PME 227

LEC 02
Mining Systems
Lecturer Shaolin Jahan Eidee
Department of Petroleum and Mining Engineering
MIST

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Mining
• Mining: The activity, occupation, and
industry concerned with the extraction
of minerals.
• Mining is extracting ore or mineral from
the earth ground.

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Ore
• A naturally occurring mineral containing
a valuable constituent (such as metal)
for which it is mined and worked.
• A natural aggregation of one or more
solid minerals that can be mined,
processed and sold at a profit.
Economically valuable.

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Different access to ore body
• Slope mine
• Drift mine
• Shaft mine

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Different access to ore body

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Basic Mining
• Surface Mine: An excavation that is entirely open or operated from
the surface.
• Underground Mine: An excavation that consists of openings for
human and machine entry driven below the surface.

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Surface Mining

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Surface Mining

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Contribution of surface mining

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Simplified Method

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History of surface mining

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Types
• Strip mining (Open cast)
• Open pit mining
• Mountain top removal
• Dredging
• High wall mining/ Auger Mining

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Strip mining

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Open pit mining

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Mountain top removal (MTR)
It literally removes up to 800 feet off the tops of mountains to try to reach coal
seams that are not accessible by other mining techniques because the terrain is
too steep or the veins are too thin.

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Dredging

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Dredging
• When dredging, the operator lowers the
boom of a dredger to the bottom (or side)
of the body of water. A rotating cutter-bar
then uses teeth to loosen the settled
material. The silt and debris are then
transported away for final processing.

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Auger bit
• Auger drill bits are bits used to drill holes
into formation. They are commonly used for
boring holes into bulkheads. These drill bits
come with a spiral drill bit head which,
when drilling, is designed to pull the bit into
the formation so you do not have to apply
excessive pressure.

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Auger Mining
• Auger mining means a method of mining
coal at a cliff or highwall by drilling holes
into an exposed coal seam from the
highwall and transporting the coal along
an auger bit to the surface.

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High wall mining

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High wall mining

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