OPENCAST MINING

PREPARED BY:GAURAV KUMAR

• open cast working” means a quarry, that is to say, an
excavation where any operation for the purpose of searching
for or obtaining minerals has been or is being carried on, not
being a shaft or an excavation which extends below
superjacent ground.
• “coal” includes anthracite, bituminous coal, lignite, peat and
any other form of carbonaceous matter sold or marketed as
coal;
 Applicability of Surface Mining
• Surface mining is applicable for the mineral deposits that
outcrop at the surface or occur at a shallow depth from the
surface.
• The adjective ‘shallow’ is a subjective one, and the depth
may vary considerably for different type of deposits and
under different techno-economic environment.
• It is basically the economic criteria that ultimately decide
upto what depth an ore body can be profitably exploited by
surface mining and what should be the method of working.
• The parameters/ factors that affects the selection of ultimate
depth and method of work of a surface mine for a given
deposit include
• grade/richness of the deposit
• type of mineral (high valued or low valued),
• ore body geometry (isometric/massive, tabular/bedded, pipe
type, vein type, etc),
• dip (flat, gently dipping, steeply dipping, etc) of the deposit,
• size (small, medium, large, etc) and
• complexity (simple, complex, complicated, etc) of the
deposit,
• the terrain and elevation of the mine site and region,
• Remoteness
• climate of the area,
• infrastructure (roads, power supply, water supply, etc)
available,
• stability requirements for mine slopes (highwall and dump),
• overburden disposal and product transportation requirements,
• regulatory and environmental requirements, etc
 Advantages and Disadvantages of Surface
Mining
• Surface mining methods offer a number of advantages over
underground mining methods. Most important of them are:
❖Higher production
❖Greater safety and better Working environment
❖No support problem
❖No limitation on head room
❖Possibility of high degree of mechanization
❖Higher recovery
❖Low grade ore can also be extracted profitably
❖Higher flexibility of operation
• Greater concentration of all operations and simplified
management of men and machines
❖No/very less ventilation problem
❖No roof problem
❖Lighting/illumination problem is less
❖Less limitation on the size and weight of equipment
❖Less cost of production
❖Better grade control
❖Less gestation period
❖Lower specific investment, (i.e. lower capital cost per tonne
per annum production)
• After-mining land-use potential may be increased by proper
reclamation
Disadvantages of surface mining over
underground mining
 Unit Operations in Surface Mining

1.Bench Material Preparation for Subsequent

Excavation and Loading
• This unit operation refers to the activities related to change of
mechanical state of bench material, wherever necessary, so
that it becomes amenable to easy extraction by the
excavators.
• In case of hard rock mines, the job is generally accomplished
by drilling and blasting. But in some cases/conditions ripping
is used for the purpose.
• When the material is soft enough, it may be directly
excavated and loaded onto transport equipment by
excavators. If the material is marginally tough, limited
drilling and blasting (without any throw) to loosen the ground
may also be used.
• Generally rippers and blasthole drills are used for the
purpose. The rippers are attachment generally attached at the
rear of a dozer and are operated through hydraulic cylinders.
The rippers may be of single tooth type or of multiple teeth
type. These are used for mechanical loosening of marginally
hard rock-mass.
Blasthole drills are used for drilling blastholes for
subsequent blasting in rock-mass that cannot be excavated
directly or cannot be loosened effectively/ economically
by ripping. The blasthole drills are generally of three
types – percussive (top hammer, down-the-hole hammer),
rotary (TCR bit, Drag bit) and rotary-percussive.
 2.Excavation and Loading
• This unit operation involves the activities related to
excavation of prepared bench material by the excavator and
loading them onto transporting equipment. However, in some
cases the excavator itself transports and dumps the bucket
load (e.g. dragline).
• This operation may be accomplished either in
cyclic/discontinuous or in continuous mode. The cyclic mode
of excavation and loading is applicable for all type of
material. The excavators/loaders are all single bucket
machines
• These machines excavate the material directly from the
face/bench (if the material is soft enough) or from the muck
pile (loosened/blasted face) and load onto the transport
equipment in a cyclic manner.
• The continuous mode of excavation and loading is
applicable in case of soft materials that can be excavated
easily. The excavators are either multi-bucket machines or
bucket less machines.
• For cyclic excavation and loading the equipment generally
used are – shovel, dragline and scraper.
• The shovels are mainly of two types – electric rope shovel
and hydraulic shovel. A shovel stands on the floor of the
bench it excavates and generally loads onto a dumper. The
shovels have very limited capability to dig below their
crawler level, so for digging below the crawler level and
loading onto dumpers hydraulic backhoes are used. The
electric shovels are available with bucket capacities upto 60
m3 or more, whereas hydraulic shovels are available with
bucket capacities upto 40 m3 slightly more.
• Draglines are large machines with large bucket capacities
(upto 125 m3) and very long booms (upto 105 m). These
machines sit on the top surface of a wide bench to excavate it.
These are generally used to excavate the thick overburden
benches in surface coal mines by direct side casting.
• A Scraper is unique equipment in the sense that it cuts, loads,
transports and spreads the material all by itself. Moreover, it
cuts and spreads the material in form of layers. Though the
machine can be used as primary excavator for excavating
soft/loose material or weak rocks, it is mostly preferred for
direct replacement of topsoil in case of the mine practicing
simultaneous backfilling. The scrapers are of four types –
standard, tandem, elevating and tandem elevating.
• For continuous excavation and loading the equipment
generally used are – bucket wheel excavator (BWE) and
continuous surface miners (CSM).
• BWEs are multi-bucket machines and are used for
continuous excavation of softer material (e.g. lignite,
soft/weak overburden rockmass, etc.) where high production
& productivity is required over large mine life (more than 40
years). BWE cuts the material and loads onto the shiftable
belt conveyors for onward transmission.
• CSMs are bucket less machines and are used for continuous
mining of flat-bedded deposits. The machines have the
capabilities of selective mining and to mine thin (as thin as
2.5 cm) seams/partings neatly.
 3. Transportation
• In this unit operation, the transporting equipment transport
the loaded material to the respective destinations – coal to
coal depot and overburden (O/B) to waste / spoil / O/B
dumps.
• Like excavation and loading, this operation may also be
accomplished either in discontinuous/cyclic mode or in
continuous mode.
• For cyclic transport, dumpers are mainly used. Dumpers can
be of different types, but the most popular ones in surface
mining industry is two-axle rear dump type. However, the
material may also be transported through self transport of
scraper or by direct casting of dragline.
• For continuous transport conveyors (generally shiftable
conveyors and mobile transfer conveyors, and in specific
situations high-angle conveyors and pipe type conveyors) are
used.
 4. Dumping
• This unit operation refers to the activities of dumping
of the transported material at the respective
destinations by the transporting equipment.
• In cases of cyclic transport systems dumper dumps its
own load, the scraper spreads the material carried by it
in form of layers and dragline dumps the material by
direct casting.
• For dumping the material that has been transported by
conveyor, stacker or spreader is used. When stacker is used,
the material is generally dumped in windrow formation,
whereas spreader spreads the material more or less evenly
over an area that is covered by the semi-circular arc of the
discharge arm of the spreader.
 5. Levelling
• This unit operation generally refers to the leveling of
dumped material at the waste dumps. Dozer is used
almost in all situations to do the job of leveling.
• The utility equipment that are generally used, to
accomplish various sundry jobs, in surface mines
include – dozers, front-end-loaders (also known as
pay-loaders/wheel loaders/ tractor shovels), grader,
cranes and water sprinklers