MNE110 Principles of Mining

Unit Operations in Mining

Unit Operations in Mining involves different activities done in the mine.
1. Production Operations – activities that are directly involved in mining activity
a. Excavation (Breakage)
b. Handling Process
2. Auxiliary Operations – activities that supports the production operation

 The first part of operation for surface mining is the removal of overburden (a waste material however it
is not directly associated with the ore; overburden is the material not a mineral; gangue is a waste
characterized as an unvaluable mineral)
 Wastes for Metallurgists and Mining are valuable materials for Ceramics Engineer, such as silica, clay,
etc.

General Production for the Unit Operations of Mining

- Production Cycle = drill + blast + load + haul (term for horizontal transport for material)

Rock Breakage:
1. Rock Penetration
2. Rock Fragmentation

Drilling or Rock Penetration

- a preparation for rock fragmentation; it is creating a blast hole
- preparation for blasting activity which would result to rock fragmentation
- rock penetration is just the process of creating of blast holes

Drilling: Rock Penetration

1. Rotary Drilling
2. Percussion Drilling – it can penetrate the very hard rock materials

 Drilling methods would differ from the capacity and ability of your drilling method differs on the
type of rock that is trying to penetrate
o Roller Bits are capable of penetrating harder rocks type
o Drag bit is for softer and consolidated materials
o Thermal Jet Piercing – not very common in the field because it is expensive; it involves
the use of sonic waves

Blasting or Rock Fragmentation

- The main goal of blasting activity in the mine is for the reduction of sizes;
- Liberation or comminution or the size reduction always begin at the mine but for further comminution or
size reduction happens at the mill.

Common explosive that is used:

1. ANFO or the Ammonium Nitrate (NH4O3) + Fuel Oil
o 94% Ammonium Nitrate and 6% Fuel (by mass)
o Ammonium Nitrate formed is pelletized
 Porous; High surface area
o Ammonium Nitrate is very hygroscopic
 Water is easily absorbed
 Water-soluble; effectivity or efficiency will diminish when wet
o ANFO has a density of 0.8 kg/m3
o ANFO is good for dry environment
o It is sold in sack containers and mixed already
2. Emulsion
o A colloidal mixture of two immiscible liquids
o Complete opposite of ANFO where it is an explosive that is used for wet environment
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o Emulsion is very expensive that’s why mining companies invest in dewatering so that ANFO
will be used
o It is sold in bulk trucks
o It is delivered in bulk

Stemming – the materials that you add on top of your blast holes to create pressure; limestones, clay, sand or
any course materials

 In underground mines, your blast holes are smaller in diameter compared to your surface mines. This
is because the area is confined to be considered in underground opening
 Employees are informed and are aware when there is blasting activity. Therefore, there is no other
activity is done. Blasting happens around early morning
 Blasting materials used for surface blasting are the same as blasting for underground. They differ in
the amount used

Materials Handling
It involves:

1. Loading/Excavation
- The removal of rock material whether overburden or ore
- After the fragmentation of ore by blasting, you need leading or excavation

A. Hydraulic Backhoe Excavator

o Used for digging material below the equipment level
o After blasting, muck (blasted materials) is loaded into the truck
Advantages
- Separation between loading and hauling equipment
- Good for digging ramps and drop cuts
- High flexibility
Disadvantages
- Lower productivity when digging material on the same level
- Low mobility

Types of loading
1. Top loading

B. Shovel
o 2 common types:
 Rope Shovel
 When you load a material, there is a dipper door that opens and unload that
particular material into the haulage truck
 Hydraulic Shovel

C. Front-end loaders
o Common equipment used in civil works
o Used in ROM stockpiles road maintenance moving small amours of material (i.e. stemming)
loading equipment
Advantages
- High mobility
- Flexible
- Can be used in hauling equipment
Disadvantages
- High maintenance cost
- Requires smooth terrain
- Material requires loose and spread out muck profile
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D. Draglines
o Used in high-productivity mines with the dumpsite located in-pit
o Commonly used in Nickel mines corporation
Advantages
- High productivity
- Low operating cost
- Doesn’t require hauling equipment (direct casting)
Disadvantages
- High capital cost
- Very low mobility
- Can only be used in limited applications
- Requires bench preparation

E. Bucket Wheel Excavator

o Used in mines with soft rock; doesn’t require drill and blast
o Drilling and blasting is part of the equipment
o Continuous cycle
Advantages
- High productivity
- Low operating cost
- Continuous cycle which is common in coal mines
Disadvantage
- High capital cost
- Very low mobility
- Can’t be used in hard rock applications

Typical Operation (Loading and Hauling Operation)

1. After blasting, it is loaded to the truck
2. Trucks then travel to the dump site then back to hauling area

Expenses
- Haulage is accountable for 50% of the overall expenses in the mining operation
- Loading is 12%

2. Hauling
- The transport of rock material

A. Trucks (On-highway trucks)

Advantages
- High productivity
- Flexible
- Cyclic in nature and has better compatibility with backhoes and shovels
Disadvantages
- High maintenance cost
- Requires properly maintained roads
- Capacity is only 15m3 so this is just used for construction operations

B. Rigid Dump Trucks

o Bigger and higher capacity
o Considered the backbone haulage equipment for the worldwide mining industry

C. Conveyor Belts
o Continuous hauler
o Common for underground mines
o Automatically delivers your materials into your stock pile or in your mill
Advantages
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- Good compatibility to continuous mining
- Low operating costs
- Doesn’t require much personnel
Disadvantages
- Low flexibility
- Requires permanent structure
- Huge downtime during maintenance

D. Surface Miner
o Commonly used in the mining site
o This is a type of equipment when the area is not suitable for drilling and blasting that is why
there is cutting drums (which is responsible for cutting and drilling)
o Multipurpose equipment designed to crush, cut and load soft material
Advantages
- Can be used un highly selective application (dilution control)
- Reduced amount of equipment and processes
Disadvantages
- Can’t be used in hard rock applications
- Relatively low productivity

3. Dumping
- The placement of rock material into storage areas

Unit Operations in Mining involves different activities done in the mine.

1. Production Operations – activities that are directly involved in mining activity
a. Excavation (Breakage)
b. Handling Process
2. Auxiliary Operations – activities that supports the production operation

a. Surveying
- Mining engineers create plans, they need surveys
- Past of mine planning

b. Road maintenance
- Maintenance trimming and spillage removal
- Scarifying soft spots
- Main goal is to maintain haulage roads
Ex.
1. Road Graders
2. Road Rollers

c. Slope stability
- Usually, common during rehabilitation to ensure that the benches will not collapse

d. Dust management
- Usually done to reduce the drill dust and dust generated in overburden removal by mobile excavation
equipment
- Such as water sprinklers

e. Dewatering
- Usually done with pumps to remove the water from the sumps

Loading/Hauling Combinations
- Loading and Hauling Equipment need to match in order to have better efficiency
- 3-6 passes are the best
- Overloaded trucks can cause higher maintenance costs due to higher tire wear
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- When using continuous mining methods, conveyors are the most suitable hauling equipment
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Surface Mining

The location or the depth of the deposit (general term is Stripping Ratio) is primarily the basis in choosing
whether you’ll go Surface Mining Methods or Underground Mining Methods.
What are the factors in choosing the method?
- The stripping ratio (the amount of overburden removed over the amount of ore recovered). It’s not about
the location or the depth of the deposit but the stripping ratio.

Surface Mining
Divided into two:
1. Mechanical Excavation Method
- consolidated; harder or more intact than most ore deposits than can be done in aqueous method
- most common surface mining method that around 90% of the total world surface mining operation
- example is open-pit, quarrying, open-cast, auger and gloryhole mining method belongs in mechanical
2. Aqueous Method
- includes all methods that uses water or fluids or liquid solvents to recover the mineral
- example is solution mining, leaching

Parts of an open-pit mine

1. Bench – where active operation takes place; the structure in open-pit mines; area for excavation, haulage
2. Bench face – where excavation usually happened or where the excavation for minerals happen
3. Crest and Toe – Crest is upper part of the bench while the Toe is the lower part of the bench
4. Sump – the area where water is collected especially rainy season
5. Berm
2 types of Berm:
1. Catchment berms – it collects the falling debris from the pit
2. Safety berm – is for the equipment that will not go over to the bench, para dili mahulog; ideal
height is half the height of the truck wheels
6. Haul road – passage way of trucks
7. Ramp – still a haul road but connects two haul roads together
8. Switchback – a haul road design system where it is a one part or in a perimeter of an open-pit; designed
to turn around equipment 180deg. to get to the other side of the road; a faster design for the haulage road
9. Spiral system – covers the entire open-pit; located not just on one side of the pit but also at the top and
bottom part of the pit

Different mining methods

1. Quarrying
- done to extract non-metallic materials mostly used in construction such as limestone (cement),
aggregates (sand and gravel) and dimension stone (granite and marble) (extracted in rectangular blocks
and uses chains of machine to recover or extract them)
- a surface mining activity
- don’t employ blasting activity but excavators are needed for the operation or ore strength/rock strength
but it depends on a commodity such as for dimension stone is common to have blasting activity
- benches are much shorter and completely (or almost) vertical
- most common quarrying is for limestone

2. Open-cast mining
- done by excavating in sections progressing in one direction and dumping the waste rock on already
mined out areas
- it is applied on large tabular, flat-lying orebodies such as coal
- this is usually done in blocks
- when we say cast, the overburden is not transported to waste dumps but it is casted into adjacent mined
out panels
- we can employ progressive rehabilitation because once a single block is mined, then can proceed into
rehabilitation
- most common mining method where dragline is usually used
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o Classification of open-pit mining
 Area mining – the location or orientation of deposit; it is done in area mining carried out
in flat tarrying or flat lying seams
 Contour mining method – common method in Nickel mine in Philippines; usually carried
in mountainous terrain; based on topography

3. Auger/Highwall Mining
- usually done on coal deposits that have been left over in the highwall
- not very common in the Philippines
- Augers are used to extract the deposit
- Augers are circular while highwall is in rectangular
- Highwall Mining has higher productivity due to its developed technology i.e. continuous miner similar
to bucket-wheel excavator, than Auger Mining

4. Glory Hole Mining

- very old method
- method of mining that reduces the hoisting and hauling costs through the use of a vertical shaft where
ore is dumped
- a particular haulage system collects the materials that is being dumped

Most surface mines are low grade deposits

Aqueous Mining Method

1. Placer
a. Dredging
b. Hydraulic Mining
2. Solution – involves leaching which uses lixiviant (a chemical material where it is used to extract a
valuable material from your deposit)
a. Heap Leaching
b. In-situ Leaching

Placer Mining
- intended for the recovery of heavy minerals from placer or alluvial deposits, using water to excavate,
transport and/or concentrate the minerals
- usually happens with any bodies of water
- common for Gold deposits
- common methods employed in placer mining
o Sluice boxes – where minerals are concentrated through washing the unconsolidated materials
through sluice box; different levels of sluice box are called riffles (traps heavier minerals at the
bottom part of the sluice box)
o Panning – a particular method same with sluice box but smaller scale; to separate the heavier
minerals to the lighter ones
o Amalgamation – where Mercury is used to extract Gold from material

Shapes, Sizes and Sorting of Sediments

1. Shapes
a. Angular: has sharp corners and edges
b. Rounded: has undergone abrasion and has rounded, smooth edges
2. Sizes
a. Clay: <1/256 mm, creates mudstone
b. Silt: between 1/256 and 1/16 mm, creates siltstone
c. Sand: between 2 and 63 mm, creates a conglomerate
d. Cobble: between 64 and 256 mm, creates a conglomerate
e. Boulder: >256mm, creates a conglomerate
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1. Hydraulicking
- a high-pressure stream of water is directed against a bank to undercut and cave it
- uses high stream of water to cave a particular portion of the mountain and the material would
automatically go to the body of water

(ideal) Sequence of Development (under Hydraulicking)

1. Adequate water
2. Suitable waste disposal
3. Control of water quality

Cycle of Operation
- Excavation and materials handling are both accomplished hyrdraulically; (no prior breakage)
- No prior breakage or transport is normally required
- Auxiliary operations are negligible, and reclamation is often incorporated in the production cycle

2. Dredging
- Underwater excavation of a place deposit, usually carried out from a floating vessel
- Not limited to river, could be also lake, etc. but not allowed to sea/oceans
- Used:
o Mechanical Dredge – mechanically excavate and transport the mineral; excavate and transport
o Hydraulic Dredge – transport materials in slurry form, using water as the transport medium
o Bucket-line Dredge – used heavily in the past for the extraction of Gold from placers up to 50m
in depth

Solution Mining
- Using lixiviant or chemical material to extract valuable mineral directly from a particular deposit
- Categorized into two, heap leaching and in-situ leaching

1. Heap Leaching
- Dissolution of ore metals through leaching, melting, or slurrying from ore material placed in a prepared
area
- Mostly used is metallic ore
- Heap first before introduction of chemicals
- Preparing the solution by heating or adding the proper lixiviant
- Pumping the solution into the deposit to bring the valuable mineral into the deposit to bring the valuable
mineral into the solution (melting, dissolution, or slurrying)
- Raising the pregnant solution to the surface
- The chemical solution coming from the heap would go to the pregnant pond as a pregnant solution
- Pregnant solution contains the valuable materials present in the heap
- Geomembrane Liner is important to avoid contamination to the soil or ground water
- Heap Leaching liners:
o Single Liners
 Clay
 Concrete
 Asphalt
 Geomembrane
o Composite Liners
 Geomembrane and Clay
o Double Liners

2. In-situ/Borehole Leaching
- At a particular area, recovery also happens unlike heap leaching that a valuable material is transported to
another area
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- Solution is introduced through a well and pumped out in another well
- Mostly used in easily dissolved substance such as sulfur deposits, salts or water-soluble minerals
- Injection well will penetrate the deposit
- Recovery well is where valuable material passes through
- Common for Sulfur deposits, salts
- Common materials that is extracted in this particular method is Uranium