Crushing In The Pit

Open pits and quarries are the major sources of all "hard rock" tonnage mined today. Normally, ore is fractured from the pit face by blasting and then truck-hauled to a primary crusher where pro- cessing begins; overburden (or waste) is generally truck-hauled from the pit to dump areas. Truck haulage of blasted ore and overburden accounts for some 25 to 50% of total mining costs in a typical open pit and commonly is the largest single cost factor. Obviously then, cost reduction efforts should properly focus on improving existing haulage systems and developing new breakthrough techniques for material transport. Continuous flow systems for large tonnages ordinarily will result in a lower cost than batch systems such as truck or rail haulage. Continuous flow with pipelines for liquids and slurries, or conveyors for medium to coarse dry materials (in the -8-in. range) are the economic answers for bulk materials handling over reasonable distances.