Division of Engineering

Course: Mining Engineering

2 ° Year – Day Course, Class - A

Topic: Machine Selection

Inglês III

Teaching: dr. Helena Namaripa

Student: Kanú Emanuel Dos S. Tomás

Tete, May 2020

MACHINE SELECTION 1
INDEX

1. INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………….…………..…….…1
2. MACHINE SELECTION ……………………………………..……….…….……….2
 2.1. Stages of Equipment Selection ……………………………….……….…...3
 2.2. Type of equipment required ……………………………………….………5
 2.3. Equipment size and / or number………………………………….………...6
 2.4. Specific type and specifications of the equipment ………………………...7
 2.5. Selection of manufacturers or suppliers ………………...…………………8
2.2.1. Disassemble without using explosives ………………………………...……….9

 Excavators………………………………………………………….…………..10
 2.2.1.1.1. Shovel Excavator …………………………………….……………..11
 2.2.1.1.2. Dragline……………………………………………………………..12
 2.2.1.1.3. Backhoe………………………………………………….…………..13
 2.2.1.1.4. Bucket Wheel………………………………………….……………14
 2.2.1.2. Bulldozers………………………………………………….………….15
 2.2.1.3. Scarifiers or Rippers ………………………………………………..…16
 2.2.1.4. Motoscrapers………………………………………………………… 17
 2.2.1.5. Dredges

2.3. Loading and its equipment……………………………………………………….18

 2.3.1. Wheel loaders

 2.3.2. Cranes

2.4. Transport and its equipment…………………………………………………….19

 2.4.1 Trucks……………………………………………………………….……20
 2.4.2 Railways
 2.4.3 Conveyor belts
 2.4.4 Mineroduto

3. CONCLUSION………………………………………………………..……………..21

4. BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES………………………………………………….22

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Abstract: The open-pit mining is one of the most important steps in mining, with
a good portion of the total costs of a mining venture. Selection criteria such as
type of equipment, size and quantity, specifications and suppliers are essential for
a correct selection of various equipment available for open-pit mining, contributing
to a harmonious mine operation and within the lowest possible cost.

Keywords: Equipments Open-Pit Mining; Selection criteria.

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OBJECTIVE

General :

 Presenting the stages of the selection of equipment or machine used in open-air

tillage.

Specific:

 Show which are the most common and a bit of its characteristics and specificities.
This information may be of great use for the elaboration of the open-pit project.

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 1. INTRODUCTION

The mining activity aims to discover the resources available on the planet, extract
this material through mining operations (in the open or underground) and transport it to
different discharge points, for its passage through processing operations. ores to serve
the industry.

For the extraction of this material, you must have the mining project. According to
Quevedo (2009) in the elaboration of the mining project, a study is carried out to design
the equipment and facilities that will operate in the mine, based on the determined
production. This project aims to present the stages of selection of equipment used in open
pit mining, to show which are the most common and a little of their characteristics and
specificities. This information can be very useful for the elaboration of the mining
project.

As it is an item of great importance in a mining operation, it was decided to address

this issue, as a wrong selection of equipment in an open pit mine can impact the entire
process of a mine.

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The equipment fleets can be divided into four main classes:

 Drilling and dismantling equipment: these types of equipment are represented by

drilling rigs and excavators for dismantling;
 Loading equipment: within the loading equipment we have loaders and excavators
that can be electric or hydraulic;
 Transport equipment: within this class we have conveyor belts, trains and off-road
trucks, mainly;
 Support equipment: this class includes motor graders, water trucks, small
loaders/excavators, supply trains and all equipment to support mining activities.
the selection of this equipment must be treated with great care, as incorrect
decisions can affect the production of a mine.

In general, the selection process for this equipment can be divided into the following
stages: type of equipment required; size and / or number of equipment; specific type and
specifications of the equipment; selection of manufacturers or suppliers.

2.1. Stages of Equipment Selection

The main objective of equipment selection is to ensure, as far as possible, that the
mine is provided with resources to enable it to supply the best quality ore, at a low cost
per ton, to the plant. treatment for a long and continuous period. For this purpose, there
are some criteria for the correct selection of equipment to be used.

2.2. Type of equipment required

To reach the conclusion on which equipment to select at the mine, a vast amount of
information about the deposit, operations and pit layout must be known. With regard to
the ore body and the beneficiation plant, you must have knowledge of the mass of ore to
be treated per day, hour, degree of control and quality required for feeding the plant.

The factors that concern the ore and need to be known are:

 The required and permitted rate of ore feed by the plant; the blending required to
control the ore content;
 type of segregation to avoid undesirable mixtures;

MACHINE SELECTION 6
  the route and distance traveled by the ore;
 the difference in height between the loading point and the discharge point.
 In the case of sterile one must know:
 The sterile / ore relationship and the way the sterile occurs in the deposit, whether
external or over the body, if interspersed, etc.

It is also of great importance to have knowledge about some characteristics of the

ore and waste, such as: in situ and blistered density, humidity, degree of fragmentation,
hardness, abrasiveness, resistance to compression, etc.

In general, mining equipment is involved in the activities of dismantling, loading

and transporting ore and waste from the mine.

2.3. Equipment size and / or number

There is an initial idea for defining the number of equipment and size. For the quantity, it
is suggested:

 One drill for each excavator;

 an excavator for each type of material, that is, one for ore and one for waste, and;
 three or four trucks for each excavator.

However, there are numerous factors to be considered in each case, such as:

 It is possible to reduce the number of drills if a machine, of sufficiently high

capacity and greater mobility is adopted;
 more loaders may be required if blending or segregation is required; the number
of trucks is usually dictated by the transport distance and ideally, you cannot let
a truck wait to be loaded, nor let an excavator wait for an empty truck.

For the ideal size of the equipment, the premise follows that the operating costs are high,
will continue to rise and that equipment for proper operation is scarce in the future, every
effort must be made to maximize the size of the equipment.

It is significant to note that although there is a big difference in the initial investment,
the required operation and maintenance work is approximately the same for different sizes
of the same equipment.

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2.4. Specific type and specifications of the equipment

A detailed description of the equipment specifications is necessary to ensure that the

listed equipment will correspond to that required and perform the desired function in
addition to providing a comparison of the costs and merits of various specific equipment
with the information provided by manufacturers and in their catalogs. The description
must be made so that it contains two parts.

One with information such as performance (utilization rates, physical availability

and average yields), capacity, strength, weight, size, etc.

Another with information on ideal equipment, which allows a more economical and
safer operation, easy maintenance and reduced repair costs. These steps should allow for
easy comparison when surveying the costs of the various machines and also an evaluation
of various items, such as initial investment, performance and operating costs of the
various units, which then need to be related to all economic factors of the operation.

2.5. Selection of manufacturers or suppliers

A study should evaluate the proposals of the manufacturers, which should take into
consideration costs and technical adaptability, relative ease or difficulty of maintenance
and repairs and the manufacturer's reputation in relation to technical services (provision
of services), availability, parts costs and warranties.

2.6. Dismantling and its equipment

As is known, the equipment necessary to carry out any of the mining operations
will have to adapt to the type of material in which it operates, taking into account the
particularity of each mine.

Thus, it is clear that dismantling hard and compact rocks is much more difficult
than carrying out these operations on soft and incoherent rocks, and the procedures are
necessarily also different. That is why it is necessary to know the classifications based
on mechanical behavior from the point of view of dismantling the rocks with which it is
going to work.

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2.2.1. Disassemble without using explosives

2.2.1.1. Excavators

Excavators are machines commonly used to mechanically carry out dismantling

and / or loading of waste and ore. They are destined for the dismantling and loading of
soft rocks; or to the load of products that were dismantled by explosives, in the case of
massifs formed by harder rocks.

An excavator can be mounted on tracks, wheels and rails, the track excavator being
the most used in the mining environment. Excavators are divided into different groups
according to their size and the purpose for which they are used. In them, the process of
operations can be cyclical or continuous.

2.2.1.1.1. Shovel Excavator

The shovel bucket excavator has the bucket facing upwards and digs upwards.
Today, most of these excavators are hydraulic, leaving the operation of cables for
handling the bucket in less use. Larger excavators are generally used in dismantling fronts
that have high heights; hard rocks due to large excavators have greater penetration force.

On the contrary, smaller machines with dimensions and capacities are generally used
for loading in transport units (trucks, wagons, etc.) in quarries and open pit mines after
the use of explosives to dismantle a harder material.

These units can be driven by electric or mechanical energy (usually a diesel engine).
Electric ones usually have a lower cost because energy is cheaper than diesel, but also
have less freedom of movement than other sources because they have to work in places
close to the general power distribution networks electrical.

Thus, electric excavators are recommended for long-term jobs and little
displacement, while diesel is recommended for short-term and frequent displacements.
Because it can carry out dismantling and / or loading work on all terrains, they are in
common use in almost all open pit methods, being able to perform operations both in the
sterile and in the ore, but always on fronts above the level the step they are on. See fig 1

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Figure 1 - Cable and hydraulic shovel excavato.

2.2.1.1.2. Dragline

The excavator with a drag bucket or drag-line consists of a metallic truss, at the end of
which there is a pulley through which the bucket elevation cable, driven by the capstan,
passes.

The lance is supported by the handle, varying its angle between 25 ° and 40 °, through
articulation, and its range can be increased with the intersection of an intermediate
section. (Lima et al., 2015).

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Fig. 2 Dragline

In mining in Minas Gerais, its ideal field of application, especially for large ones, is
the removal of thin and constant sterile waste. Due to their design, these machines allow
greater reach than Shovel's, but their use as direct load equipment on trucks or other
transport equipment does not allow such precise maneuvers. Due to its drag force it is
conditioned by the resistance of the traction cable, its use is more limited to rocks of softer
classes.

It is also worth mentioning that, to make these machines more useful, your bucket
can be replaced by a series of disassembly, loading or lifting devices that can facilitate
disassembly and loading.

2.2.1.1.3. Backhoe

The backhoe bucket excavator has the bucket facing downwards towards the
machine cab. They are basically used in excavation works. Its radius is limited and the
bucket is of small capacity, which gives it good penetration characteristics, since the teeth
of the buckets can exert great pressure on the rocks, which guarantees it easier to work

MACHINE SELECTION 11
with harder rocks than Shovel. This type of excavator can operate at an upper, lower rung
level and also on a platform formed by the disassembled products themselves.

Figure 2- Operative modes of the backhoe

2.2.1.1.4. Bucket Wheel

The Bucket Wheel is a continuous mining machine consisting of a central tower and
two opposite arms, being a large structure. In one of these arms there is a conveyor that
receives the products disassembled by continuous scraping of the rocks carried out by a
sequence of buckets, mounted on a large diameter wheel, positioned at the end of that
arm that has movement in the horizontal and vertical plane.

These machines can work at the top or bottom of the step, performing simultaneous
disassembly, loading and transport operations. They are able to work alternately in the
barren and ore, practicing selective mining in several layers. They are used in soft or
incoherent rocks, but because they have stiffer workpieces and higher cutting speeds, they
can be useful in a more compact material. It is worth mentioning that the high cost of
acquisition of these machines requires a great study and calculation of their productive
capacity, often using specialized companies.

MACHINE SELECTION 12
2.2.1.2. Bulldozers

They are track or tire tractors, which receive the adaptation of a blade implement.
Generally because of its enormous traction and adhesion force, it is used to push large
loads, earthworks, open access roads and other auxiliary activities. It is also common for
them to work assisting large loaders or draglines, pushing the material into the working
area of these machines.

The blade has a curved cross section to facilitate the disassembly operation and at
the bottom it receives the cutting tool, consisting of a cutting part, called the blade knife.
At the ends, there are two smaller pieces that are the corners of the blade.

The knives and corners are easily removable for replacement, when worn by the
abrasion resulting from the cutting operation, or when they are fractured by the shock
with various obstacles: rock blocks, boulders, etc. (Ricardo and Catalani, 2007). See
figure 3.

Figure 3 - Blade of a bulldozer

They are indicated to work in terrains of low support capacity. The speed of the
machine makes it not advisable to use it over long distances.

MACHINE SELECTION 13
2.2.1.3. Scarifiers or Rippers

Disassembly by scarification consists of disaggregating the rocks by means of a tool

in the form of a tooth or hook, attached to the rear structure of loaders or bulldozers.
When the terrain allows this type of dismantling, it is able to be loaded right after the
ripper passes. The interest and advantage of disassembly by scarification are based on
the fact that with it, it is possible to perform a mechanical disassembly of the surface
without the use of explosives or it is not possible to perform it with the other equipment.
Its use has its own field of application depending on several factors, such as: the hardness,
homogeneity, the compactness of the land, the power and weight of the tractors and the
strength of the teeth. See figure 4.

Figure 4 - Scarifier (Ripper)

MACHINE SELECTION 14
2.2.1.4. Motoscrapers

On very hard rocks these machines can be efficient and economical to

simultaneously perform the dismantling, loading and transport operations over medium
distances. The motoscraper consists of a single-axis scraper that rests on a tug with one
or two axes, through a device called the neck.

The reason for this assembly resides in the gain of adhesion that the driving wheels (front)
of the tractor start to have, as a result of the increase of the weight that affects them
(Ferreira, 2011). See figure 5.

Figure 5 - MotosCraper

Dismantling is done by the synchronized movement of the cutting blade which

comes into contact with the rock by lowering the bucket at the same time as the Apron is
raised with gradual ejector drive.

2.2.1.5. Dredges

Dredges in mining correspond to the mining of deposits of very characteristic and

restricted types (such as alluvial). There are several types of dredgers used, which are

MACHINE SELECTION 15
classified into: mechanical and hydraulic, each of which has different types of mechanism
and operation.

Hydraulic dredges are more suitable for removing sand and poorly consolidated silt,
removing and transporting the sediment in liquid form. They are generally centrifugal
pumps, driven by diesel or electric engines, mounted on barges and which discharge the
dredged material through pipes ranging from 0.15 m to 1.2 m in diameter, maintained on
water by floats. The pump produces a vacuum at the inlet of the pipe and the pressure
forces water and sediment through the pipe.

Mechanical dredgers are used to remove gravel, sand and very cohesive sediments,
such as clay, peat, and highly consolidated silt. These dredgers remove bottom sediments
by directly applying a mechanical force to excavate the material, regardless of its density.
The sediments excavated with the use of mechanical dredgers are generally transported
in barges or barges, depending on the volume to be transported.

2.3. Loading and its equipment

2.3.1. Wheel loaders

Wheel loaders are widely used in open pit mining, both in mines and quarries.
Although in large undertakings there may be other types of machines whose use may be
more advantageous than wheel loaders, performing these auxiliary operations, while in
small and medium-sized ones they appear as irreplaceable machines, performing loading
operations, both of ore and sterile.

Together with trucks or similar transport equipment, they are the most common means of
loading in open pit mines.

Two main technical characteristics will make it possible to distinguish between loading
shovels and mechanical shovels (“shovels”) with which they are similar: absence of
rotation and loading element in the shape of a bucket designed for loading and not a scoop
type.

MACHINE SELECTION 16
 Figure 7 - Shovel loader

2.3.2. Cranes

In mining, these machines are normally used in the extraction of large blocks in
open pit mining of ornamental rocks (marbles, granites, slates, etc.). Cranes can be
mobile or fixed, depending on the use and adaptability required for exploration. The
dimension and location of this equipment must be carefully studied so that its field of
action covers the entire area to be explored, in order to avoid the acquisition of additional
equipment.

1.4. Transport and its equipment

2.4.1 Trucks

They are the most frequent means of transport in open pit explorations. Its
combination with a wheel loader or some type of excavator is characteristic of most open

MACHINE SELECTION 17
pit explorations. They are equipment that should be used for medium and long transport
distances due to the relatively high speeds that they can reach, allowing to obtain high
productive capacities at low costs.

The transmission systems and the type of tires have a very decisive influence on
the performance and behavior of these machines. The selection of the different types of
dimensions of these transport vehicles will depend mainly on the distances, the volume
to be removed, the degree of fragmentation of the products, the characteristics of the
transported tracks and rocks, the dimensions of the loading and unloading sites, and also
of the own loading equipment used.

Fig. 8. Truck

2.4.2 Railways

Rail transport is widely used to transport large volumes of mineral goods, both in
Brazil and in several other countries. However, this means of transport depends on the
existence of its own or third party railway line, or even on its construction, the availability
of loading and unloading equipment and locomotives and wagons for transportation.

MACHINE SELECTION 18
 In the last decades, they have been replaced by trucks and now by conveyor belts
and pipelines. According to Couto (1990), railroads are generally used where there are
large reserves, requiring very high daily production (both of ore and barren) and long
transport distances (greater than 5 km).

2.4.3 Conveyor belts

It is now known that conveyor belts are a more economical transport system when
production is high. These machines are used in conjunction with excavators and generally
with materials of less granulometry to avoid damaging the material that makes up the
screens. In cases where it is questioned whether to use the conveyor belt or opt for the
trucks, a study should be done to point out which alternative is more advantageous, but
the belts have some advantages that can overcome the trucks: lower maintenance costs;
high production; great distances; slope variations, etc. Some cons points are: less
flexibility; occupy large spaces between the axes; more difficult recoveries as it is a
continuous miner. (Couto, 1990).

Fig. 9 Conveyor belt.

MACHINE SELECTION 19
 2. CONCLUSION

The present study showed the criteria for selecting the equipment of an open-air lava
equipment, as well as the most common equipment used in this type of Lavra, showing
some of its characteristics. With this, it might notice how Natural, design and economical
factors influence the selection of equipment of the sky.

The characteristics of rocks and deposit, topography of the place, etc., constitute the
natural factors. Project factors can be considered as indexes of equipment, transportation
distances, production and others. Economics are represented by unit costs, initial
investment, return on investment, etc., and represent the most important and decisive
factor for choices.

Analyzing the selection criteria and the characteristics of the equipment presented,
it is perceived that each mine has its specificity, causing it not to exist a single correct and
suitable method for all situations, and the selection of the equipment must be done
correctly to work better possible scenario.

MACHINE SELECTION 20
 3. BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES

Brandt, W. Minoduto Ferrous Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and Espírito Santo.
Environment. EIA - Study of environmental impacts. Ferrous Resources from Brazil S.
A. Nova Lima: Brandt Environment, 2010.

Couto, R.T.S. Open sky and main equipment. Porto, 1990. Doctoral thesis. University of
Porto. Available at: <http://repositorioaberto.up.pt/handle/10216/12227> Access on:
14/10/2015.
Availablein:<http://www.ufjf.br/engenhariacivil/files/2012/10/escava%C3%87%C3%8
3O-Explora%C3%83%83O- Brandão, J.R.; Costa, M.c.m.s. Development and analysis
of large excavators for mining. 8th Brazilian Congress of Manufacturing Engineering.
Salvador, 2015. Available in: <http://www.cobef.com.br/anais/pdfs/cof-2015-0123.pdf>
Access on: 10/29/2015.

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