Quarry for the extraction of crushed stone. What is a quarry? Open pit mining technology Quarry where

24.12.2021

So a career is singled out mining allotment. The principle of open mining is that the thicker layers of waste rocks located on top, covering the mineral, within the mining allotment, are divided into horizontal layers - ledges, which are taken out sequentially in the direction from top to bottom, ahead of the lower layers by the upper ones. The height of the ledge depends on the strength of the rocks and the equipment used and ranges from several meters to several tens of meters.

Story

Open pit mining is known from the Paleolithic era. The first big careers appeared in connection with the construction of pyramids in ancient Egypt. Later in the ancient world, marble was mined on a large scale in quarries. The expansion of the scope of open-pit mining with the help of quarries was kept up to the beginning. of the twentieth century, due to the lack of highly productive machines for removing and moving large volumes of overburden. At the end of the 20th century, 95% of building rocks, more than 70% of ores, 90% of brown and 20% of hard coal were mined in quarries.

The main explosives used in quarrying in the Soviet Union in the 1920s were ammonal and ammonites, in the 1930s - dynamons, during the Great Patriotic War - oxyliquites and ammonites, and from 1956 to the 1960s - igdanite.

Quarry elements

Quarry bottom

The bottom of the quarry is the platform of the lower ledge of the quarry (which is also called the bottom of the quarry). In the conditions of development of steep and inclined bodies of minerals minimum dimensions The bottom of the quarry is determined taking into account the conditions for safe removal and load of rocks from the last ledge: in width - not less than 20 m, in length - not less than 50-100 m.

In the conditions of development of morphologically complex deposits of significant stretching, the bottom of the quarry may have a stepped shape.

Pit depth

The depth of a quarry is the vertical distance between the level of the earth's surface and the bottom of the quarry, or the distance from the top contour of the quarry to the bottom. Distinguish design, final and maximum depth of a quarry. (See deep quarry).

The deepest quarries in the world reach a depth of almost 1 km. The deepest quarry is Bingham Canyon (Utah, USA), the Chuquicamata quarry (Chile) has a depth of more than 850 m.

Quarry limit contour

The limit contour of a quarry is the contour of a quarry for the period of its repayment, that is, the termination of work on the extraction of minerals and overburden.

Technology and organization of work in a quarry

A quarry is a system of ledges (as a rule, the upper ones are rock or overburden, the lower ones are mining), which are constantly moving, ensuring the excavation of the rock mass in the contours of the quarry field.

The movement of the rock mass is carried out various types transport. Transport links in the quarry are provided by permanent or sliding exits, and with the surface - trenches. During operation, the working ledges move, resulting in an increase in the mined-out space. During stripping, overburden is moved to dumps, which are sometimes placed in goafs. With a quarry depth of up to 100 m with strong containing rocks in the cost of 1 m³ of overburden, up to 25-30% is occupied by drilling and blasting, 12-16% by excavation, 35-40% by transport and 10-15% by the construction of the quarry itself. With an increase in the depth of the quarry, part of the cost of transport increases to 60-70%.

Quarry working area

The working area of a quarry is an area in which overburden and mining operations are carried out. It is characterized by a combination of overburden and mining ledges that are simultaneously in operation. The position of the working area is determined by the height marks of the working ledges and the length of their work front. The working zone is a surface that moves and changes in time, within which work is carried out on the preparation and excavation of the rock mass. It may cover one, two or all sides of the quarry. During the construction of a quarry work zone, as a rule, includes only overburden ledges, and by the end of mining and capital works - mining. The number of overburden, mining and mining faces in the working area cannot be set arbitrarily, since the implementation of plans for certain types works. In the working area of a quarry, each excavator occupies a certain horizontal area during operation, which is characterized by a width work site and the length of the excavator block.

When developing horizontal and flat deposits of small and medium thickness, the altitude position of the working zone of the quarry remains unchanged. When developing inclined and steep deposits, as well as thick isometric deposits, the working zone gradually decreases along with an increase in the depth of the quarry.

Advancing the front of work in a quarry

The advancement of the front of work in a quarry is one of the indicators of the intensity of field development. The advancement of the front of work in a quarry is characterized by speed, that is, the distance of movement of the front of mining, expressed in meters per unit of time (for the most part, per year). The speed depends on the scale of the work, the type and design of the loading and transport equipment that is used, the method of moving the mining front and the height of the ledges that are being mined. There are fan-shaped, isosceles and mixed advancement of the front of work in a quarry.

Fan advance - movement of the mining front during the development of a quarry field (whether part of it) of a rounded shape, which is characterized by a higher advance rate of front sections separated from the turning point (movement of the front in terms of "fan", "along the fan").

The advance of the front is isosceles - the movement of the mining front parallel to one of the axes of the quarry field from one of its borders to another or from an intermediate position to the contours.

Front advance mixed - combination different schemes advancing the front of mining, for example, isoswan and fan.

Depth of development of deformations in a quarry

The depth of development of deformations in the quarry is the horizontal distance from the initial position of the upper edge of the slope (the upper edge of the contour of the pit) to the last crack, which is visually traced in the direction opposite to the direction of movement of the displaced masses of the slope.

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Notes

Literature

Melnikov N.V. Handbook of Engineer and Technician for Open Mining, 4th ed. - M., 1961.
Rzhevsky V.V. Technology, mechanization and automation of open-pit mining processes. - M., 1966.
Rzhevsky V.V. Technology and complex mechanization of open pit mining. - M., 1968.
Kuleshov N. A., Anistratov Yu. I. Open pit mining technology. - M., 1968.

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An excerpt characterizing the Quarry

Bolkhovitinov told everything and fell silent, waiting for the order. Tol began to say something, but Kutuzov interrupted him. He wanted to say something, but suddenly his face narrowed, wrinkled; he, waving his hand at Tolya, turned in the opposite direction, towards the red corner of the hut, blackened by images.
- Lord, my creator! You heeded our prayer ... - he said in a trembling voice, folding his hands. - Saved Russia. Thank you Lord! And he cried.

From the time of this news until the end of the campaign, Kutuzov’s entire activity consists only in using power, cunning, and requests to keep his troops from useless offensives, maneuvers and clashes with a dying enemy. Dokhturov goes to Maloyaroslavets, but Kutuzov hesitates with the whole army and gives orders to clear Kaluga, a retreat beyond which seems to him very possible.
Kutuzov retreats everywhere, but the enemy, without waiting for his retreat, runs back in the opposite direction.
Historians of Napoleon describe to us his skillful maneuver on Tarutino and Maloyaroslavets and make assumptions about what would have happened if Napoleon had managed to penetrate into the rich midday provinces.
But apart from the fact that nothing prevented Napoleon from going to these midday provinces (since the Russian army gave him the way), historians forget that Napoleon's army could not be saved by anything, because it already carried in itself the inevitable conditions death. Why is this army, which found abundant food in Moscow and could not keep it, but trampled it underfoot, this army, which, having come to Smolensk, did not sort out food, but plundered it, why could this army recover in the Kaluga province, inhabited by those the same Russians as in Moscow, and with the same property of fire to burn what is lit?
The army could not recover anywhere. She, from the battle of Borodino and the robbery of Moscow, already carried in herself, as it were, the chemical conditions of decomposition.
The people of this former army fled with their leaders not knowing where, desiring (Napoleon and every soldier) only one thing: to get out personally as soon as possible from that hopeless situation, which, although unclear, they were all aware of.
Only for this reason, at the council in Maloyaroslavets, when, pretending that they, the generals, were conferring, giving different opinions, the last opinion of the simple-hearted soldier Mouton, who said that everyone thought that they should only leave as soon as possible, closed all mouths, and no one , even Napoleon, could not say anything against this universally recognized truth.
But although everyone knew that they had to leave, there was still the shame of knowing that they had to run. And an external push was needed to overcome this shame. And this impulse came at the right time. It was the so-called French le Hourra de l "Empereur [imperial cheer].
The next day after the council, Napoleon, early in the morning, pretending to want to inspect the troops and the field of the past and future battle, with a retinue of marshals and an escort, rode in the middle of the line of disposition of troops. The Cossacks, snooping about the prey, stumbled upon the emperor himself and almost caught him. If the Cossacks did not catch Napoleon this time, then he was saved by the same thing that ruined the French: prey, on which both in Tarutino and here, leaving people, the Cossacks rushed. They, not paying attention to Napoleon, rushed to the prey, and Napoleon managed to get away.
When les enfants du Don [sons of the Don] could catch the emperor himself in the middle of his army, it was clear that there was nothing more to do but to run as soon as possible along the nearest familiar road. Napoleon, with his forty-year-old belly, not feeling in himself the former agility and courage, understood this hint. And under the influence of fear, which he gained from the Cossacks, he immediately agreed with Mouton and gave, as historians say, the order to retreat back to the Smolensk road.
The fact that Napoleon agreed with Mouton and that the troops went back does not prove that he ordered it, but that the forces that acted on the entire army, in the sense of directing it along the Mozhaisk road, simultaneously acted on Napoleon.

When a person is in motion, he always comes up with the purpose of this movement. In order to walk a thousand miles, a person needs to think that there is something good behind these thousand miles. You need a vision of the promised land in order to have the strength to move.
The promised land during the French offensive was Moscow, during the retreat was the homeland. But the homeland was too far away, and for a person walking a thousand miles, one must certainly say to oneself, forgetting about the final goal: “Today I will come forty miles to a place of rest and lodging for the night,” and on the first transition this place of rest obscures the final goal and concentrates all desires and hopes. Those aspirations that are expressed in an individual are always increased in a crowd.
For the French, who went back along the old Smolensk road, the ultimate goal of the homeland was too distant, and the nearest goal, the one to which, in a huge proportion, strengthening in the crowd, all desires and hopes aspired, was Smolensk. Not because people knew that there were a lot of provisions and fresh troops in Smolensk, not because they were told this (on the contrary, the highest ranks of the army and Napoleon himself knew that there were few provisions), but because this alone could give them the strength to move and endure real hardships. They, and those who knew, and those who did not know, equally deceiving themselves, as if to the promised land, strove for Smolensk.
Coming out on the main road, the French with amazing energy, with unheard-of speed, ran towards their fictitious goal. In addition to this reason for the common striving, which connected the crowds of the French into one whole and gave them some energy, there was another reason that connected them. The reason for this was their number. The sheer mass of them, as in physical law attraction, attracted individual atoms of people to itself. They moved with their one hundred thousandth mass as a whole state.
Each of them wanted only one thing - to surrender to captivity, to get rid of all the horrors and misfortunes. But, on the one hand, the strength of the common desire for the goal of Smolensk carried everyone in the same direction; on the other hand, it was impossible for a corps to surrender to a company, and, despite the fact that the French used every opportunity to get rid of each other and, at the slightest decent pretext, surrender themselves to captivity, these pretexts did not always happen. Their sheer number and close, rapid movement deprived them of this opportunity and made it not only difficult but impossible for the Russians to stop this movement, to which all the energy of the mass of the French was directed. The mechanical tearing of the body could not hasten the ongoing process of decomposition beyond a certain limit.
A lump of snow cannot be melted instantly. There is a certain time limit before which no effort of heat can melt the snow. On the contrary, the more heat, the stronger the remaining snow.
Of the Russian military leaders, no one except Kutuzov understood this. When the direction of the flight of the French army along the Smolensk road was determined, then what Konovnitsyn foresaw on the night of October 11 began to come true. All the higher ranks of the army wanted to distinguish themselves, cut off, intercept, captivate, overturn the French, and everyone demanded an offensive.
Kutuzov alone used all his forces (these forces are very small for each commander in chief) to counteract the offensive.
He could not tell them what we are saying now: why fight, and block the road, and lose his people, and inhumanly finish off the unfortunate? Why all this, when one third of this army melted away from Moscow to Vyazma without a fight? But he spoke to them, deducing from his senile wisdom what they could understand - he spoke to them about the golden bridge, and they laughed at him, slandered him, and tore, and threw, and swaggered over the killed beast.
Near Vyazma, Yermolov, Miloradovich, Platov and others, being close to the French, could not resist the desire to cut off and overturn two French corps. Kutuzov, informing him of their intention, they sent in an envelope, instead of a report, a sheet of white paper.
And no matter how hard Kutuzov tried to keep the troops, our troops attacked, trying to block the road. The infantry regiments, as they say, with music and drumming went on the attack and beaten and lost thousands of people.
But cut off - no one was cut off or knocked over. And the French army, pulling closer from danger, continued, evenly melting, all the same disastrous path to Smolensk.

The battle of Borodino, followed by the occupation of Moscow and the flight of the French, without new battles, is one of the most instructive phenomena of history.
All historians agree that the external activity of states and peoples, in their clashes with each other, is expressed by wars; that directly, as a result of greater or lesser military successes, the political strength of states and peoples increases or decreases.
No matter how strange the historical descriptions of how some king or emperor, having quarreled with another emperor or king, gathered an army, fought with the army of the enemy, won a victory, killed three, five, ten thousand people and, as a result, conquered the state and the whole people in several million; no matter how incomprehensible why the defeat of one army, one hundredth of all the forces of the people, forced the people to submit, - all the facts of history (as far as we know it) confirm the validity of the fact that greater or lesser successes of the army of one people against the army of another people are causes or, according to at least essential signs of an increase or decrease in the strength of the peoples. The army won, and immediately the rights of the victorious people increased to the detriment of the defeated. The army has suffered a defeat, and immediately, according to the degree of defeat, the people are deprived of their rights, and with the complete defeat of their army, they completely submit.
So it has been (according to history) from ancient times to the present. All the wars of Napoleon serve as confirmation of this rule. According to the degree of defeat of the Austrian troops - Austria is deprived of its rights, and the rights and forces of France increase. The victory of the French at Jena and Auerstet destroys the independent existence of Prussia.

Open pit mining is one of the most widely used in the world. It is used when mineral deposits are close to the surface of the Earth, while they are simply dug out using large-sized mining equipment or extracted through a series of controlled explosions.

This is one of the easiest and cheapest mining methods, however, after it, giant craters remain on the surface, which look very bewitching. Today we want to show you photos of the ten largest open pits in the world and tell you a little about them.

10. Escondida Copper Mine

Located in Chile's Atacama Desert, this copper mine consists of two open pits, Escondida Pit and Escondida Norta. Dimensions - 3.9 kilometers long, 2.7 kilometers wide and 645 meters deep. In terms of depth, this is the third quarry of this type in the world.

9. Diamond mine Lucky

This quarry is located in the Russian part of Eastern Siberia and is one of the largest in Russia. Now managed by the state company ALROSA, it was opened in 1971, and it is planned to close it this year, 2015. But only open-pit mining will stop, underground mining will continue, since, according to the company, another 108 million carats of diamonds can be extracted from underground.

8. Copper Quarry Chuquicamata

For more than a century, the Chuquicamata copper mine located near Santiago, Chile has been producing huge amounts of copper ore. It is 4.3 kilometers long, 3 kilometers wide and over 850 meters deep, making it the second deepest in the world. In 2018, open-pit mining will cease and operations will be moved underground, where 1.7 billion tons of copper ore still remains.

7. Grasberg field

This "Holy Grail" among the quarries is located in the Indonesian province of Papua. It ranks second in the world in gold and copper mining. Its depth reaches 550 meters.

6. Mahoning Mine

This quarry is interesting in that mining on it began with underground operations and only then came to the surface, although usually everything happens the other way around. This iron mine is called the "Northern Grand Canyon" and it is located in the US state of Minnesota. Dimensions - 8 kilometers long, 3.2 kilometers wide and 180 meters deep.

Since its opening in 1985, this open pit has produced 800 million tons of iron ore and excavated 1.4 billion tons of earth over an area of 8 million m 2 . It is so gigantic that it has become a national monument in Minnesota.

5. Diamond Quarry Diavik

This Canadian diamond quarry was opened in 2003 and produces up to 8 million carats of diamonds per year. In width, it reaches a size of 7 kilometers. It is also unusual that it is located on the island of Lac de Grasse in the Northwest Territories of Canada.

4. Kimberley Diamond Quarry

This quarry is located in South Africa and is owned by the well-known De Beers company. This is the largest quarry in the world, the development of which was carried out without the use of special equipment, in fact, it is completely dug by hand. Its diameter is about 1.6 kilometers, and its depth is more than 200 meters. Although it was closed back in 1914, it is still visited by crowds of tourists and is now in the process of being registered as an object. world heritage UNESCO.

3 Kalgoorlie Super Quarry

Australia's largest open pit, the Kalgoorlie gold mine is 3.8 kilometers long, 1.5 kilometers wide and approximately 600 meters deep, making it the third largest open pit mine in the world.

2. Diamond mine Mir

Located in Eastern Siberia, this Russian diamond quarry operated from 1957 to 2001 and produced best years up to 10 million carats of diamonds. Now closed, it is still the largest quarry in the world to have been dug without the use of explosives. Its diameter is 1.2 kilometers and its depth is 525 meters.

1. Bingham Canyon

Our winner, the largest and deepest open pit in the world, is located in the US state of Utah, southwest of Salt Lake City. This giant quarry is 4 kilometers wide and 1200 meters deep. It was discovered back in 1848 for the extraction of copper ore and since then it has been mined in large volumes of copper, gold, silver and molybdenum.

Open way. In relation to a career, the term "cut" is used.

Open pit mining has been known since the Paleolithic era. The first major careers appeared in connection with the construction of pyramids in ancient Egypt; later in the ancient world, marble was mined on a large scale in quarries. The expansion of the scope of open pit mining was held back until the beginning of the 20th century by the lack of productive machines for excavating and moving large volumes of overburden. In the early 80s, 95% of building rocks, about 70% of ores, 90% and 20% of hard coals were mined in the world through quarries. The scale of extraction in quarries reaches tens of million tons per year (table).

Transport links in quarries are provided by permanent or sliding exits, and with the surface - trenches. During operation, the working ledges move, as a result of which the worked-out space increases. Overburden is moved overburden to dumps, sometimes placed in a goaf, mining operations excavate and move minerals to an industrial site for primary processing or for shipment to the consumer. This is how the main cargo flows in quarries are formed, which largely determine its appearance and technological features.

With a quarry depth of up to 100 m with strong enclosing rocks in the cost of 1 m 3 of overburden, up to 25-30% is occupied by drilling and blasting, 12-16% -, 35-40% - transport and 10-15% - dumping; with an increase in the depth of open pits, the share of transport costs increases to 60-70%. Modern careers- highly mechanized enterprises equipped with productive machines and mechanisms for crushing, excavation, transportation and storage of rocks. In relation to large quarries, powerful mining and transport equipment is decisive. For drilling blast holes, heavy drilling rigs (cone rollers with the removal of drilling fines with compressed air) weighing up to 100-130 tons, developing a force on the bit of 60-70 tf (hole diameter up to 300-450 mm), light drilling rigs are used. The main type of explosives are granular ammonium nitrate granulites (non-trotyl of the simplest composition), grammonites (a mixture of saltpeter with TNT) and water-filled (in flooded wells). Mechanical loosening is carried out by rippers, the power of which has reached 735 kW, and the mass is 130 tons. Electric excavators with a cable drive and a bucket with a capacity of 15-30 m 3 with an boom length of up to 26 m are the main excavation and loading equipment for the extraction of coal and ore. At the same time, hydraulic direct meshlopats with buckets with a capacity of 10-38 m 3 are widely distributed. Improved single-bucket loaders various models with buckets with a capacity of 4-20 m 3 , weighing from 25 to 180 tons and a drive with a power of 184 to 1040 kW; the main part of the models is with articulated frames that rotate by 35-45 °. More and more powerful shovelers and draglines are being introduced at overburden operations (overburden shovel weighing 12 thousand tons with a bucket with a capacity of 135 m 3 with a drive power of 22 thousand kW and a dragline with a mass of 12 thousand tons with a bucket with a capacity of 168 m 3 with a boom length of 92 m are used).

Created automated systems prospective, current and operational planning of mining operations in quarries for all technological processes including recultivation of lands disturbed by open pit mining. Computers are used to determine the final boundaries and productivity of quarries. AT computer system data on occurrence conditions, information on the thickness of overburden rocks, other geological factors are laid down, economic indicators(planned productivity of a quarry, capital investments, cost data), requirements for environmental protection.

Due to the large scale of mining and the depth of the quarry, they change the circulation of air masses (cold air "flows" into the quarry), creating a special microclimate (see Ventilation of quarries).

Career(from French carriere, var.: section) - a set of mine workings formed during the extraction of minerals in an open way; open pit mining enterprise. For the most part, quarries (large quarries) are used for the extraction of metal ores and building materials. But there are also diamond deposits where quarries are used to extract precious stones. Chuquicamata, Chile The world's largest open-pit mine (quarry) in which copper ore is mined at the deposit of the same name. Its dimensions are: 4.3 km in length; 3 km wide and 850 m deep. For many years, since 1910, the quarry has been known as the largest quarry in the world with the largest daily volume of extracted and moved rock mass, but recently lost the palm to the Escondida quarry (Minera Escondida)

Escondida, Chile Escondida is located in northern Chile in the Atacama Desert. The company's infrastructure consists of two quarries (Escondida and Escondida Norte), two concentrators (Laguna Seca and Los Colorados), a plant for the production of cathodes from oxide and sulfide ores, and two pipelines for transporting copper concentrate to a filtration plant. This mining considered one of the pillars of the Chilean economy. Suffice it to say that Escondida employs 2,951 people, and this is direct employment. In 2006, there was a major strike here, workers wanted to get more. After the management refused to pay large salaries, the workers simply blocked the road to a career. In the end, the company had to go along with the demands of the employees.

Deposit "Udachnaya", Russia The depth of the Udachnoye quarry has already reached 600 meters. This is the largest diamond deposit in Russia in terms of raw materials and ore body size. Many large stones were mined in it, including crystals that are now in the Diamond Fund. The work is complicated by the fact that this field is located right beyond the Arctic Circle, which is enough interesting fact. It can be added that the Udachnoye deposit was discovered a few days after the discovery of the Mir deposit.

Mir kimberlite pipe A quarry located in the city of Mirny, Yakutia. The quarry has a depth of 525 m and a diameter of 1.2 km and is one of the largest quarries in the world. Open pit diamond mining that lasted 44 years. Near the quarry, the village of Mirny was formed, which became the center of the Soviet diamond mining industry. The largest diamond found in Russia was mined at the Mir mine on December 23, 1980. It weighs 342.5 carats (more than 68 g) and is called "XXVI Congress of the CPSU". AT last years mining trucks "wound" along a spiral road 8 km from the bottom to the surface. Mining of diamondiferous kimberlite ore was stopped in June 2001. Currently, an underground mine of the same name is being built on board the quarry to develop the remaining under-quarry reserves, the extraction of which by open pit is unprofitable.

Sibay deposit(Bashk. Sibay yaҡtylyҡ) is a copper-zinc-pyrite deposit in Russia, located in Bashkortostan, near the city of Sibay. Opened in 1913. Development began in the 1930s of the XX century. The depth is more than 500 meters, the diameter is 2 km.

Bingham Canyon, USA One of the largest quarries in the world, gold and copper are mined. Developments have been going on for almost 150 years. It has the following dimensions for 2008: 1.2 km deep, 4 km wide and covers an area of 7.7 km2. Ore is transported by 64 huge mining trucks, each of which is capable of transporting 231 tons of ore per trip. In one year, 715 tons of gold and 17 million tons of copper are mined. More than 1400 people are employed in the development.

Grasberg mine, Indonesia The Grasberg porphyry copper ore deposit is the world's largest and highest mountain mine and is engaged in exploration and development, mining and processing of ores containing copper, gold and silver. The quarry is located in the province of Papua in Indonesia, near Mount Punchak Jaya - the highest point in Oceania, the highest mountain in the world located on the island (~ 5030 m)

Diavik Diamond Quarry, Canada The Diavik diamond quarry is located in the northern part of Slave Lake in northwestern Canada. After surveying the territory in 1992, the construction of a quarry began, which began mining in January 2003. It has become an important part of the region's economy, employing more than 700 people and producing 8 million carats (1600 kg) of diamonds worth $100 million annually. The quarry is located on the islands and has its own infrastructure with an airport capable of receiving passenger Boeings.

Super Pit, Australia. Western Australia is known for its gold and nickel mines. Around Kalgoorlie full of mines and quarries, the most famous of which is the open pit Super Pit (Super Pit) - a unique hydrothermal gold deposit. The total area of the ore field is more than 10 km2. The remaining reserves are at least 70 tons of metal.