Coal Mining (1978) / Chapter Skim
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SURFACE MINING
SURFACE MINING
Pages 35-46
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From page 35... ...
Auxiliary operations include coal processing, water supplies, environmental protection, and land restoration. Productivity and capital requirements are affected by mining method, seam thickness, overburden depths, and reclamation required.
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From page 36... ...
The spoil transport distance of both machines is limited by machine size and boom length. Where the upper layer of overburden is particularly soft and blasting is unnecessary and where topsoil recovery is a key consideration, bucket wheel excavators can be used in conjunction with stripping shovels or draglines for removing the top layers and placing them across the pit on top of previously deposited spoil piles.
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From page 37... ...
If improved wheel excavators can be developed in the future, they could well substitute at least in part for the loading shovel. Coal hauling from the larger surface mines generally is accomplished using 80- to 180-ton bottom-dump trucks while 10- to 30-ton end-dump trucks are used in smaller mines and mines with steep grades (e.g., contour mines in the East)
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From page 38... ...
Table 5 indicates the approximates quantities of irrigation water that will be required under certain seam thickness and rainfall conditions for a large western surface mine. When coal cleaning is required, water is recycled to the maximum extent possible.
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From page 40... ...
The dust can and is being controlled by covering stationary dust sources and installing suitable dust control facilities, by using water and other dust suppressants in mine areas, by carefully planning and controlling blasting, and by providing for rapid revegetation of exposed surfaces. Until recently, surface mine land reclamation has been a problem.
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From page 41... ...
surface mines was 26.69 tons per man-day.» Even with increased equipment sizes, surface mine productivity in the East and Midwest probably will do well to remain constant because of increasing stripping ratios, the exhaustion of the more easily mined surface reserves in the East and Interior Regions, and the advent of stricter safety and environmental regulations. Open-pit coal mining as opposed to strip mining has only recently been practiced to any large extent in the West, and its impact on national coal productivity has yet to be felt.
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From page 42... ...
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From page 43... ...
then were used to establish total yearly capital requirements (assuming a predominance of the surface mines being developed in the Northern Great Plains and drift mines for underground development) in dollars per ton of annual production as follows: Capital Requirements Surface Underground Initial $ 7.00 $22.00 Deferred 3.00 12.00 Total $10.00 $3H.OO Because of thicker seams and generally more favorable mining conditions in the West, these capital costs are well below those for an eastern mine.
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From page 44... ...
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From page 45... ...
Gordon, Economic Analysis of Coal Supply; An Assessment of Existing Studies, EPRI Report 335 (Palo Alto, California: Electric Power Research Institute, 1975)
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