Energy saving ideas for open pit mining

Journal Article · Fri May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1981 · World Coal; (United States)

OSTI ID:6182783

Rixen, W ^[1]; Benecke, K J

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1. Krupp Industrie-Und Stahlbau, Duisberg, Germany

The increasing cost of diesel fuel is making truck haulage in open pit mines less economic. Belt conveyor systems have much lower operating costs but are not as flexible in their application and require more detailed pit planning. The possibility of combining the flexibility of trucks with the low cost of conveyors is offered by the application of semi-mobile crushing plants followed by belt conveyors for the main haul out of the pit. In the first part of this article. Dr.-Ing W. Rixen describes some of the semi-mobile plants already in operation, while in the second section. Dr.-Ing K.J. Benecke discusses a theoretical case study involving trucks, crushers, and conveyors. Since a belt conveyor cannot transport rocks of a size often produced when blasting hard strata, a crusher must be installed before the belt conveyor to reduce the material to a transportable size. This also serves as a primary crusher. The crushing plant is positioned centrally in the mine and trucks haul overburden and ore from the individual faces to the crusher without having to climb long gradients. Therefore, truck haul distances and operating costs are significantly reduced. The resulting savings in operating costs greatly exceeds the additional capital costs for the crushing plant. The use of fully mobile crushers directly fed by the face shovel is well established. Whereas the partial elimination of truck haulage by semi-mobile in-pit crushers is a more recent development. This latter method restricts truck haulage to in-pit operation only, saving costly haulage of material up-grade out of the pit to the crusher or overburden dump. It is particularly applicable to operations where blending is required. In such cases, the flexibility and adaptability of trucks to frequently changing faces is essential, while the semi-mobile crusher reduces haul distances to a minimum.

• OSTI ID: 6182783
• Journal Information: World Coal; (United States), Journal Name: World Coal; (United States) Vol. 7:4; ISSN WOCOD
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
012000* -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Mining
013000 -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Transport
Handling
& Storage
BELT CONVEYORS
COAL MINING
COAL PREPARATION PLANTS
COMMINUTION
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
CONVEYORS
CRUSHING
DATA
ECONOMICS
EQUIPMENT
GRINDING MACHINES
HAULAGE EQUIPMENT
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
INFORMATION
MACHINE TOOLS
MATERIALS HANDLING
MATERIALS HANDLING EQUIPMENT
MINE HAULAGE
MINING
MINING EQUIPMENT
NUMERICAL DATA
PLANNING
SURFACE MINING
TOOLS
TRUCKS
VEHICLES