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Open-Pit Mining Process Overview

This document describes the open-pit mining process in 9 steps: 1) Drilling blast holes 30cm in diameter and 15m deep filled with explosives, 2) Planning blast patterns based on rock type and mine plan with 12-13m benches, 3) Detonating explosives to break up rock into transportable pieces, 4) Loading blasted rock into haul trucks with shovels, 5) Transporting ore to a crusher and waste rock to dumps, 6) Crushing ore into pieces smaller than 30cm, 7) Transporting waste rock to dumps, 8) Building waste dumps to specific dimensions, and 9) Reclaiming and revegetating dumps when finished. Open-pit mining uses large equipment to efficiently

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Edwin Condori
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90 views8 pages

Open-Pit Mining Process Overview

This document describes the open-pit mining process in 9 steps: 1) Drilling blast holes 30cm in diameter and 15m deep filled with explosives, 2) Planning blast patterns based on rock type and mine plan with 12-13m benches, 3) Detonating explosives to break up rock into transportable pieces, 4) Loading blasted rock into haul trucks with shovels, 5) Transporting ore to a crusher and waste rock to dumps, 6) Crushing ore into pieces smaller than 30cm, 7) Transporting waste rock to dumps, 8) Building waste dumps to specific dimensions, and 9) Reclaiming and revegetating dumps when finished. Open-pit mining uses large equipment to efficiently

Uploaded by

Edwin Condori
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DEL ALTIPLANO

FACULTAD DE INGENIERA DE MINAS


ESCUELA PROFESIONAL DE INGENIERA DE MINAS

SUBJECT:
ENGLISH TECHNICAL II
TEACHER:
LIC.
STUDENT:

Edwin Condori Mamani

CODE: 114659
SEMESTER

VIII

PUNO-PERU
2015

OPEN-PIT MINING

This is the traditional cone-shaped excavation (although it can be any shape,


depending on the size and shape of the orebody) that is used when the ore
body is typically pipe-shaped, vein-type, steeply dipping stratified or irregular.
Although it is most often associated with metallic orebodies, eg. Palabora
copper, Mamatwan and Sishen iron-ore, it can be used for any deposit that suits
the geometry most typically diamond pipes Venetia, Koffiefontein and
Finsch.
The excavation is normally by rope- or hydraulic shovels with trucks carrying
both ore and waste. Drill and blast is most often used, which makes the process
cyclic. Waste is dumped outside the mined-out area since no room is available
within the pit. Waste is placed as close to the edge of the pit as possible, to
minimise transport costs.

Open pit mining is used to extract ore in rock bodies that are at or close to the
surface of the Earth. Largescale equipment drills, shovels, and trucks are
used to make operations efficient and economical. When they move in, the ore
is dug up and sent to a mill for processing and reclamation procedures are
initiated.

1. - In an open pit operation a rotary drill is used to drill holes that are ~30cm in
diameter and ~15m deep.
The holes are commonly filled with ANFO (short for ammonium nitrate fuel oil)
explosives.

2 The blast pattern drill hole location and spacing and location depends on
the type of rock mined and overall mine plan. The depth of the hole will
determine the height of the bench in the pit, generally 1213m.

3 Blasting! Explosives in the drill hole are detonated, breaking up the rock into
smaller pieces that can be transported for further processing. Depending on the
size of the mine, availability of equipment, and capacity of the mill, blasting may
be scheduled every day or every 23 days.

4 Large electric or hydraulic shovels scoop up blasted rock and load into haul
trucks. Today trucks are very large, carrying 80200+ tonnes per load. It may
take only 23 shovels full to load a haul truck, then an empty one is ready to
take its place.

5 Haul trucks loaded with ore transport it to a primary crusher which crushes
the ore to pieces less than 30 cm.

6 There are different styles of primary crushers (e.g. jaw, gyratory, cone) which
all use heavy steel parts that move together to break up the rock. Crushed ore
must be hauled by truck or conveyed to a mill for further processing.

7 Haul trucks also transport waste rock from a blast out of the pit to a waste
rock dump.

8 The location of waste rock dumps is determined in the original mine design.
They are generally located on the margins of an active pit, but later on can be
situated in an inactive pit, as shown here.

9 Waste rock dumps are built up to specific dimensions. When reached that
size and shape, they must be reclaimed (hyperlink to Mine site reclamation), re
sloped if necessary and revegetated.

CONCLUSION:

In an open pit operation is necessary to follow a process, this process is


complicated but it have that being tidy, must have enough control, must
be safety for can to extract mineral without any problem.
operations have their owns characteristics and different

Those

parameters to considerate in each one and so to realize an optimal


activity.

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