When you engage with the mining sector you will know how challenging it is. Mining teams require patience, knowledge, and a diverse range of equipment for mining to complete their projects successfully, regardless of the size of the site.
In this article, we’ll learn about certain mining equipment and explain how miners utilise it and where it’s most helpful.
Types of Mining Procedures
It’s important to look at the two main mining sectors, surface mining and underground mining. There are many types of mining, and here we’ll sort out which one is best for your firm.
Exterior Mining
Exterior Mining is a kind of mining that occurs at ground level as opposed to underground.
Theoretically, exterior mining is more prevalent and productive than mining underground, despite the significant differences between the two processes.
Methods used in surface mining include:
- In-situ leach (ISL) mining
- Quarrying
- Placer mining
Due to the adaptability of the surface mining process, surface mining operations recover around 97% of all extracted resources.
Mining Underground
Doing mining underground is one aspect in the mining business that comes to mind first for outsiders, although it is less widespread than surface mining.
Underground mining techniques include:
- Room and pillar mining
- Retreat mining
- Blast mining
- Cut and fill mining
- Drift and fill mining
- Sublevel caving
- Block caving
- Shrinkage stope mining
- Longwall mining
Underground mining necessitates the use of mining equipment that does not generate dangerous pollutants.
Addition to this, both surface and underground mining always adhere to a fundamental process. This technique is:
- Material processing. Minerals undergo material processing to be melted, crushed, ground, or refined, transforming them into finished goods for distribution.
- Material handling. Material handling entails sifting through materials, delivering desired minerals to a processing location, and discarding all other materials.
- Extraction. This is a process of drilling, blasting, or digging into the soil in order to obtain minerals.
Different Types Of Mining Equipment
There are several sorts of tools used in mining. Here, we have classified the many kinds of surface and underground mining equipment.
Surface Mining Equipment
The following are all of the mining tools used in surface mining:
Dragline excavators
They are one of the biggest pieces of earth-moving machinery utilised in any sector. They are used to remove overburden in strip mining. Massive bucket systems are hooked to gigantic booms and dragged over the earth’s surface to excavate.
Dozers
They are earth-moving machines that transport soil from one location to another.
Graders
They are used to build feasible roadways for mining trucks so that they may transfer materials out of mines while remaining lucrative.
Mining Trucks
Mining trucks are basically huge dump trucks that are used for mining. New technology has created completely autonomous mining vehicles that travel freely throughout a mining site using both LiDAR and radar.
Blasthole Drills
This mining equipment uses explosives to drill holes into the earth’s surface.
Bucket-wheel Excavators
These are often used in open-pit mining. These mining equipment continually excavate, transport, and load up to 240,000 cubic tonnes of minerals every day.
Shovels
These are used for digging as well as the extraction of shattered rocks and minerals.
Wheel Tractor Scrapers
Similar to a carpenter’s plane, wheel tractor scrapers are another kind of earth-moving equipment. Unlike dozers, scrapers are capable of loading and transporting materials.
Highwall Miners
Coal is extracted from exposed seams using this mining equipment. Highwall miners grind mineral deposits out of walls by rotating up and down them. These mining tools are also used for trench mining.
Underground Mining Equipment
Here are all of the varieties of underground mining equipment:
Drones
Visual inspections are performed by underground mining drones in conveyor belts, ore passages, ventilation shafts, stopes, and other places of an underground mine. Drone technology has enabled inspections to be done in locations that are too dangerous for people to visit, making it a useful tool in such dangerous situations. However, not all drones are suitable for use in mines.
Shotcrete Machines
Shotcrete machines sprinkle concrete across mine tunnel ceilings and walls to enhance a mine shaft’s or tunnel’s structural integrity.
Shuttle Cars
In room and pillar mining, shuttle vehicles transfer materials to conveyor belts. These tools are transported to the mine’s most distant areas.
Scoops
These are used in underground mining to load materials onto trucks in room and pillar mining.
Personnel Vehicles
Personnel trucks convey workers and their supplies underground through a shaft.
Refuge Chambers
Refuge chambers are self-contained safety chambers for miners that are stocked with water, food, sanitary supplies, and oxygen in the event of an emergency.
Rock Dusters
Rock dusters are critical for keeping mining shafts from catching fire. To counteract the coal dust, dusters use inert dust or dust containing a tiny quantity of flammable elements. This procedure is particularly critical when planned explosions occur.
Roof Bolters
Roof bolters use safety jacks to secure the mine’s ceiling, preventing cave-ins.
Mining Drills
Mining drills, often known as Jumbo drills, are used to make mine shafts for miners to enter.
Loaders and Haulers
These mining equipment, as their names imply, load and carry materials. This form of underground mining equipment is particularly small and nimble since it is intended exclusively for underground operations.
Longwall Mining Machines
Longwall mining machines are the most frequent underground coal mining machinery. By using the machine’s shearing capabilities, these mining tools are utilised to construct underground galleries and tunnels.
Underground Rails
Underground railroads transport miners and commodities within and outside of mines. Miners might often take an hour or more to get to the work site.
Ventilation Systems
Because of the toxic nature of coal and, in particular, coal dust, ventilation systems are critical for employees to be present in mines. These devices are used to supply clean air to employees and to manage temperatures beneath.
Crane Lifts
These mining machines can load explosives and transport big loads and mining equipment.
Continuous Miners
These mining machines are used in room and pillar mining that contain a big revolving drum with carbide teeth to remove coal from seams. These mining machines can extract up to five tonnes of coal per minute and contribute to around 45% of underground coal output. They also feature conveyor belts that deliver coal, making this a fully automated and remote-controlled operation.
Conclusion
Mining operations are among the most demanding tasks using heavy equipment. There are many different kinds of mining equipment, each with its own set of requirements and supervision.
We hope that this article has provided you with some useful information on mining equipment and its different applications.