REPUBLIC OF CAMEROON

REPUBLIQUE DU CAMEROUN
Paix-Travail-Patrie Peace-work-fatherland

***** *****
MINISTERE DE L’ENSEIGNEMENT MINISTRY OF HIGHER EDUCATION
SUPERIEUR
****
***** THE UNIVERSITY OF MAROUA
UNIVERSITE DE MAROUA
*****
***** FACULTY OF MINES AND PETROLEUM
FACULTE DES MINES ET DES INDUSTRIES
PETROLIERES INDUSTRIES
***** *****
DEPARTEMENT D’INGENIERE MINIERE ET DEPARTMENT OF MINING ENGINEERING
TRAITEMENT DE MINERAIS
AND MINERAL PROCESSING

INTERNSHIP REPORT CARRIED OUT AT

LES CARRIERE DU CAMEROON (LCC)
(Rapport de fin de stage effectué à LCC)

Presented by
ASHU BRANDON MANYO
MATRICULE: 20A056FM
Department/level: IMTM-IC3

Professional Supervisor: supervised by

Mr. SOPSINING Patrick Dr. MINYEM
Mining engineer at LCC Head of Department, Mining engineering
and mineral processing (IMTM) .FMIP

Academic year 2020-2021

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 TABLE OF CONTENT
ACKNOWLEDGMENT ......................................................................................................... iv
SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................... v
CHAPTER I: GENERALITIES ............................................................................................... 2
I. Presentation of the quarry ................................................................................................................ 2
I.1 Location of the quarry ................................................................................................................... 2
I.2 Organizational situation of the quarry ........................................................................................... 3
I.3 geological characteristics of the exploited massif ......................................................................... 4
• Petrographic characteristics .......................................................................................................... 4
• Economic characteristics .............................................................................................................. 5
II. Description of machines, stations of treatment and finish products. .............................................. 5
1. Extraction and loading equipment’s ............................................................................................... 5
2. Crushing station .............................................................................................................................. 6
3. Mechanical and maintenance workshops ........................................................................................ 7
4. Fuel distribution station .................................................................................................................. 7
5. Explosives warehouse ..................................................................................................................... 7
6. Other related facilities ..................................................................................................................... 7
7. Finished products ............................................................................................................................ 7
CHAPTER II: DESCRIPTION OF INTERNSHIP ................................................................... 8
II.1 Exploitation phase ........................................................................................................................ 8
II.1.1 Implantation .......................................................................................................................... 8
II.1.2 Drilling (foration) .................................................................................................................. 9
II.1.3. Initiation and loading of explosives ................................................................................... 10
II.1.4 Mine blast procedures ......................................................................................................... 11
a. Before firing .............................................................................................................................. 11
b. The day of firing ....................................................................................................................... 11
c. After firing ................................................................................................................................ 11
II.2 Extraction and treatment phase .................................................................................................. 12
II.3 Commercialization phase ........................................................................................................... 12
II.4 Reflection on the internship ....................................................................................................... 13
CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................................... a
REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................... b

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 LIST OF FIGURES
FIGURE 1: SHOWING THE LOCALIZATION OF QUARRY SITE ........................................................................ 3
FIGURE 2. ORGANOGRAM OF THE QUARRY........................................................................................... 4
FIGURE3 A AND B SHOWING EXCAVATOR, RUBBLE TRANSPORT TRUCKS AND HYDRAULIC ROCK CRUSHERS .......... 5
FIGURE 4; A AND B SHOWING THE CRUSHING STATION WITH PRIMARY CRUSHER AT LCC ................................ 6
FIGURE5 A AND B SHOWING THE 2 CONE CRUSHERS AND VIBRATING SCREENS WITH CONVEYOR BELTS ............. 6

FIGURE 6;EXAMPLE OF A DRILLING PLAN WE PRODUCED AT LCC ............................................................... 9

FIGURE; 7A AND B : ELECTRIC DRILL AND 1M RODS............................................................................... 10
FIGURE 8: SHOWING SETTINGS FOR EXPLOSIVES................................................................................... 10
FIGURE 9 A, B, C SHOWING DYNAMITES, DETONATING NONELS AND NITRATE FUEL RESPECTIVELY .................. 11
Figure 10 A, B, C SHOWING FINISH PRODUCTS GRAVEL 5/15, 15/25 AND RUBBLE SAND………………..12

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 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
First of all, I am grateful to The Almighty God for establishing me to attend this level of
education.

I thank the administrative board of the FACULTY OF MINES AND PETROLEUM

INDUSTRIES for including this internship course into the school curriculum. I place on
record, my gratitude to all the faculty members of the department of IMTM for their help
leading us towards the successful impregnation into the professional world.

I wish to express my gratitude to Mr. SOPSINING Patrick the mining engineer and our
professional supervisor at LCC, for giving me the opportunity to do an internship within their
company and also would like to appreciate the officials and other staff members of LCC for
their hospitality during my internship.

I sincerely thank my parents Mr. ETTA MICHEAL ASHU and Mrs. ATA MARIE NKAN
for their unceasing encouragement and support.

I also place on record, my sense of gratitude to one and all who, directly or indirectly, have
lent their helping hand in this venture of my academics

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 SUMMARY
The maximization of global cost and increase in productivity are the major challenges
faced during mining operations. Thus a perfect knowledge of developing a good drilling plan
and drilling in space are conditions essential to the good success of mining exploitation.

The major concern of the mining structure LES CARRIERE DU CAMEROUN (LCC)
focuses on continuous production of commercialization products ,in the first place fracturing
of the rock outcrop by explosive fire methods obtaining large blocks of rocks thus requiring a
second mining (fire cracking) or the use of hydraulic rock drillers.

The rocks of considerable sizes (less than 1m) are transported to the phases of treatment
starting from the crushing stations to the vibrating screens to differentiate granular classes
ready for commercialization.

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 INTRODUCTION
An internship is an integral platform for anyone to gain experience in an actual
workplace. I was opportune to carry out my internship at LES CARRIER DU CAMEROUN
(LCC) found in the Centre Region of Cameroon, the mining company is currently exploiting
a large rock outcrop in the locality of Nkolafeme to produce granular of different sizes
following an appreciable method of exploitation and treatment. Given the objectives of the
internship to integrate the professional world, in the aspect of presenting the activities and
organization of LCC I had the opportunity to participate in the exploitation and treatment of
quarry products used in construction. Their activities entailed 3 phases; exploitation,
treatment and commercialization of this products (sand and gravel of different
sizes).Exploitation phase developed by the fracturing of the rock outcrop by providing
drilling plans and planting explosives, the treatment phase characterized by transforming the
fractured rocks into considerable sizes by crushing them, then the commercialization phase
which is done by the company and other external bodies. The company aims at Maximizing
profit at all phases. In the body of this report I shall describe first of all the localization of
the company, detail methods, machines used in exploitation, phases and finish products then
internship proper respectively.

1
 CHAPTER I: GENERALITIES

I. Presentation of the quarry

The mining company LCC is incorporated under Cameroonian law with private capital,
which began its activities in 2017. The company deals with the exploitation, production and
commercialization of aggregates of different sizes.

The table below shows the company identification sheet:

Name Les carrières du Cameroun

Juridical status Sarl

Marketing sign LCC

Date of creation 2002

Proprietor Zachée jueya

Commerce registration no RC 027772

N° contribuable M 1001 100012917

Capital social 1 000 000 FCFA

Curent capital 480 000 000

Activity Exploitation of quarry (production of aggregates ),

commercialization of granulates from the quarry

Adresse BP 6337 Ydé-Cmr

Tel : 674354557/ 677755362

Table1: showing companies status

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I.1 Location of the quarry

Figure 1: showing the localization of quarry site

The quarry site is located in Nkolafeme village 5km from the Nkolbisson crossroads
in the 7th district of Yaounde, Mfoundi division and Center region of Cameroon. The said
site has an area of 626,028 m2 in a quarter called Messebe, it is 500m from the old Yaoundé-
Douala road, which currently links Yaoundé to Okola with geographical coordinates latitude
03 ° 53'48.1 '' North and longitude 11 ° 26'49.9 '' East is bounded to the north by MATECO
and to the west by China Meilan Cameroon Company (CMCC) which also carry quarry
activities.

I.2 Organizational situation of the quarry

The LCC includes around forty people assigned to various post to carry out the production
and commercialization of quarry products. The various post includes;

- At the quarry management level: four (04) workers

- In the quarry: twenty-one (21) people including one (01) miner, two (02) assistant miners ,
fifteen (15) workers, two (02) guards, one (01) HSQE staff

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- At the crushing station: twenty-one (21) people, that is three (03) maintenance technicians,
four (04) machinists, five (05) machine operators, four (04) drivers, three (03) workers and
two (02) security guards. The organization chart below shows the various workshops as well
as the company's staff.

Administrative
Head

secretariate

Technical Administrative Commercial

Direction Direction Direction

mine and machanic work accounting commercial

production unit QHSE
drilling shop services board

administrative
wedering production administrative
assistance weighing station
mechanic operators services
service

financial
services

Figure 2. Organogram of the quarry.

I.3 geological characteristics of the exploited massif

• Petrographic characteristics
The LCC quarry massif is in the form of a dome located at coordinates 3 ° 53'40 '' and 3 °
53'55 '' North latitude and 11 ° 26'30 '' and 11 ° 26'53 '' east longitude. The exploitable
reserves cover an area of 216,042m2, cumulating to 865m. On the petrographic level, the
massif is made up of two main lithological groups, namely garnet gneiss and a gneissic
intrusion. Garnet gneisses form the backbone of the quarry outcrop. The rock is massive,
structured, light in colour and presenting a foliation by compositional alternation of light bed
and dark bed. The clear beds consist mainly of quartz, feldspar, and muscovite, while the
dark beds are dominated by ferromagnesian, which on observation with the naked eye we

4
were able to distinguish pyroxenes and biotite. These mineral phases are accompanied by
other accessory minerals such as kyanite and garnet, giving the rock a granoblastic texture.

• Economic characteristics
Given the properties like structure and type of rock it has many uses associated to different
domains in the economy.

For example in construction: when crushed into small aggregate it is used in building houses,
roads, damps, and as basement to railways.

II. Description of machines, stations of treatment and finish products.

LCC's facilities are diverse in nature. We distinguish:

1. Extraction and loading equipment’s

They included:

• 02 electric drills • 02 wheel loader excavators

• 04 excavators • 03 rubble transport trucks to crushing stations

(a) (b)

Figure3 a and b showing excavator, rubble transport trucks and hydraulic rock crushers

5
2. Crushing station

(a) (b)
Figure 4; a and b showing the crushing station with primary crusher at LCC
The crushing station with a capacity of 500t / day is equipped with the following equipment:
• 01 feed hopper
and Vibrating feeder
• 01 primary crusher making it possible to reduce the size of the blocks for their use or to
bring them to a dimension compatible with the inlet of the crushing devices located
downstream in the installation
• 02 cone crushers to reduce the materials from the primary crusher by mechanical action

(a) Cone crushers (b) vibrating screens

Figure5 a and b showing the 2 cone crushers and vibrating screens with conveyor belts

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• 03 vibrating screens for screening different granular classes.(figure5b)
• 13 conveyor belts for the transport of products in the production line

3. Mechanical and maintenance workshops

It has 04 welding stations, a generator, 02 air compressors and all other machinery
maintenance equipment.

4. Fuel distribution station

It is strictly for private use and includes:
• 01 bi-compartmentalized tank of 20000l of diesel
• 01 volumetric pump for consumption control.

5. Explosives warehouse
It is about 500m from the site of the exploitation and extraction activities.
it contains:

• 01 explosives room , a building constructed with final fire-resistant materials, a corrugated

iron roof on a wooden frame. The building serves as storage for ammonium nitrate
,dynamites and detonating cord.(figure 9 a,b,c)

• 01 detonator room: this is a building of 56 m3 in volume constructed with final materials

consisting of a solid slab. The detonator room is located at a regulatory distance from that of
the explosives near which there is an anti-lightning device.

• 01 room at the level of the gate for the security officer (Gendarme) who ensures permanent
guard of the explosives sites.

6. Other related facilities

The commanding structures
• 01 building for the administrative and commercial management of the quarry.
• 01 building that represents the technical department of the quarry.
• 01 building the weighbridge office.

7. Finished products
Aggregates are produced according to market demand and consist of materials of different
sizes: (figure 10 a, b, c page 12)
• Road products: 0/5; on 5/15; the 15/25 which can be found in stock due frequent demand.
• Road products: 0 / 31.5; on 6/10; on 10/14; the 4/7 which are produce after order.
• Rubble stones and laterite.

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 CHAPTER II: DESCRIPTION OF INTERNSHIP
My internship that took place from the month of August-September had as objectives to
impregnate us into our professional domain of studies in the management and functioning of
a mining company .All of the work carried out at LCC during my internship for over 2months
revolved around the different stages of fragmentation of a rock outcrop, extraction and
treatment resulting to finish products in which we participated regular as if we were workers
in the company. The structure adopts a modern blasting technic that begins with the siting of
blast holes and ends with the setting of explosives at a given portion of the massif.

Firstly in this chapter i will presents the different stages of fragmentation by blasting
technic as observed during exploitation

II.1 Exploitation phase

II.1.1 Implantation
This operation consists in tracing the points to be drilled on the surface this is designated
by drilling plan. On the platform to be exploded, and to determine the inclination and drilling
length parameters for each hole. This operation was carried out manually by the mining
manager on the quarry site. The points to be drilled are represented by a superposition of
stones, with a bench (β) distance of 2.5m between two vertical drill holes and a spacing (£)
distance of 2.5m between two horizontal drill holes. The implantation operation is carried out
as follows: (figure 6)

• The operator assesses the position he wants to give to the first row using a tape measure on
which he marks a length equal to the bench seat. He then considers that he has estimated the
full bench with this meter, and thus marks the first point in that row. The previous operation
is repeated to position a reference point located in the area where the position of the last point
of the first row is estimated. Then the two points are connected by a well-stretched decameter
which forms a straight line.

• From the first point and following the stretched decameter and the spacing between the
holes, the other points are materialized.

• From the first and last hole in a row, bring back the bench to place the second and possibly
the third. So that each point of a row is in the middle of two successive points of a
neighboring row: it is a staggered mesh;

8
 • The area between the first row of holes and the face is generally completed with
intermediate holes because of the irregularities of the face. It is clear that the implementation
of this operation manually will introduce deviations from the theoretical geometry that one
wishes to achieve.

Figure 6;example of a drilling plan we produced at LCC

II.1.2 Drilling (foration)

After implantation of points the next step is drilling. Using the drilling plan, together with
the miner, we determined the average depth of the holes to calculate the charges, which makes
it possible to know the quantity of explosive products required on the day of the blast. At the
LCC quarry, drilling is carried out using electric drills that functions with air as the drilling
fluid and 1m rods.

(a) Electric drill (b) 1m rod

9
Figure; 7a and b : electric drill and 1m rods

It is based on the following four steps:

- Blowing: to evacuate the drilling cuttings in the form of dust particles.
- Percussion: linked to the energy per blow and the hammer strike frequency
- Thrust, the objective of which is to permanently maintain contact between the rock and the
bit
- The rotation of the cutting edge.

II.1.3. Initiation and loading of explosives

Priming is the technical period during which energy flows from sensitive and powerful
initiation explosives (expulse / emulsion) used in small quantities to relatively sensitive
explosions,(nitrate fuel) used in large quantities for the disintegration of the rock mass. The
priming devices consist of either the detonating cord or the electric or non-electric (Nonel)
detonator. Of these three devices, the company performs down-the-hole initiation using
Nonel with a primer cartridge during firing. The primer cartridge is a small bag or case
containing 0.25 to 1 kg of strong explosives into which a Nonel detonator attached to the end
of the Nonel tube is inserted. The loading depends on the geometry of the shot. This
geometry generally includes: foot loading, column loading, and stuffing.

Figure 8: showing settings for explosives

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II.1.4 Mine blast procedures
The company plans about two blasts a month to knock down the rock. During our internship
we were able to witness a firing operation which was done under the command of our
supervisor. The blasting is usually made from a hundred holes, following a mesh of 2.5m of
bench and 2.5m of spacing. The explosive products used are dynamites in charge of the foot,
nitrate-fuel oil in column charge, detonating cord, electric detonator and non-electric
detonator.

(a (b) (c)

Figure 9 a, b, c showing Dynamites, detonating nonels and nitrate fuel respectively

a. Before firing
The realization of a blast goes through several preparatory stages of which the drilling of
blast holes is one of the most important stages. Once the firing flap is completed, the engineer
checks the firing plan. If the latter complies with mining standards, he forwards it to the
Regional Mining Delegate for approval.

b. The day of firing

-The mine work team together with internes move the explosives to the firing location and
shares the explosives cartridges according to the calculated quantities (firing plan).

-The fire tips accompanied by the miners load the blast holes with ‘explosives, connect the
holes and fill the holes with fine sand. Once these tasks are completed, the place of fire is
made safe so that the end of fire triggers the mine using an explosion.

c. After firing
After a period of securing, the team checks the mine and ensures that all the holes have been
shaken. In the event of a misfire, the fire end performs a technique to blast holes that did not

11
respond to the shot. the disintegrated rock particles become susceptible for extraction then
directed to the treatment face.

II.2 Extraction and treatment phase

After the explosion of the rock mass the considerable rocks less than 1m in size are
transported to the crushing station with the use of excavators and rubble transport trucks. At
the crushing station we have a primary crusher(compressor) the rock samples to 10cm-
15cm.This rocks with considerable sizes are moved to the first cone crushers by conveyor
belts which are further crushed into smaller particle sizes less than 5cm .on another conveyor
`belts this smaller particles are transported to the vibrating feeder or screening ,where by
larger particles are send back to a second cone crusher to be reduced resulting to the
appreciable finish product ready for commercialization.

a) Gravel 5/15 b) Gravel 15/25

c) Rubble sand

Figure 10 a, b, c : showing the various finished products at LCC, different gravel sizes and
quarry sand .

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II.3 Commercialization phase
The finish products (figure 10 a, b, c) at this phase are sold by the company and also external
bodies at a national recommended prize. The company sells a tone of gravel at 7000 FRS and
sand at 5000 FRS.

II.4 Reflection on the internship

 Designing a shooting or blasting plan

This approach takes into account the theoretical principles, which are mainly summarized
below;

• Adaptation of the explosive to the massif in order to optimize the energy transmitted in this
related environment

• The creation of a maximum of free faces in order to facilitate the reflections of stress waves
which create cracking.

• The design of a blast is based on a number of variable data and the company-specific
elements that one must strive to know or define. Before starting the design, you must: Clearly
define the technical and economic objectives and in particular those relating to grain size and
costs, Characterize the massif, Be familiar with the full possibilities of the equipment
available upstream of the blast for drilling, as well as downstream, for loading, Know the
main characteristics of the explosives available: their density, energy and resistance to water,
specify the environmental strain.

The five elements listed above allow you to choose from the basic shooting parameters; the
drilling diameter, the nature of the explosive, Geometric conditions, and the number of rows.

13
 CONCLUSION
To conclude this report as per the objectives of our internship was based on which was to
impregnate us into the professional world, at LCC we had the opportunity to widen our level
of understanding in the management and functioning of a mining company. From the first
day on site I learnt how to insert my self being polite and of good moral conduct toward
colleagues, at the different phases of exploitation and treatment I was given different task to
attain like developing a drilling plan and controlling a drill, also using the primary crusher.
The company ensures maximum productivity because of the high demand of its finish
products by construction companies and individuals.

a
 REFERENCES
-Evaluation technico-financiere dune tir de mine dans un exploitation de Granulats ELVIRA
Fernandez 2018

-les technique de l’industrie no 13, tirs theory et technologie Mars 2002 ISSN 1296 /9281

-KOMOUR MOHAMED caractérisation des discontinuité du massif en vue d’abattage a

l’explosif concept mine to mill cariere SOCAR (Guelma).