Wednesday 18 June 2014

Various Underground Mining Parts Used In The Mining Life Cycle

By Ina Hunt


Coal, geological materials and minerals found in the underground rocks such as sedimentary rocks are extracted using mining process. There different types of minerals located in different areas and require specific underground mining parts. These places either contain nickel, tin, gold, iron, lead or even silver. The key mining activities involve use of shafts to excavate ores.

Underground mining can be done using different methods which is determined by size, orientation, type and shape of ore. Cut and fill method is used in steep dipping ores. It is limited to use of methods that have long hole. Drift and fill are used to drill wider zones of ores ensuring that the zones are fully mined.

Excavation can be done in shallow mines or either in deep mines. Example is gold mining which is done in great depths. The depths exceed 3900m. Another mineral is uranium which is mined in hard rocks that are located in deep areas using deep excavating methods. In caves we find that the walls are completely filled with minerals. Bulk ores are in large amounts in deep depths and are located in open stopes that allow extensive excavation.

Coal mining is one of the underground mineral that is dug deep and only allows the minerals to be recovered using boreholes that are dug in the ground surface. Soil layers are arranged in a way that you are forced to dig deep. Shafts are used to dig open pits although the method is expensive and this is important since you get orebody in the extraction cycle.

Drifts are important when it comes to lifting the minerals upwards through passages. Mines in the lowest level are dug using shafts that run downwards.Ventilation, pumping and haulage are methods used in excavating pillars of ores. The ores lie between stopes, mining starts by breaking the ores into panels, slices and blocks.

Sampling, drilling and rock testing are used in to explore bulk deposits. Blind tunnel is used to cut the minerals deposits. Multipurpose shafts are used to drill large mines. These large mines are arrived at by use of inclining and declining portals. Strong ores are extracted using methods that are of high cost while weak ores are extracted using low cost methods. Rock bolting is one of these equipment that makes the method expensive.

Underground mining contain various phases. This includes exploration and feasibility, construction and planning, mine operations and finally closure. This is accompanied by activities such as crushing, grinding, dewatering and ore separation. Water and rock piles are separated in various stages. Then finally processing and extraction of the ore.

The mine has a head with a shaft which as well acts as an elevator. At the bottom is a sump sits with various horizontal channels from the main head leading to various areas of the ore body. Various levels of ore are accessed using ramps. A crusher employed to crush the ores while a drifter is used to dig the minerals located in lower parts. Air is required for ventilation, it allows fresh air to move around the underground caves while separation and dewatering is being done.




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