It is estimated to be fifth largest reserve of gold
and copper in the world with an estimated reserve to be at 976,180,197 MT while copper
was put at 5,301,507,657 MT (DENR 2002). According to National Economic
Development Authority (NEDA) in 2005, the Philippines have a total of USD 840 billion
worth of minerals. Mining could be in large scale or small scale. In large scale mining it
involves a company with different or many employees while in small scale it only
includes small group of men. These types of mining use bulldozers and excavators to get
or extract metals. Mining can also contaminate the water which is used for bathing,
cooking and others. One of the major hazards during mining activity is when there's a
high level of radioactive and mercury beneath the ground which adds toxic to the body of
the workers that can cause rashes, diarrhea, vomiting, headache, and even death. With
issues to climate change and global warming, public antipathy is increasing towards
mining activities in the Philippines, Canada, Australia, and anywhere in the world
(Creamer, 2010). In the Philippines, mining industry as of 2014 has a total of 44
companies. And the estimated total employment is 235,000 (DENR 2015). Mining could
be advantageous to the government and people but it could be also disadvantageous to the
nature and can cause different bad affects to mankind. Due to mining many people have
regular work but it harms to their body due to high radiation and mercury content beneath
the ground. But without mining we couldn't have jewelries, cell phones, missiles, and
medicate items such as x-rays or surgical tools. All of these things are the output of
mining.