Continuous Mining and Transport Methods for Large Open Cast Mines

are gaining increased interest for over­burden removal and ore production at large open cast mines. The application of bucket wheel excavators is still tied to soft un­consolidated rocks and soils, while belt conveyors can cope with all kind of mat􀀂ri­als restricted only by the top grain _ size. Therefore, mode of transport and the re­quirement of down stream ore processing de­fine the materials size distribution. These requirements are usually met by primary crushing or scalping. The paper discusses general applica­ tion criteria of bucket wheel excavator with systems primary for in-pit overburden crusher removal. and It _indeapit􀀎s 􀀇 scalper units and discusses their technical and operational features. It further com­pares the capital and operating cost struc­ture relative to the syste