Methods of extraction of minerals in the natural environment around us. When did people start mining? Mineral classification

The mining industry in Russia is mining

Despite the fact that the Russian Federation is very rich in minerals, little was known about them even a hundred years ago. Active search for deposits began in the 1930s in the USSR.

The discovered large volumes of deposits in the bowels of the earth on the territory of the Union brought the country to the undisputed leaders. Russia inherited the bulk of the discovered deposits, thanks to which it received the status of the most mineral-rich country in the world.

According to the most conservative estimates of foreign and domestic experts, the cost of minerals is 27 trillion dollars. With the growth of the pace of technological progress, technologies are being improved, production volumes are increasing, labor intensity is decreasing, and the profits of mining companies are increasing.

Despite such impressive data and development prospects, the mining industry needs significant capital investments, which, first of all, should be directed to providing infrastructure for deposits, establishing transportation, and modernizing processing plants. Big problems in Russia with the raw materials processing industry.

It turns out a paradoxical situation when huge volumes of extracted resources are exported for a small cost, and the country imports processed products for a price several times higher than the cost of raw materials. When it is much more profitable and economically more profitable to establish processing plants within the country, and to export surplus production.

Basic information

In Russia, mining is carried out in almost all directions; to a large extent, the country is rich:

Minerals map of Russia

• natural gas;
• oil products;
• ores of ferrous and non-ferrous metals;
• ores of precious metals;
• rough diamonds;
• peat shale;
• deposits of natural salt;
• ores containing precious and semi-precious stones;
• ores containing radioactive metals;
• mineral waters.

Federal legislation, preventing the formation of extractive monopolies, promotes business development by providing licenses for the extraction of minerals, tax incentives and deductions. The main requirements put forward to the enterprises of the industry are to ensure environmental and labor safety, as well as timely replenishment of the treasury with fees and taxes.

The largest extractive industries in Russia are as follows:

Forecast of demand and supply of diamonds in the world market until 2020

• Rosneft;
• Lukoil;
• Tatneft;
• Gazprom;
• Kuzbassrazrezugol;
• Evraz;
• Atomredmetzoloto;
• Dalur;
• Alrosa;
• Severalmaz.

It is also possible for an individual to obtain a license for individual fishing, however, this process is quite difficult, private entrepreneurs get out of the situation by concluding labor contracts with large enterprises. This situation is typical for the extraction of gold and precious stones, diamonds.

Mineral deposits in Russia

Mining operations are geographically distributed throughout almost the entire territory of Russia. However, some patterns and places of the highest concentration of individual species have been identified.

Russian coal basins

The basins of the Pechera, the Urals, and Bashkiria are rich in coal.

Ore minerals are concentrated in the Siberian platform, copper-nickel ores, platinum, cobalt are actively mined here.

Potassium salt is concentrated in the Caspian lowland, on the territory of lakes Baskunchak and Elton. Cis-Urals is also rich in salt deposits.

Building materials such as glass sand, gypsum, sand, limestone are mined in the East European Plain.

The Baltic shield is rich in various ores of ferrous and non-ferrous metals.

The extraction of minerals, such as oil and gas, is carried out in the lower reaches of the Volga and Ural rivers, on the territory of the northwestern Siberian plate. The largest gas field is located in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, as well as on Sakhalin Island.

The largest diamond quarry in Yakutia

Yakutia is rich in diamond ores, gold mines and coal.

Polymetallic ores occur in the bowels of the Altai Territory.

Gold, tin, polymetallic raw materials are mined in the Kolyma, in the Sikhote-Alin mountains and in the spurs of the Chersky Range.

The main uranium mining is concentrated in the Chita region.

Copper and nickel occur in layers located in the Urals, the Kola Peninsula. These ores are also rich in related minerals - cobalt, platinum and other non-ferrous metals. Near the active deposits of Eastern Siberia, the largest city has grown - the center of the Arctic - Norilsk.

Oil shale rocks are located in the European part of the Russian Federation, the largest deposit is St. Petersburg, which is part of the Baltic shale basin.

Peat is mined in 46 thousand deposits, most of which are concentrated in the Northern Urals and Western Siberia. The total reserves are estimated at 160 billion tons. Some deposits have an area of ​​about 100 km2.

Manganese in the Russian Federation is mined in 14 deposits, they are small in terms of deposits, and the ore is of low quality, it has a high content of carbonates, and enrichment of such ore is difficult. The largest deposits are recorded in the Urals - Ekaterininskoye, Yurkinskoye, Berezovskoye.

The extraction of minerals, such as aluminum ores - bauxites, is carried out in the Northern Urals - the Tikhvin and Onega deposits. In the Komi Republic, a group of bauxite deposits Srednetimanskaya was recorded. The ore here is of high quality, and the volume of proven reserves is estimated at 200 million tons.

Lecture “Mineral deposit”

In terms of silver reserves, the Russian Federation ranks first in the world, the main deposits are observed in complex ores that contain non-ferrous metals and gold - 73%. Copper pyrite ores in the Urals contain up to 30 grams of silver per ton. Lead-zinc deposits in Eastern Siberia contain 43 grams of silver per ton. Actually silver ores are mined in the Okhotsk-Chukotka volcanic belt.

Precious and semi-precious stones such as:

• emerald;
• beryl;
• jasper;
• nephritis;
• cornelian;
• malachite;
• rhinestone

mined in the Urals and Altai.

Lapis lazuli in Transbaikalia, carnelian and chalcedony in Buryatia and the Amur region, amethyst in the White Sea region.

Main mining methods

Mining methods in Russia

Depending on the type of fossil raw material, the forms in which it is contained, the depth of its occurrence, various methods of extraction are used.

In Russia, two methods are mainly used - open and underground. An open pit or quarry mining method involves the development of deposits by extracting useful ore using excavators, tractors and other equipment.

Before the start of development, blasting is carried out, the rock is crushed, in this form it is easier to extract and transport it. Open pit mining is suitable for minerals that are shallow underground.

Quarries, the depth of which reaches 600 m, can no longer be developed. In this way, 90% of brown coal, 20% of hard coal, about 70% of non-ferrous and ferrous metal ores are mined. Many building materials and peat are on the surface of the earth, they are mined in a quarry with full mechanization of production processes.

Extraction of minerals, such as gas and oil, is extracted from the bowels of the earth with the help of wells, the depth of which sometimes reaches several kilometers. Gas through the well rises to the surface under its own energy, in the depths of the earth it accumulates and is held by high pressure, and tends to the surface, since it is several times lower there.

Oil during the initial development of the well may flow for some time and in this way rise to the surface. When the fountain stops, further production is carried out by gas lift or mechanical means. The gas lift method involves the downloading of compressed gas, thus creating conditions for lifting oil. The mechanized method is most often used, it involves the use of pumps:

Minerals are extracted from groundwater and surface water, such as gas and oil

• electrocentrifugal;
• electric screw;
• electrodiaphragmatic;
• hydropiston.

Extraction of minerals by mine or underground method is used in the case of deep occurrence of useful rock. The mine is a tunnel, the depth of which sometimes reaches several kilometers. This method is laborious and quite costly.

Deployed infrastructure and expensive equipment are required to ensure safe working conditions. The operation of mines is associated with great risks, rock falls are quite common in Russia. However, underground mining methods have a less detrimental effect on the environment, compared to open pit ones.

Some minerals are mined from underground and surface waters, for example, gold, lithium, copper. Gold-bearing sands can be found on the banks of mountain rivers, swamps, lithium is found in groundwater in the form of simple compounds. Copper can also precipitate from some groundwater, dissolving sulfur compounds.

Production volumes

Despite the general economic downturn in 2015, the extractive industry recorded growth indicators. The total volume of mining in Russia increased by 1.3% compared to 2014. This was largely influenced by the discovery and development of new deposits; since 2011, more than fifty of them have been developed.

In terms of oil production, Russia ranks second in the world, second only to Saudi Arabia. About 530 million tons are mined per year. This industry has seen a steady increase in production volumes.

New fields increase the resource potential, so in 2015 the increase in oil reserves amounted to 600 million tons, which is 20% more than production. In total, more than 80,000 million tons of oil lie in the already discovered oil fields on the territory of the Russian Federation, according to this indicator, Russia is in 8th place in the world ranking.

Gas production in 2015 increased by 6.2% compared to the previous year and amounted to 642 billion cubic meters. According to experts, the proven volumes of gas in the country are 43.30 trillion tons, this figure indicates the unconditional leadership of Russia, Iran is in second place, its reserves are estimated at 29.61 trillion tons.

Gold production volumes in the first half of 2015 amounted to 183.4 tons, and Russia is also among the world leaders in this mineral.

Video: Diamond mining

Mining- the process of extracting solid, liquid and gaseous minerals from the bowels of the Earth using technical means.

Mining process

Mining is carried out by two main types of mining operations - open and closed.

Open pit mining extracts solid minerals.

In underground mining, mining operations are either carried out from underground mine workings, or the extraction of minerals is carried out through wells. The latter method is used for the extraction of all liquid and gaseous minerals, as well as solid minerals when the deposit is affected by one of the physico-chemical methods (for example, underground dissolution, underground leaching, borehole hydro mining, underground coal gasification).

A direction is being developed related to the use of microorganisms for the extraction of minerals (bacterial leaching.

A special place is occupied by the development of mineral deposits located at the bottom of the World Ocean and the extraction of minerals from sea water.

The process of mining consists in extracting valuable components in a relatively pure form (natural combustible gases, oil, coal, rock salt, precious stones, building sands and stones, clays, etc.) or in the form of rock mass (a particular case of which are metal ores) which is further processed. Mining is accompanied by the opening of the geological body containing it. In this case, the removal from the bowels of the barren rock mass - overburden.

Mining methods

Mining is carried out in five main ways: open (quarry), underground (mine), combined, hydrotechnological (borehole) and dredging.

The vast majority of solid minerals are extracted from the bowels of the open (quarry) method, which is more productive and cheaper than the mine. The advantages of the open pit method end when the depth of the reserves exceeds 300 m, and the stripping ratio (the ratio of the mass of mined ores to the mass of waste rock) is more than 8. Another disadvantage of the open pit mining method is the increased values ​​of ore dilution (the amount of waste rock that enters the ore during mining) and its losses in the bowels.

The average values ​​of losses of useful components in the subsoil during open-pit mining in Russia are for coal - 11%, chromite - 25%, lead-zinc and iron ores - 10% each, tungsten and molybdenum - 14% each, tin - 7%.

Dilution of ores during open-pit mining is usually quite high - from 5-8 to 20% and can reach 60% (i.e., the content of useful components in marketable ore is reduced by more than one and a half times). Increased dilution of ores reduces the quality of ores and has a detrimental effect on the process of further enrichment of ores.

The open pit method is used for the extraction of coal (95% energy and 35% coking), non-metallic (industrial) raw materials, molybdenum, copper-zinc, copper-nickel, iron and other types of ores (about 70% share).

Underground or mine mining method is used for the extraction of ores of gold, copper, polymetals, iron, tungsten, coal, i.e. for rather expensive types of mineral raw materials occurring in the form of thin veins, layers, mineralized zones.

The combined mining method is used in the extraction of mineral reserves with a large hypsometric range of ore bodies. With this method, first, by open-pit mining, the reserves of the upper horizons are withdrawn from the bowels, after which the deep-seated ore reserves are mined by the mine method. A typical example of the application of this mining method is diamond-bearing kimberlite pipes.

The geotechnological or borehole mining method is used to extract specific types of minerals that have a liquid and gaseous state (oil, gases, mineral and fresh water brines) or those that can go into this state with the help of simple manipulations. For example, underground leaching of uranium and phosphorus ores with sulfuric acid; completion of losses of minerals and low-grade ores in the contours of depleted quarries (copper, uranium, etc.). Sometimes underground melting of sulfur and refractory paraffins with steam is used.

The dredging method of extraction is singled out as a separate type, since it combines the processes of extraction and enrichment at the same time. The dredging method is used in the development of alluvial deposits of gold, platinoids, diamonds, cassiterite, etc.

The economy of many countries depends on mining. This is one of the main resources for the development of industry, construction and economy. There are two main mining options: underground mining and open pit mining. The choice of method depends on the depth of valuable rock deposits, terrain features and other factors.

Work on the extraction of useful resources from the bowels of the Earth has a thousand-year history. Equipment and mining methods have gone through a serious evolutionary path. Nevertheless, the basic principles remained.

Almost every corner of the planet is quarrying. It is mined, metals, minerals, building materials. This type of mining has a negative impact on the environment and the ecological situation. However, there are a number of advantages that determine the popularity of open pit mining:

• a simplified version of preparatory and construction work;
• high degree of safety of process participants;
• relatively low costs for organizing and conducting development;
• comfortable conditions for workers;
• the possibility of more efficient rock extraction.

The positive aspects of quarrying are identified in relation to other mining options (underground, combined). Labor costs for open pit mining are quite high. The economic benefit decreases with the deepening of the excavation. Delivery of the breed to the reception point is constantly becoming more complicated, increasing the costly part of the procedure.

Open source technology

The extraction of natural resources is a process that consists of many stages. Preparatory work begins with geological exploration. Experts search for mineral deposits and estimate the likely volumes of the developed rock.

Preparatory work

After the positive results of geological exploration, the stage of initial preparation begins. Mining companies carry out the following activities:

• uprooting the forest;
• drainage or flooding of the area;
• construction of necessary communications (sewerage, communications, access roads);
• erection of administrative buildings and other premises.

The duration of the preparatory stage depends on financial investments, the scale of work, weather conditions, and terrain features.

Minerals (coal, metal, etc.) are hidden under waste rock. This layer of soil must be removed. For this, stripping works are carried out. Layer by layer, the top soil is removed. There is a systematic advance towards valuable deposits. As a result, a cascade of benches is formed, and the quarrying is approaching the phase of direct mining.

For overburden work, the following technique is used:

• bulldozer;
• excavator;
• dragline (excavator with cable connection);
• drilling and blasting equipment.

The efficiency of open pit mining is determined by the ratio of the displaced waste rock to the result of mining. The number of cubic meters of removed soil is divided by the tonnage of the removed fossil.

Mining process

After stripping, the mining of the developed rock is carried out. It is removed from the bowels and transported to warehouses or processing plants. To reduce the cost of this stage of development, they use equipment with a large tonnage, they try to automate some processes.

Transportation of raw materials is often assigned to mining dump trucks of the BelAZ plant. In 2013, a model was released that is capable of carrying loads weighing up to 450 tons. On tests, the dump truck handled a record 503.5 tons.

New technologies and equipment are regularly developed, which are used for the development and extraction of valuable rocks. The level of security is increasing, and some processes are trying to be fully automated. But work in quarries and mines remains difficult and dangerous. Working conditions are often extreme and require high physical and psychological resilience.

Quarry device

Open pit mining is suitable for many valuable breeds. There are chalk, coal, amber, marble and copper quarries. One of the largest open-pit mining sites is located in Utah, USA. The mining of the Bingham Canyon quarry began in 1863. The depth of the pit is about 1200 meters. Active ore mining continues in the quarry.

Features of quarrying depends on many factors. We can distinguish the main elements that are characteristic of all such structures:

• working and non-working board;
• lower and upper contours;
• overburden and clearing ledges;
• platforms (below the slope, above the slope);
• breed acceptance point;
• transport communications.

The bottom of the quarry is also often called the sole - this is the lower platform of the ledge. Its dimensions take into account the necessary conditions for the safety of rock removal and loading at the last level.

The impact of quarries on the ecological situation

Each quarry development is a significant blow to the environment and the ecological background of the area. Already at the preparatory stage of rock extraction, actions are carried out that destroy the landscape. Enterprises cut down entire forests, drain water bodies, and carry out demolition work.

Open pit mining has a detrimental effect on the soil. Cubic meters of soil are removed for the sake of fossil deposits. Often these are lands that could be effectively used for agricultural purposes. The development of valuable rocks entails a decrease in the level of groundwater. The water supply of the region and the productivity of the soil are falling.

Dumps from overburden rocks are of particular danger. The scale of the negative impact depends on the depth of the quarry and the chemical composition of the soil. Dumps pollute water, air, soil. Various salts can penetrate vegetation and lead to an increased risk of certain diseases in the local population.

Mining in quarries is always accompanied by:

• sewage pollution;
• carbon monoxide emissions;
• strong noise.

All this also negatively affects the environment.

Measures to restore the environment

The open-pit mining method is not distinguished by a sparing approach to the developed area, but the negative consequences can be somewhat leveled. In many countries, quarrying companies are required to reclaim and revegetate the site after mining is completed. This allows you to start the process of regeneration of the soil and the ecological background.

Industrial waste management can also be optimized. From dump rocks are mined:

• mineral fertilizers;
• alumina;
• Construction Materials.

This allows expanding the range of economic benefits for the mining industry and reducing the negative impact of dumps on the environment.

Conclusion

Open pit mining is widespread throughout the world. This method allows you to remove a wide variety of rocks: chalk, coal, etc. We have to put up with the fact that quarrying has a negative impact on the environment.

However, conscious states are trying to control this process by setting certain requirements for mining enterprises. Extraction and development of valuable rocks is a help for a stable economy. It is difficult for the governing bodies to refuse the impressive financial flow that is laid in the bowels of the country.

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When did people start mining?

Minerals are chemical substances or compounds that occur in the bowels of the earth in their natural form. Ore is a deposit rich in some mineral for which it is mined. No one knows exactly when mining began. One of the first mining enterprises recorded in history was the Egyptian expedition to the Sinai Peninsula around 2600 BC. e. They went to mine mica, and discovered and extracted a more useful mineral - copper.

The ancient Greeks mined silver in mines south of Athens in 1400 BC. e. The Greeks built mines around 600-350 BC. e. Some of the wells were up to 120 m deep. Later, other metals such as lead, zinc, and iron were mined from these same spears. In order to supply the huge empire, the Romans carried out mining on a large scale. Their mines were everywhere - from Africa to Britain.

Among the most valuable Roman mines was that of Rio Tinto in Spain, which produced large quantities of gold, silver, copper, tin, lead and iron. Mining reached a large scale in the 18th century, when the industrial revolution began. A large amount of coal was required for metallurgy and factory furnaces.

Therefore, coal mining developed rapidly. Modern mining technology was born at that time. In the 19th century, the so-called "gold rush" broke out in the United States. It began in California in 1848. Over the years, more than $500 million worth of gold has been mined there.

In 1896, the "gold rush" swept Alaska. In South Africa, the largest deposits of diamonds were discovered in 1870, and rich gold deposits were discovered in 1886.

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is an important part of the economy of many states, including Russia. In addition to underground mining, open pit mining is an important part of it - in the event that the deposits are located relatively shallow. For this, modern technologies are used, many types of career special equipment are used.

It is difficult to say when humanity began developing the first quarry in its history. But for sure this happened before the first mine was dug: it is much easier to extract minerals located directly under the surface, or even on it. One way or another, it will be true to say that humanity has evolved along with the technology of extracting useful minerals and building materials. During the development of a quarry, millions of tons of rock are removed and sorted, which cannot but affect the state of the environment, at least on a local scale. Nevertheless, the need of civilization for minerals, from coal to precious metals, is growing from century to century - and, accordingly, the scale of production is also growing.

The positive aspects of open pit mining include such factors as the simplicity of preparatory (overburden and other) work, the relative safety of the participants in the production process, the relatively low costs of survey work and mining itself, and high productivity during rock extraction.

However, in addition to its advantages, open source development also has its drawbacks. These include a large number of machinery and equipment operating in the quarry, and hence the considerable costs of its purchase and maintenance. With the deepening of the pit, the costs of developing deposits also increase: the delivery of rock to a processing plant or pre-sorting station requires more and more effort and longer routes for equipment, therefore, the costs of the developer company also increase.

The technological cycle of open pit mining begins with exploration.

It is necessary not only to find deposits, but also to assess their volume, rock composition and depth of occurrence for the purpose of extraction. Further, preliminary work is carried out at the site of future developments, which include drainage (sometimes watering) of the territory, laying communications (access roads, electricity, communications, Internet), uprooting the forest and erecting administrative and auxiliary buildings. How much time passes from the moment of completion of geological exploration to the end of preliminary work, it is impossible to say unequivocally: it depends on investments in the future quarry, the nature of the terrain, climatic and weather factors.

When mining minerals in an open way - whether it be deposits of coal, manganese, ores containing metals - mining excavators are widely used - cyclic machines, loosely connected or scooping destroyed rocks and moving them sequentially, interrupting digging for the duration of rock movement. The opening of deposits, the extraction of minerals and their subsequent loading into vehicles are the main functions of these machines. Along with giant bucket-wheel walking excavators, rotary and cable electric machines, hydraulic caterpillar mining excavators are most widely used in open-pit mining.

A typical example of this type of machine is the R9250. Equipped with a 15 cubic meter bucket, it is great for working with 100-ton class dump trucks. Depending on the working conditions, the model is equipped with a diesel or electric power plant with a capacity of 287 hp. The rotation speed of the rotary motor is 8 revolutions per minute. The machine can be equipped with both a straight and a backhoe and is able to work even at extremely low temperatures: up to minus 40-50 degrees Celsius. The R9250, like other machines in the Liebherr excavator family, has a low center of gravity and a large digging depth of 8.7 meters. The gross vehicle weight is 253.5 tons.

Actually, the development of a quarry begins with stripping.

It is necessary to remove the surface, empty layer of rock, under which there are deposits of minerals. To do this, the soil is removed in layers, as a result of which a cascade of ledges is formed along the perimeter of the future quarry. If earlier drilling and blasting was widely used for these purposes, today special equipment is more often used for overburden work, primarily excavators and loaders, and mining dump trucks for waste rock removal. The thinner the surface layer, the more efficient mining operations: the efficiency of open pit mining is determined by the ratio of the displaced waste rock to the result of mining. The number of cubic meters of removed soil is divided by the tonnage of the removed fossil.

Mining loader

Having much more impressive dimensions than their construction counterparts, these wheeled or caterpillar earthmoving vehicles have a bucket with a capacity of up to 10 cubic meters or more, hinged at the end of the boom and unloading forward, as the main working body. The functions of mining loaders include ripping and bulldozing, cutting and transporting rock, as well as loading it into a dump truck.

Modern machines of this type have an operating weight of up to 62 tons. In addition to the front bucket, a bulldozer blade, a ripper, a lifting platform and other units are used as interchangeable equipment for mining loaders.

A bright representative of the family of mining loaders is a model of an eminent Japanese manufacturer of special equipment. This mining loader has an operating weight of 55 tons and is equipped with a 7.03 cubic meter bucket. The original 529 horsepower SAS6D170E-7 loader powertrain complies with Tier 4 Final environmental standards. According to the development company, the model has a number of improvements compared to previous generations of Komatsu equipment - in particular, the WA600-8 has significantly improved cab visibility, and the operator's seat is equipped with a heating function.

The same technique is used for direct mining.

Currently, for reasons of economic feasibility, many processes are being automated - for example, unmanned dump trucks that do not require a driver and often do not have a cab at all are becoming more widespread; there are also facilities where the mining process is controlled completely remotely (“smart quarry”). With higher initial costs, this approach guarantees significant savings in personnel wages, and in addition, ensures the safety of life and health of employees of the mining enterprise. Nevertheless, even work in a technically equipped quarry is still considered quite difficult, and sometimes extreme for the human body, and therefore requires high physical and psychological stability. At the same time, the harm from working in a quarry for the human body is much less than in a mine, and the level of injuries is much lower.

Minerals mined in a quarry are crushed and sorted on site or transported by dump trucks to transshipment points and further to processing plants. The removal of rock from the quarry is carried out by mining dump trucks; the most capacious samples of this equipment are capable of transporting about five hundred tons of cargo - however, this equipment cannot move on public roads due to its dimensions, therefore it is usually delivered to the place of work disassembled, by rail, highway or sea transport.

Drilling and blasting methods in the development of minerals in an open way are increasingly being replaced by surface miners, which allow not only to extract material, but also to load it directly into trucks or stack it in dumps. If the dump truck is busy with other work, the rock cut by the combine is fed along the conveyor and dumped into the dump. This is how the company's harvesters work. Depending on the angle of rotation of their conveyor, the material can be stored in one dump with 3-5 rock cuts. In the future, the material is loaded into the body of a dump truck using a mining loader. Depending on the height of the resulting blade, it is possible to load the material using a front loader.

Wirtgen's most productive 4200SM soft and hard rock surface miners are designed for cutting depths of up to 830 and 650 millimeters with a cutting width of 4.2 meters. In addition to their main task - the extraction of coal, limestone, bauxite, iron ore, phosphates, oil shale, kimberlite, salt - these surface miners are able to work effectively in construction, including road construction. In particular, these machines are able to carry out such functions as laying a route for road construction and construction of a rail track, precise milling of trenches, planes and slopes, milling channels, forming a tunnel bottom and road rehabilitation.

A lot of valuable minerals are mined in an open way: coal, amber, marble, diamonds - the list can be continued for a very long time. And the development of a quarry can last from several years to many decades. For example, the development of the Bingham Canyon quarry in the USA, the state of Utah, the depth of which is currently 1200 meters, has been going on since 1863.

There are many factors that influence production patterns; miners say that two identical quarries do not exist in principle. However, most of these structures share a number of common elements; among them - working and non-working board; bottom or sole - the lower platform of the ledge; lower and upper contours; overburden and clearing ledges; platforms (below the slope, above the slope); breed acceptance point; transport communications. The perimeter of the sole of the quarry is determined by the convenience of mining the rock and loading it into mining trucks.

Mining dump trucks are a kind of off-road vehicles of this type used in the development of deposits in an open way. Due to their impressive size, their operation on public roads is impossible - and they are delivered to the place of work disassembled. The scheme with two axles, with rear unloading, with rear or all-wheel drive, is recognized as the most appropriate for heavy dump trucks. A separate subclass of mining dump trucks is made up of articulated vehicles, for which a three-axle scheme is used. For example, such as the South African company Bell produces - every fifth articulated dump truck in the world leaves its assembly line. The main feature of this technique is the lowest weight in all load classes, which is achieved through the use of a high-strength welded alloy steel chassis and durable, weight-optimized components. Other features include powerful Mercedes Benz engines and ZF and Allison integrated retarder transmissions. One of the popular models - B50D with a 6 × 6 wheel arrangement, with a dead weight of 34.5 tons, is capable of carrying 45.4 tons of cargo. It is equipped with a 523 hp diesel engine. and a 640-liter fuel tank. Of the dump truck safety systems, it should be noted an automatic mountain brake, a quick fill function with a dry lock and tire pressure monitoring and protection of the cab from tipping over and falling objects.

As mentioned above, mining is not in vain for the environment.

The device of a quarry destroys a landscape that has evolved over centuries, and sometimes millennia. Many hectares of forests are being uprooted, lakes are being drained, explosive work is being carried out, and the level of groundwater is changing. Thousands of cubic meters of soil that could be used for agricultural purposes are turned into dumps during overburden operations. Depending on the chemical composition of the soil, dumps may contain elements that are dangerous not only for the flora and fauna, but also for the health of people living in nearby settlements. Their residents also suffer from high levels of noise, sewage pollution and carbon monoxide emissions from the engines of construction machinery and equipment.

Despite the fact that open pit mining causes significant harm to the environment, the harmful effects of it can be minimized. To do this, worked-out quarries are often filled with water, creating artificial reservoirs, and reclamation is carried out in the adjacent territories, planting them with trees and shrubs. As for the waste rocks, mineral fertilizers, alumina, and also some types of building materials are often obtained from them. All these measures make it possible not only to partially compensate for the damage caused to nature by open-cast mining, but often also to obtain economic benefits. In the world, the number of enterprises specializing in the cultivation of the territory of worked out quarries and the processing of mining waste is growing from year to year.

Quarries, cuts in which coal is mined, quarries allow people to annually receive millions of tons of valuable natural materials. In Russia alone, more than 4/5 of the total volume of iron ore and mining and chemical raw materials, up to 2/3 of non-ferrous metal ores, almost the entire volume of non-metallic minerals and building rocks, more than a third of coal are obtained by open pit mining, and in the near future it is planned to increase the share of its production is up to 56-60%. Due to its high economic efficiency, open pit mining also prevails in a number of other countries with significant mineral deposits - the USA, Canada, Australia and China.

Often, the primary processing of minerals is carried out directly at the place of extraction. Various things are used for this. For example, Telsmith horizontal shaft impact crushers of primary and secondary crushing are well suited for processing limestone and other materials with low abrasiveness. They are designed with a large margin of safety and have a one-piece massive rotor, which is their main advantage compared to analogues on the market, as well as a large crushing chamber, which provides high productivity and a cube-shaped material at the exit. The most productive primary crusher is Telsmith 6071 with 800-1500 hp drive, which has a capacity of 1000-2100 tons per hour. The crusher with an operating weight of 89 tons is designed for a maximum incoming piece size of 1422 mm. Of the crushers for secondary crushing, the most productive is Telsmith 5263 with a 300 hp drive; its productivity reaches 320 tons per hour. This model is designed for a maximum incoming piece size of 406 mm; crusher weight - 22 tons.