Essay

Mining Technology in
German lignite mines

Professor: Alexander Erbest

Student: Leahu Serghei

Freiberg 2015

Lignite is a raw material sought after all over the world. Particularly in Germany,
this fossil fuel contributes substantially to the reliability and cost stability of our power
supply.
Lignite is a dense, earthy, woody or fibrous carbonaceous mass with brown below,
with a high content of volatile bituminous substances. It is often well preserved vegetable
wood structure; fracture conchoidal, earthy or wood; color brown or pitch-black; smoky
flame burns easily, releasing an unpleasant kind of burning smell; when processing
potassium hydroxide to give a dark-brown liquid. When the dry distillation of the
ammonia formed, free or connected with acetic acid. The proportion of 0.5-1.5. The
average chemical composition, less ash: 50-77% (average 63%) of carbon, 26-37%
(average 32%) of oxygen, 3-5% hydrogen and 0-2% nitrogen.
The material for the formation of brown coal were the various Conifer, pulp,
deciduous trees and peat plants, the gradual expansion of which under water without air,
under cover and in a mixture of clay and sand, gradually leads to the enrichment perish
with vegetable carbon residues at a constant emission of volatile substances . One of the
first steps of this istlevaniya after peat, lignite is, further expansion is completed
conversion to coal and anthracite, and even graphite. This transition of crop residues from
slightly decayed state of the turf by lignite and coal and anthracite, finally into a clean
carbon-graphite is made, of course, very slowly, and it is understandable that, what kinds
of coals richer in carbon, the ancient and geology of their age (Details the geological age
and origin of the coals, see. article Coal). Graphite and shungit confined to Azoic group,
anthracite and coal - to the Paleozoic and Mesozoic to lignite and mostly Cenozoic.
However, coal is also found in the Mesozoic sediments and, in view of the existence of a
gradual transition between the brown and coal, many made fossil coal younger
Cretaceous called brown coal, and more ancient - coal, although their characteristics and
they would deserve more titles brown coal.
Despite the tremendous technological developments, which energy production has
seen with renewable resources, coal has been the fastest growing fuel of the last decade.
Economists and climate scientists alike are increasingly reporting the worldwide
renaissance of coal. Coal is a coveted raw material in particular in the newly
industrialized countries, which a little over a decade ago were referred to as developing
countries. In the meantime, they have become serious competitors in an increasingly
global economy. The reasons for this are obvious: Coal is available at a relatively low and
stable cost all over the world and will continue to be supplied for centuries to come. This
makes coal the only resource able and available to respond to developments in global
demand. The global boom coal is currently enjoying has largely evaded Europe and
Germany. Over the past 20 years, European, and especially German, energy policies have
been governed by environmental and climate considerations rather than by reliability of
supply and competitiveness.

This is not surprising given the differences in social and economic conditions:
Relatively poor but young, dynamic nations with unsatisfied demand for development
on the one hand, and Europe with its stagnating population and only moderate economic
growth on the other. An orientation towards a green economy that is ambitious in terms
of both technology and regulation is undoubtedly in line with European interests and
strengths. Coal? Is that not the fuel of the past? Exactly because of this perception, it is
vital to understand why lignite is so essential for Germany. German lignite contributes
substantially to the reliability and cost stability of our electricity supply. It is the only
fossil fuel offering us an employment and value chain entirely within this country, not to
mention lignites further refinement potential. While our high social and environmental
standards have become a matter of course, it should be consciously taken into account
that they are often unparalleled on an international level.
Open pit mines can be used in coal mining, and they are used in lignite mining
In a open pit coal mine, the pit bottom would be the bottom mined coal seam elevation,
since it is usually feasible to extract multiple seams when surface mining coal. In a hard
rock mine, the bottom of the pit would be the lowest level (elevation) that mining would
be conducted on the ore being mined.
Planning must account for both environmental protection, beginning as early as
the initial exploration, and for reclamation. It is critical that planning alleviate or mitigate
potential impacts of mining for two key reasons: the cost of environmental protection is
minimized by incorporating it into the initial design, rather than performing remedial
measures to compensate for design deficiencies, and negative publicity or poor public
relations may have severe economic consequences. From the start of the planning
process, adequate consideration must be given to regulatory affairs. The cost of
compliance may be significantly reduced when taken into account in the design or
planning process, in a proactive manner, rather than being addressed on an ad hoc basis
as problems develop or enforcement actions occur.
From the beginning of the mine design planning stage, data gathering and
permitting, environmental considerations are important, although benefits from a strictly
economic sense may be intangible. From exploration, where core holes must be sealed
and the site reclaimed, through plan development, the impacts on the environment must
be considered. These impacts include aesthetics, noise, air quality (dust and pollutants),
vibration, water discharge and runoff, subsidence, and process wastes; sources include
the underground and surface mine infrastructure, mineral processing plant, access or haul
roads, remote facilities, etc. If mining will cause quality deterioration of either surface
water or groundwater, remedial and treatment measures must be developed to meet
discharge standards. The mine plan must include all the technical measures necessary to
handle all the environmental problems from initial data gathering to the mine closure and
reclamation of the disturbed surface area.
Reclamation plans include many of the following concerns: drainage control,
preservation of top soil, segregation of waste material, erosion and sediment control,
solid waste disposal, control of fugitive dust, regarding, and restoration of waste and
mine areas. The plan must also consider the effects of mine subsidence, vibration
(induced by mining, processing, transport, or subsidence), and impact on surface water

and groundwater. These environmental items often dictate the economics of a planned
mining operation and determine its viability.

One of most important machines on the open cast mining is:

Bucket wheel excavators
Bucket chain excavators
Mobile transfer conveyors
Belt conveyors (curved, shiftable, inclined, etc.)
Tripper cars
Spreaders/Cross-pit spreaders
Mobile Conveyor bridges
Mobile and semi-mobile crushing stations
Surface miners
Transport crawlers
Heap-Leach Systems
Auxiliary surface mining and reclamation equipment
A large variety of possible combinations of these machines with individually
matched spreaders and belt conveyor systems, as well as cross-pit spreaders,
ensures efficient, cost-saving operations.

One of the most impressive machine in mine industry is a giant bucket-wheel

excavator made by the German industrial company TAKRAF, formerly an East
German Kombinat. It owns or shares some records for terrestrial vehicle size in
the Guinness Book of Records. Bagger 293 was built in 1995, one of a group of similar
sized 'sibling' vehicles such as the Bagger 281 (built in 1958), Bagger 285 (1975), Bagger
287 (1976), Bagger 288(1978), Bagger 291 (1993), etc.
It is used in a brown coal mine near Hambach in Germany. It is called Bagger 293 by its
current owner, RWE Power AG (the second-largest energy producer of Germany). It was
called RB293 by its former owner, the brown coal company Rheinbraun, which since
1932 was already a daughter company of RWE (but during an internal reshuffle in 2003
merged with another daughter company to form RWE Power AG). Manufacturer
TAKRAF generally refers to it as an excavator of the type SRs 8000.
German Bagger 293 bucket-wheel excavator is brought in the Guinness Book of Records
as the biggest machine in the world. Before him, that title belonged to his "big brother Bagger 278, created in 1978. It has a length of 225 meters and weighs more than 14,000
tons and is managed by a team of 5 people. Designed for digging mines and quarries in
Germany. Bagger is able to dig a deep hole, commensurate in size with a football field, a
day.
Germany is famous for different haulage trucks. In this branch one of most bigger
company is ETF Mining Trucks. ETF Mining Haul Trains are the answer to the demand
for even larger payloads than current Ultra-Class Trucks offer.
The innovative design results in the lowest cost per ton in the industry.

Unique to ETF, each truck irrespective of capacity can operate together with others of the
same capacity as a Haul Train two; three, four or more individual trucks can easily be
linked together using a steel arm carrying an enclosed armoured data cable within its
structure. Information data from the first operator controlled truck is transmitted via the
link arm to the following trucks guiding and controlling all important operating functions
like engine power, steering direction and brakes, just as if each unit had separate
operators following each other.
The real operational advantage soon becomes very obvious, for every train there is
just one operator, so as unit numbers increase payload capacity go up while operator
costs come down. Each haul train features side dumping capability, each truck can
dump individually or together at the same time at the dump area and crusher.
If for any reason the mine plan should change requiring fewer units in the train each truck
unit can be de-coupled, allowing each truck to operate independently. This unique
configuration provides a mine wishing to increase operating capacity simply by
increasing the number of trucks in the train.
One way ETF obtains an extremely high technical availability percentage is by
exchanging components instead of repairing it on the vehicle. This means that the Haul
Train can continue operating and the repairs of the components can then be completed in
the workshop. Tyres and Power Modules can be changed in 15 minutes; ETF can keep
stock levels of spare parts very low while always ensuring the right component is
available.