An assignment on “Surface Mining method”

Course name: Exploration Geology and Mining

Course title: GS-408

SUBMITTED BY
MD. HABIZAR RAHMAN
EXAM ROLL:150349
CLASS ROLL:2296
REG. NO:37538
SESSION:2015-16

DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGICAL SCIENCES

JAHANGIRNAGAR UNIVERSITY
SAVAR, DHAKA-1342
Surface Mining

A mine in which the ore lies near the surface and can be extracted by removing the covering layers of rock
andsoil.Almost all surface mining operations are exposed to the elements and require no roof support.

Evaluation of Surface Deposits

The following outline lists the basic factors which must be taken into account for evaluation of a
prospective surface mine :
• Geography
• Legal status of land and mining rights
• Historical, political, and socialogical factors
• Geology
• Mining conditions
• Ore treatment requirements
• Economic analysis
Geography:
Topography, a function of location, affects cost of development and operation of a surface mine.
Geographic location establishesclimate.Location establishes the condition of remoteness from or
proximity to civilization and its developed facilities such as transportation systems, power supply,
labour pool, manufacturing and supply services, and specialty repair shops.
Legal status of land and mining rights
Land and other necessary rights should be checked, such as water use rights and the ability to acquire
auxiliary land for plant site, roads, tailings disposal ground etc.
Historical, political, and socialogical factors
It is important to determine the extent and nature of national and local laws and regulations in regard
to conservation, water use, water and air pollution, tailings disposal, reclaimation, handling of
explosives, taxes, royalities, import duties, mining safety and health codes, wage and labour
conditions, pension requirements, and unions.
Geology
Geological evaluation may include wide-spaced drilling, drill-sample logging, testing and processing,
plotting of the data on maps and cross-sections, preparation of specialized interpretive maps,
calculation of reserves by grades, calculation of stripping requirements, groundwater studies, and
economic analysis.
Mining conditions
The geometry of an ore body and the topography of the land surface beneath which the ore body
exists will affect the kind and cost of a surface mine. The depth and character of overlying rock and the
physical characteristics of the wall rock also affect the configuration and cost of a surface mine.

Ore treatment requirements

Almost every potential surface mine must consider some phase of product upgrading (benefication).
This may vary from a simple crushing and sizing operation to a complex operation including multiple
stages of size reduction, concentration and agglomeration. In many cases, pilot-scale testing is deemed
advisable.
Economic analysis
In the broadest sense, economic analysis for a surface mine involves the determination of market
value of the product and all the elements of cost of production. By subtraction, a margin of profit (or
loss) can be calculated.Many new surface mines require very high capital investments. There are 3
commonly used yardsticks to value investment worth : i) Degree of necessity, ii) Payback period, and
iii) Rate of return.
Surface mining is the predominant exploitation method worldwide.
In the USA, surface mining contributes about 85%of all mineralsexploitation (excluding petroleum
and natural gas). Almost all metallicore (98%) and non-metallic ore (97%), and 61%of the coal is
mined usingsurface methods in the USA
Surface mining requires large capital investment generally results in:

• High productivity
• Low operating costs.
• Safer working conditions and a better safety record than underground mining.

Steps of surface mining operation

• Strip out overburden (becomes spoils)

• Traditional surface mining methods fall intotwo broad categories based on locale:
• i)Mechanical excavation methods {such as: Open-pit (or Open-cut or Open-cast); Terrace; and
Strip mining}.
• ii) Aqueous methods {such as: Placer and In-situ leaching (ISL)/ Solution mining}.
• Clean up (reclamation)

There are various types of surface mining, which are used in various degrees and for different
resources. These mining categories are: strip mining, open-pit mining, mountaintop removal, dredging
and high wall mining. All methods of surface mining will remove the waste material, or overburden,
above the desired resource.

Figure 1 subdivided of surface mining

Mineral Extraction
•Surface Mining: overburden (soil and rock on top of ore) is removed and becomes spoil.
• open pit mining –digging holes
• Dredging –scraping up underwater mineral deposits
• Area Strip Mining –on a flat area an earthmover strips overburden
• Contour Strip Mining –scraping ore from hilly areas
Open-pit Mining

Open-pit mining is similar to strip mining, except the ore is removed from an open pit which is not
then filled in. Open-pit mining has been around for centuries, with ancient cultures like the Greeks,
Romans, and Persians mining for granite, marble and even salt.Open-pit mines are commonly
called quarries when they produce materials used in building: limestone, granite, and marble, for
example.These pit mines continue to be enlarged until there is no more ore to mine or the
overburden becomes too heavy. When it’s no longer
economical to operate an open-pit mine, it’s commonly
converted to a landfill or waste disposal site.The pros of an
open pit mine is that these mines usually produce a vast
amount of ore without the costly process of removing
overburden — the ore is often in a large area and close to
the surface. However, a major con of these type of mines is
that they are both dangerous to work in, and permanently
alter the surrounding ecosystem. Figure 2 open pit mining

Basic concept

Although the basic concept of an open pit is quite simple, the planning required to develop a large
deposit for surface mining is a very complex and costly undertaking. At one mine, it may be desirable
to plan for blending variations in the ore so as to maintain, as nearly as possible, a uniform feed to the
mill. At another operation it may be desirable to completely separate two kinds of ore, as for example,
a low- grade deposit where one kind of "oxide" ore must be treated by acid leach, but a second kind of
"sulfide" ore must be treated by different methods. The grade and tonnage of material available will
determine how much waste rock can be stripped, and there is often an ultimate limit to the pit that is
determined more by the economics of removing overburden than a sudden change in the ore deposit
from mineral to non-mineral bearing material. The ultimate pit limit and the slope of the pit walls are
therefore determined as much by economics and engineering as by geological structure. Material that
is relatively high grade may be left unmined in some awkward spot extending back too deeply
beneath waste. The typical large open pit mining operation that has been in production for 10 years
and more is operating under conditions that could not possibly have been foreseen by the original
planners of the mine. Metal prices, machinery, and milling methods are constantly changing so that
the larger operations must be periodically reevaluated, and several have been completely redeveloped
from time to time as entirely different kinds of mining and milling operations. Sometimes the
preliminary stripping of the waste overburden is contracted to firms specializing in earthmoving.
Mining is usually done by track-mounted electric shovels in the large operations, and by rubber-tired
diesel front-end loaders in the smaller operations. Scrapers are sometimes used in special situations.
Large bucket-wheel excavators of the kind used in European coal mines have not been applied to
metal mining, because this equipment is best adapted to softer bedded, relatively flat-lying strata.
Haulage is usually by truck, although railroads, inclined rails, and conveyor belts have been used. The
conveyance unloads directly into a primary crusher and crushed material is stored in coarse ore bins
prior to shipment to the mill.
Blastholes are usually drilled vertically by self-propelled, track-mounted pneumatic or rotary drills.
Bulk explosives are loaded in the holes and large volumes of ore are broken in a single blast.
Sometimes the drill holes are routinely sampled and assayed to help plan the position of the shovels in
advance of mining.

High Wall Mining

Highwall mining relies on machinery to collect ores from a “highwall”, or an unmined wall with
overburden and exposed minerals and ores. Usually, highwalls
are found at the edges of quarries and pit mines, and enable
miners to retrieve ore from a wall that would otherwise be too
expensive to clear of overburden in order to reach the ore. It’s
also used in contour strip mines to retrieve additional ore from
the mineral seam above the created terrace.An expensive and
remotely controlled highwall mining machine excavates in a
tight square from the face, using continuous drilling. Conveyor
belts and pulleys move the matter from the drill through the
device and the leftover matter is deposited behind the drill.
Figure 3 high wall mining
Dredging
Dredging is the more sophisticated version of panning for gold. In
fact, it’s mostly associated with gold mining. Much like hopeful
miners with their pans during the gold rush, floating dredges (a
barge fitted with conveyor belts and scoops) move up a water table.
A scoop lifts material up on a conveyor belt, and the mineral is
removed on board the barge. The unwanted material is then
dropped back into the water table using another conveyor belt.
Strip Mining figure 4 dredging mining

Strip mining gets its name from the fact that the process involves stripping the surface away from the
mineral that’s being excavated (usually coal). Soil, rock, and vegetation over the mineral seam is
removed with huge machines, including bucket-wheel excavators.This type of mining makes sense
when the mineral is near the surface. If the ore is too far under the surface, the process of strip mining
becomes impractical and needlessly damaging to the terrain.Two types of strip mining exist,
depending on the amount of ore under the surface, and
the surrounding terrain. They are:
• Area Stripping extracts ore over a large, flat
terrain in long strips. The overburden of rocks and
soil is dropped in the previous strip so that long
gaps aren’t left in the earth after mining is
complete.

Figure 5 strip mining

 • Contour mining is a version of strip mining that follows the contours of outcrops and hilly
terrains. Usually, the mineral seam follows the contour
of the outcrop, and the overburden is removed carefully
along the seam in much smaller and custom shaped
excavations rather than long strips.
• This is an alternative, and more recent, version of strip
mining. As the main suggests, mountaintop removal
mining involves removing the top of steep mountains to
expose desired deposits below. The excavated
overburden from the mountaintop is deposited in
nearby low valley areas known as “valley fills.” This
method is for the most part confined to coal mining in Figure 6 strip mining process
the Appalachian region of the United States.
This is an alternative, and more recent, version of strip mining. As the main suggests, mountaintop removal mining
involves removing the top of steep mountains to expose desired deposits below. The excavated overburden from
the mountaintop is deposited in nearby low valley areas known as “valley fills.” This method is for the most part
confined to coal mining in the Appalachian region of the United States.

Figure 7: classification of surface mining method

Common Physical Characteristics of Surface Mines

Surface mines have a unique physical terrain, and the specialized terms are used to describe the features of the
surface mining environment.

Those terms include:

• Angle of repose
• Bench
• Berm
• Haul road
• Highwall
• Pit
• Settling pond/tank
 • Stockpile
• Wastepile

Equipment used in surface mine includes:

• Backhoes
• Bins
• Classifiers
• Cone crushers
• Cranes
• Dozers
• Draglines
• Dredges
• Feeders
• Front-end loaders
• Fuel tanks
• Generators
• Haul trucks
• Hoppers
• Human transport
• In-pit conveyor systems
• Jaw crushers
• Maintenance and repair shops
• Overland conveyor systems
• Scrapers
• Screw conveyors
• Shovels
• Skid steers
• Track haulage
• Truck and wheel washes
• Truck scales
• Water reclamation systems

Importance of Surface Mining

The rapid growth in the use of earth's natural resources is raising
questions on several fronts, most importantly on the quality of life
and the needed actions to prevent irreversible damage. According to
a report from Sustainable Europe Research Institute in 2009, the
amount of natural resources [renewable and non-renewable]
extracted from earth for the production of goods and services
around the turn of the 20th Century was around 60 billion tonnes
per year, an average of about 25 kg per citizen per day [3]. There are
however great differences in the extraction and consumption of the
natural resources by regions of the world [Table 1]. There is concern that citizens of developed countries use more
natural resources [as high as four times] than those in some developing countries.
The relevance of the mining to modern way of life is evident from the fact that the source for about 20% of the
natural resources is the world mining industry. The major products include fossil fuels, metallic and non-metallic
ores, and construction and fertilizer materials. It is safe to assume
that as the world economy grows, the demand for natural resources
would only grow. The demand for mined products is assured to grow
for two reasons: the growing world population and the growing
expectations for increased standards of living all over the world [4].
At the present time, the subsurface of the earth is the only source for
mineral and fossil energy resources and mining is the only way to get
at them.

Human health

The United Mine Workers of America has spoken against the use of human sewage sludge to reclaim surface mining
sites in Appalachia. The UMWA launched its campaign against the use of sludge on mine sites in 1999 after eight
UMWA workers became ill from exposure to Class B sludge spread near their workplace.[13]

Environmental impact

According to a 2010 report in the journal Science, mountaintop mining has caused numerous environmental
problems which mitigation practices have not successfully addressed. For example, valley fills frequently bury
headwater streams causing permanent loss of ecosystems. In addition, the destruction of large tracts of deciduous
forests has threatened several endangered species and led to a loss of biodiversity.

Mineral Resource Development Cycle

The understanding of the mineral resource development cycle is essential to fully appreciate the problems and
issues of the needed technologies to start the flow of
materials from a deposit to the consumer. The major
steps in the cycle are:

• Exploration

• Development

• Extraction/Production/Operation

• Mine Closure and

• Reclamation and Rehabilitation

Developments in Mining Technology

The search for safe, productive and environmentally more desirable methods for extracting the mineral riches of the
earth should be apparent from the earlier sections of this paper. There is great potential however for further
developments, particularly through the application of advances in several fields of science, engineering and
technology [7, 8, 9]. While much is known about the advances in information technology, examples abound in
several other fields such as medicine, materials and agriculture where these advances have greatly aided the
development of equipment, processes and systems to diagnose, track and solve complex problems. All technological
developments depend on mineral products. In fact, all human endeavors --- farming to communications to space
travel to nano technology --- would continue to be dependent on the products of mining. In the event of a supply
threat to an essential mining commodity, be it oil or gas or coal or minerals, there will be reverberations in the far
corners of the globe. One of the grand challenges for the mineral industry is to supply the population with its
material needs. Given that earth is the only viable source of all materials that we use today, their economic
extraction, processing and utilization will continue to be an essential, productive human activity for the foreseeable
future, as it has been in the past. In the following discussion, two developments that can be of significant aid to the
mining industry of the future is addressed. Global Positioning Systems [GPS] has great potential to make major
impact on surface mining operations. GPS has become an integral component of large surface mines for tracking
mobile equipment, precision positioning of shovels, trucks and other equipment, guiding equipment and monitoring
of advance of mining and impact of mining. All future mines must be prepared to utilize this technology, pushing
both mine equipment manufacturers and government to adopt to more of this technology for mining, beginning
with exploration and proceeding all the way to mine monitoring and control during mine closure and reclamation.

Specifically these are:

• the inability to know exactly what is ahead of the mining face. There is a need to develop look-ahead technologies
for making real-time decisions. In fact, efforts to make the earth transparent is a major objective of earth scientists.

• the ability to predict the mining conditions accurately for reliable control of equipment and systems such as drills
and excavators. Performance of excavators is extremely sensitive to the cutting conditions which in a heterogeneous
material are not easy to predict.

• the mining work environment is quite different from most other work environments. The ambient environmental
conditions in mines are quite different from those in other work environments. Frequent changes in the
environmental conditions cannot be ruled out and require that adjustments be made to the task requirements of a
mining task during execution. All these factors have contributed to the slow pace of automation and autonomous
operations.

• the cognitive component of the autonomous operations is the least developed for mining applications. The mining
machine operator's abilities to successfully maneuver the machine through the changing geological and
environmental conditions are developed over a long time and are not easily captured.

Advantages of surface mining

• Low capital and operating costs

• Absence of milling step, may require crushing and agglomeration

• Simplicity of atmospheric leach processes
• Can be used to treat low-grade ores, wastes and small deposits
• Absence of liquid-solid separation step allows counter-current operation
• Metal tenor may be built up by recycling solution over heaps

Disadvantages

• Lower recoveries than mill/float or mill/leach

• Long leach cycles and hold-up
• Lengthy experimental programmes
• Large footprint
• Acid-mine drainage of wastes