Scrapers vs draglines: a cost analysis
Recently passed federal strip mining legislation in the USA officially emphasizes that the increased coal production required by the United States through surface mining is going to be obtained only with stricter environmental standards. Dozing overburden down the hillside in Appalachian contour mining or leaving dragline spoils in area mining is now taboo and it is now, or will soon be, necessary to return the disturbed land to as good or better condition than before mining. These new restrictions will create a need for new and better ways to do the job. This article describes one approach for utilizing scrapers and dozers to strip all of the overburden and to replace it in an environmentally satisfactory fashion. The objective was to do this at a lower cost than that possible with the traditional dragline system by using dozers and scrapers for reclamation and topsoil handling.
- Research Organization:
- Caterpillar Tractor Co., Peoria, IL
- OSTI ID:
- 6501763
- Journal Information:
- World Coal; (United States), Vol. 4:11
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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