Mining Empire: Earth Resources News

OVERBURDEN MINING - the removal of rocks that cover minerals during open pit mining. Overburden mining includeы the preparation of rocks for excavation and loading, transportation and dumping. Overburden mining is to create the initial mining front during the construction of quarries and during the operation to preserve and develop this front. Overburden rocks that do not contain useful components are removed to external or internal dumps. If overburden rocks are suitable for use as building mineral raw materials (for example, clays, sands, limestone, chalk, etc.), then they are exposed to further processing (crushing, sorting, etc.)

The excavation and loading of loosened overburden rocks from the bottom-hole are performed, as a rule, by excavators, earth moving and transporting (wheeled scrapers, bulldozers) and loading and transporting (single-bucket loaders, etc.) machines.

Excavators of cyclical action, or single-bucket excavators, perform work on the excavation and movement of the soil cyclically: fill the bucket with soil, turn it over, unload it into the dump or other transport, return the bucket to its original position. This type of model is widely distributed due to its versatility. With the help of interchangeable equipment, the single-bucket excavator can perform not only earthworks, but also loading and unloading operations.

A drilling machine is a stationary or self-propelled unit for drilling wells in rocks of various strengths for underground and open-pit mining of mineral resources. There are machines for different purposes: for drilling exploration, mining, including explosive, as well as special wells (degassing, for descent materials, etc.). According to the method of rock destruction, there are percussion rotary and rotary drilling machines. These machines drill wells with a diameter from 100mm to 1000mm to a depth of 200m. Diamond drilling machines used for drilling wells during clearing and exploration in solid and very solid rocks, they have a high frequency of rotation of the drill rod (from 2000 rotations/min and more).

In medium-heavy and heavy self-propelled machines, all working mechanisms and equipment are installed on the platform. Self-propelled drilling machine includes a caterpillar platform, a pneumatic engine or a car, a mast, a rotational-feed mechanism with a drill rod, a compressor, an oil tower, various drive motors with starting equipment, instrumentation and drilling process control equipment, pneumatic transport systems and dust absorption, jacks for machine installation. Mobile (portable) drilling machines have a working body with a drive, brace columns for its installation in the underground workings, a frame on which all parts of the machine are mounted, and a control panel.

A pumpjack is the overground drive for a reciprocating piston pump in an oil well. It's used in the oil-producing industry to drill wells up to 4,000 meters deep.
A typical installation may have a length of 7 m, and a width of about 2-2.5 m. The mass usually exceeds 10 tons. The general principle of the operation of the equipment is similar to the function of a syringe, which in this case is provided by sucker-rod pumps. Also, as an indispensable element, the pumpjack is equipped with columns of compression tubes. Through these channels the lifting and transmission of oil is realized.
The pumpjacks operate in a circular-based way, allowing the oil to concentrate around the well to ensure efficient pumping. In addition, this principle of maintenance minimises deterioration of the parts of a drive.
Operators control the lifting of oil, and technical staff also monitor the operating performance of the mechanisms in terms of maintaining their function within peak-load tolerances. The most common pumpjack in the pump-drive operations is designed for pile-supported mining. With the help of this unit, wells can be drilled in permafrost environments.

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OPEN-PIT MINING is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth by their removal from an open pit or borrow. This method is characterized by a high degree of minerals extraction from the depths.
Open-pit mining is divided into several periods:
• Preparatory period: the territory preparing (deforestation, stumping, rivers diversion, field drainage, highways transfer, construction of warehouses and structures);
• Mining and construction period: the construction of capital and split trenches, drainage works, the installation of the main mining, transport and technological equipment;
• Field exploitation period is the longest one. Systematic excavation and movement of rocks are provided with a mountain transport and auxiliary equipment complex. The mechanization ensures the continuity of transport communications from bottoms to offloading points;
• The final period is a disturbed land restoration and returning it for beneficial use.