Experience of operation of surface miners in opencast mining of cement raw materials

The review of mining of cement raw materials reveals avenues of improvement of surface mining technology in difficult geological conditions. In preparatory drilling and blasting of rocks, continuous bulk mining, without separation of rock mass layers, enables a substantial increase in productive capacity of an opencast mine. However, extraction of cement raw materials in rock masses with complicated geological structure is unlikely to be efficient in such geotechnical conditions. The key technological feature of surface miners is the unique design and structure of the step cutting drum and the operating space of the machine. In order to enhance productivity of surface miners, it is required to optimize the cutting drum design to facilitate application of continuous or cyclic-and-continuous technology of mining at minimized number of auxiliary operations and noncutting runs of a surface miner. The article discusses the main factors that influence determination of a smart use domain of surface miners and their efficiency in opencast mining of structurally complex deposits of raw materials used for making cement. The accomplished research proves that blast-free opencast mining of structurally complex deposits of cement raw materials using surface miners ensures the mining safety, improves the quality of raw materials for cement production, provides the end product immediately in the face zone, enables rejecting secondary crushing of raw material before shipping, allows lower mineable thickness of raw materials and mitigates the environmental impact of the process flow.

Keywords: blast-free opencast mining, surface miner, cement raw material deposits, productivity, process flow sheet, selective mining.
For citation:

Fomin S. I., Ljeljen A. Experience of operation of surface miners in opencast mining of cement raw materials. MIAB. Mining Inf. Anal. Bull. 2025;(1):128-140. [In Russ]. DOI: 10.25018/0236_1493_2025_1_0_128.

Acknowledgements:
Issue number: 1
Year: 2025
Page number: 128-140
ISBN: 0236-1493
UDK: 622.271.3
DOI: 10.25018/0236_1493_2025_1_0_128
Article receipt date: 02.04.2024
Date of review receipt: 29.07.2024
Date of the editorial board′s decision on the article′s publishing: 10.12.2024
About authors:

S.I. Fomin1, Dr. Sci. (Eng.), Professor, e-mail: fominsi@mail.ru, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0939-1189,
Ljeljen Aleksa1, Graduate Student, e-mail: s215134@stud.spmi.ru, ORCID ID: 0000-0003-1358-1142,
1 Empress Catherine II Saint-Petersburg Mining University, 199106, Saint-Petersburg, Russia.

 

For contacts:

Ljeljen Aleksa, e-mail: s215134@stud.spmi.ru.

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