Coal quarry. Mountain Quarries. Lectures on mining. Diamond mine Mir. Russia

The most ancient, but still relevant to this day, mining technology is open-pit mining. Already in Ancient Egypt they knew what a quarry was, and the first open-pit mine workings are known to us from the Paleolithic era. In the ancient world, a similar technology was used to extract marble. The greatest successes were achieved by the builders of Ancient Greece.

Until the 20th century, this method of extracting sand, marble, stone, coal, chalk, limestone and other building materials was the leading one in the world. This is due to the lack of high-performance equipment for opening the upper layers of the lithosphere and removing mineral deposits directly. The relevance of quarries has remained to this day, but the share of their participation in the mining industry has decreased somewhat.

Advantages of quarries

In order to understand what a quarry is, you need to get acquainted with the open-pit mining method. The essence of this method is that resources are extracted directly from the surface of the earth by opening the upper layers of the lithosphere. And the collection of mine workings or enterprises is called a quarry.

Quarrying has a number of advantages compared to obtaining minerals underground:

1. High degree of security.
2. More comfortable conditions for workers.
3. Ease of organization of work.
4. Short construction time.
5. Low capital investment.
6. More complete resource extraction.

But what does this quarry not allow to once again become the main place of mining? The main factor can be called a decrease in economic benefits: the longer the earth's surface is mined, the deeper the quarry becomes, which increases the cost of delivering material to processing plants. On at this stage development of the mining industry is the main barrier to the development of open-pit mining.

Basic elements of a quarry

The easiest way to imagine a quarry is in the form of a cone, the top of which is immersed in the earth's surface. Inside such a “cone” you can see spiral ramps, which are formed by ledges. The main elements that can characterize any quarry, be it a stone or a sand quarry, are:

1. The bottom of the quarry is the surface of the lower ledge, which is also called the bottom. If morphologically complex and extended rocks are being mined, the bottom may have a stepped structure.
2. Pit depth is the distance of the top cut to the lowest point of the mining operation. This value can reach 1000 meters.
3. Maximum depth - the maximum distance from the top edge to the bottom contour at which mining is economically feasible.
4. Limit contour - the contour of the quarry for the period of its closure due to low economic efficiency.

The main element, without which it is impossible to imagine what a quarry is, is a ledge. Its main characteristics - height, angle of repose, dimensions of the upper and lower working platform - depend on the massiveness and value of the rocks being mined.

Extraction technology

Open-pit mining is carried out by two types of work - stripping and mining. At the first stage, the earth's surface is "opened" - the top layer of the lithosphere is cut off, a pit is dug, thereby opening access to minerals. Then they begin directly to extract resources.

As the layers of “earthly wealth” are mined, the diameter and depth of the quarry increase, and the working ledges move from the center to the edges. Obtaining almost any type of resource involves drilling and blasting. Depending on the local conditions, their share can be 25-30% of the cost of the extracted material.

Economic efficiency

Mining marble, limestone rocks, creating any mine workings open type, including the sand quarry, are seeking to reduce costs. For this purpose, rotary excavators and heavy-duty vehicles are used: mainly BELAZ vehicles, which reduces transportation costs.

Often, the open-pit method of mining underground resources is used to produce coal. At the same time, it is possible to reduce the costs associated with delivery directly to consumers, which makes it accessible to the general population. Besides career path coal mining is the safest, but the quality of the raw materials leaves much to be desired due to the availability large quantity impurities.

The influence of quarries on the environmental situation

Quarry development has a negative impact on the ecological situation of the developed area. Firstly, the top fertile layer of the earth is completely destroyed, which subsequently cannot be restored. Secondly, the hydrogeological conditions of the site and the terrain change significantly.

Thirdly, the land allocation area is polluted by generated waste and wastewater. In addition, one cannot ignore the noise impact on environment, as well as the release of large amounts of carbon monoxide. Similar negative effects are observed when both a granite quarry and any other open-pit mine are created.

Of course, every person has seen real careers at least in photographs. They represent impressive depressions where work is or has been carried out to extract various minerals. Not all people understand what a quarry is. For many it's simple huge pits, and nothing else. However, in fact, quarries play a huge role for the industry of many countries around the world. In this material we will talk about the ten largest quarries on the planet.

First place - Chuquicamata (Chile)

Huge Chilean quarry used for mining copper ore. Over the years of its operation, more than thirty million tons of copper have been mined. Work has been going on there for hundreds of years. Despite this, even today Chuquicamata remains the largest source of copper on the planet. This is the deepest quarry of its kind. Its length is about four kilometers and its width is about three kilometers. It is 850 meters deep. It is not known for certain when the first work was carried out in this area. At the end of the nineteenth century, explorers found an abandoned ancient mine and human remains dating back to the 6th century AD. However, massive work began only at the beginning of the twentieth century and continues to this day.

Second place - Escondida (Chile)

Second place in this ranking is occupied by another Chilean field. As with Chuquicamata, this quarry is famous for its copper deposits. Major ore mining operations began here in 1990, and mining rates have been growing rapidly since then. In 2014 alone, about 1.5 million tons of copper were mined here, the value of which is estimated at ten billion US dollars.

This quarry is one of the main sources of money for the Chilean budget. In addition, about three thousand people work in the field, and the number of jobs is only growing.

In 2006, due to massive non-payment wages Major strikes and rallies began in the quarry. Quarry workers blocked the roads leading to the mine. In the end, their demands were heard and all the money was paid. Today, such problems are not observed, despite the fact that a certain negative reputation has nevertheless developed.

Third place - Udachnoye (Russian Federation)

Russia is also famous for its natural resource reserves. The number of quarries here is also very large. The largest of them in Russia is the Udachnoye deposit. In this quarry, diamond ore is mined using open and underground methods. Udachnoye is located beyond the Arctic Circle, which greatly complicates the mining process. However, use latest technologies and equipment allows Russian companies extract the required mineral. Today, open-pit diamond mining is gradually being phased out. It was originally planned to complete it completely by the end of 2015, but work is still ongoing. At the same time, the volume of work on underground mining of valuable resources is increasing. According to the published plans, over the next decades more than one hundred million carats will be extracted from the subsoil. No other canyon in the world can compete with Udachny in this regard.

Fourth place - Bingham Canyon (United States of America)

The largest canyon in the United States is Bingham Canyon, which also ranks fourth in the world. It is located in the state of Utah, south of Salt Lake City. It is four kilometers wide and 1.2 kilometers deep. Work began here back in 1848. The main resource of the canyon is copper ore. However, in addition to copper, silver ore, molybdenum and even gold are mined in Bingham Canyon. Despite the fact that work at the site has been going on for more than a hundred years, its volumes are not decreasing, but, on the contrary, are growing over the years. Mining is carried out both open-pit and underground.

Fifth place - Mir (Russian Federation)

In addition to "Successful", Russian Federation has another large diamond quarry. The Mir mine is located in Eastern Siberia. As of today, work there has completely stopped. Nevertheless, it has a fifty-year history behind it. Mining first began in 1957. It is noteworthy that the quarry was dug without the use of explosives. This is the deepest quarry of its type in the world. The diameter of "Mir" is 1200 meters, and its depth is just over 500 meters.

Sixth place - Kalgouri (Australia)

The Australian continent is also famous big amount canyons. The largest of them is Kalugri. It is located near the city of the same name. Gold ore is mined at this site. The length of Kalguri is 3800 meters, width - 1500 meters. The depth of the canyon is 600 meters. Work in Kalgoori has been going on for several decades. Over the years, hundreds of millions of tons of gold have been mined.

Seventh place - Kimberley (South Africa)

This facility is located in the south of the African continent on the territory of South Africa. Work in the canyon was carried out famous company DeBeers. It is noteworthy that Kimberley is the largest quarry created without the use of specialized technicians. In other words, work in Kimberley was done by hand. The length of the quarry is 1600 meters. Its depth is two hundred meters. The facility was closed in 1920. Today it is of interest to tourists who visit it with special interest. Until 1920, diamonds were mined here. The work was carried out over a hundred years.

Eighth place - Diavik (Canada)

This quarry is famous in the world not only for its size, but also for its beauty. Truly one of the most unique quarries on the planet. It is located on an island in the north-west of the country. The views of the snow-covered quarry island are mesmerizing. Work on the site began only in 2003. This is the youngest large quarry in the world. Diamonds are mined in Diavik, which are then sold to various companies in the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Ninth place - Mahoning Mine (United States of America)

Another US representative in this ranking. The quarry is located in northern Minnesota. The Mahoning Mine is notable, in addition to its size, primarily because work in it was initially carried out only using the underground method. After some time, open-pit mining began. In other quarries, as a rule, everything happens the other way around, and open-pit mining precedes underground mining.

Mahoning Mine is also called the "Great Canyon of the North" due to its size and geographical location. The length of the quarry is almost eight kilometers. Its width is 3200 meters and its depth is 180 meters.

The first work on this site began in 1985. Since then, eight hundred million tons of iron have been mined. To accomplish this, about one and a half billion tons of earth were excavated, which occupied an area of ​​8,000,000 square meters.

Tenth place - Grasberg

The Grasberg quarry is located in Indonesia. This is the largest facility of its kind in Southeast Asia. Large-scale diamond mining has been going on here for half a century. The quarry provides this resource to many enterprises in its region and beyond.

Today, mining in Grasberg is carried out by the American company McMoRan, which owns a majority of the shares in a joint venture with the Indonesian government. In 2006 alone, about 610 thousand tons of copper ore, sixty thousand kilograms of gold, and one hundred and fifty thousand kilograms of silver were mined.

Quarries play an important role in the industry of all countries of the world. They provide it with the most important resources. All of the sites on this list are the most important donors of copper, silver, gold ore, diamonds and other minerals.

Career

Stone quarry

Marble Quarry

Coal quarry

Sand quarry

Flooded stone quarry in Petrozavodsk

Quarry bottom

BOTTOM OF THE QUARRY - the platform of the lower ledge of the quarry (which is also called the bottom of the quarry). In conditions of development of steep and inclined mineral bodies minimum dimensions D.k. determined taking into account the conditions for safe removal and loading rocks from the last ledge: in width - not less than 20 m, in length - not less than 50-100 m.

In the conditions of development of morphologically complex deposits of significant extension, D.K. may have a stepped shape.

Pit depth

A ledge is a system of ledges (as a rule, the upper ones are rock or overburden, the lower ones are mining), the movement of which ensures the excavation of rock mass within the contours of the quarry field. Transport connections in Kazakhstan are provided by permanent or sliding ramps, and with the surface - by trenches. During operation, the working benches move, resulting in an increase in mined-out space. During stripping operations, the overburden is moved to dumps, which are sometimes placed in the goaf. With a rock depth of up to 100 m with strong containing rocks, the cost of 1 m³ of overburden comprises up to 25-30% of drilling and blasting operations, 12-16% of excavation, 35-40% of transport, and 10-15% of the construction of the quarry itself. With increasing depth of water, part of the cost of transport increases to 60-70%. To drill blast holes in Kazakhstan, heavy drilling rigs weighing up to 100-130 tons (type SBSh-250) and light drilling rigs are used. The main type of explosives are granulated ammonium nitrate granulites, gramonites (a mixture of nitrate with TNT) and water-filled ones (in flooded wells). The main excavation and loading equipment for coal and ore mining are electric excavators with a cable drive and a bucket with a capacity of 15-30 m³ with a boom length of up to 26 m. At the same time, hydraulic straight shovels with buckets with a capacity of 10-38 m³ are very common. Single-bucket loaders with buckets with a capacity of 4-20 m³ are used. In stripping operations, increasingly powerful shovels and draglines are being introduced (for example, an overburden shovel weighing 12 thousand tons with a bucket with a capacity of 135 m³ with a drive power of 22 thousand kW and a dragline weighing 12 thousand kW and a dragline weighing 12 thousand tons with a bucket are used capacity 168 m³ with boom length 92 m).

Flow technology in the K. is achieved by using rotary excavators (with a rotor diameter of 22 m and buckets with a capacity of 6.6 m³, the daily productivity of the machine is up to 240 thousand m³). In medium- and low-power excavations, compact rotary-wheel excavators with reduced operating parameters show high efficiency. In Kazakhstan, with hard rocks, the largest volume of transportation is carried out by heavy dump trucks.

Advancement of work in the quarry

PROMOTION OF WORK IN THE QUARRY is one of the indicators of the intensity of field development; characterized by the speed of the P.f.r.k., that is, the distance of movement of the mining front, expressed in meters per unit of time (for the most part - per year). Depends on g.h. on the scale of work, the type and design of loading and transport equipment that is used, the method of moving the mining front and the height of the benches that are mined. There are fan, equilateral and mixed P.f.r.c.

Fan advance - movement of the front of mining operations when developing a quarry field (or part of it) of a rounded shape, which is characterized by a higher speed of advance of sections of the front separated from the turning point (movement of the front in a “fan”, “fan-like” plan). Front advance is equilateral - movement of the mining front parallel to one of the axes of the quarry field from one boundary to another or from an intermediate position to the contours.

The front advance is mixed - a combination of different schemes for the advance of the mining front, for example, equilateral and fan-shaped.

Depth of development of deformations in the quarry

The depth of development of deformations in a quarry is the horizontal distance from the initial position of the upper edge of the slope (the upper edge of the quarry contour) to the last crack, which is visually traced in the direction opposite to the direction of movement of the displaced masses of the slope.

Notes

see also

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

See what “Quarry” is in other dictionaries:

- (French carriere). 1) the fastest running horse. 2) quarry, breaking, breaking, mine. Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. Chudinov A.N., 1910. QUARRY To put a horse into a quarry means to gallop at full speed. Dictionary of foreign... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

Mining enterprise for open-pit mining of coal, ores and non-metallic minerals: sand, building stone, etc. Open-pit mine in the coal industry. A quarry in the mining industry, sometimes a mine. Quarry totality... ... Financial Dictionary

Career. What is a quarry? What careers are there? Photos of quarries.

Career(incision) - a set of excavations in the earth’s crust formed during open-pit mining of minerals; mining enterprise for open-pit mining.
In a broad sense, a quarry is a huge well dug into the earth's surface. Quarries are formed when rock is removed from the ground in huge or crushed pieces, and they come in different forms.

The principle of open-pit mining is that the thicker layers of waste rock located on top, covering the mineral deposit, are divided into horizontal layers within the mining allotment, which are removed sequentially in the direction from top to bottom, with the lower layers ahead of the upper ones. The height of the ledge depends on the strength of the rocks and the technology used, and ranges from several meters to several tens of meters.

The bottom of the quarry is the area of ​​the lower ledge of the quarry (also called the bottom of the quarry). In the conditions of development of steep and inclined mineral bodies, the minimum dimensions of the quarry bottom are determined taking into account the conditions for the safe removal and loading of rocks from the last ledge: in width - not less than 20 m, in length - not less than 50-100 m.

In conditions of development of morphologically complex deposits of significant extension, the bottom of the quarry may have a stepped shape.

The depth of a quarry is the vertical distance between the level of the earth's surface and the bottom of the quarry, or the distance from the upper contour of the quarry to the lower. There are design, final and maximum pit depths.

A quarry is a system of ledges (usually the upper ones are rock or overburden, the lower ones are mining), which are constantly moving, ensuring the excavation of rock mass within the contours of the quarry field.

Explosions

One of the methods of extracting rock from a quarry is explosion. For explosion, wells are drilled to a given depth using a drilling machine. The diameter of the wells can be different, depending on the composition of the stone. The well grid (distance between wells) can also be different. Wells are usually drilled in advance and then covered with bags to prevent water or small stones from getting in before work begins. Lay out the components: a bag of explosives and a detonator. Then the detonators are connected and lowered down. The cable is tied so that it does not “go” down.

The well is charged with explosives. As work progresses, measure the level explosive in the well.

After charging, a plug is made in the well from the rock that remains after drilling the well.
The stopper is needed to lock the explosion products so that they do not “fly” up out of the well, and so that the explosion takes the shortest path not upward, but to the side.

Finish the work, connect the wires into a garland. Check the circuit for breaks.

A warning signal is given before the explosion. All equipment from the quarry is removed to a safe distance from the explosion point, people hide in cover, and an explosion occurs. After the explosion, a signal is given indicating the end of the blasting work.

Types of quarries

Careers are:

• diamond;
• copper;
• coal and others.

Quarry products

Granite and rubble stones are mined and produced in granite quarries.

In quartzite quarries: quartzite crushed stone, quartzite screenings.

In sand quarries: construction sand, gully sand, quarry sand.

In limestone quarries: limestone crushed stone, limestone flour, gypsum crushed stone.

In andesite quarries: andesite, rubble stone, finely split rubble stone.

At the marble quarry: marble chips, marble sand, marble flour, rubble stone.

In block quarries: granite blocks, granite slabs, gabbro blocks, paving stones.

In perlite quarries: crushed perlite, sand, perlite stone, expanded perlite.

In zeolite quarries: zeolite crushed stone, crushed natural zeolite.

Video of granite quarry

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