Sand quarries. The largest careers

Of course, everyone has seen real careers at least in the photograph. They represent impressive depressions where various minerals are being mined or mined. Not all people understand what a career is. For many, these are just huge pits, and nothing else. However, in reality, careers play a huge role in industry in many countries around the world. In this article, we will tell you about the ten largest quarries on the planet.

1st place - Chuquicamata (Chile)

A huge Chilean quarry is used for the extraction of copper ore. Over the years of its operation, more than thirty million tons of copper have already been mined. Work has been going on there for hundreds of years. Despite this, even today Chuquicamata remains largest source copper on the planet. This is the deepest career of its kind. Its length is about four kilometers, and its width is about three kilometers. It is 850 meters deep. It is not known for certain when the first works were carried out in this area. At the end of the nineteenth century, researchers found an abandoned old mine and human remains dating back to the 6th century AD. However, massive work began only at the beginning of the twentieth century and continues to this day.

Second place - Escondida (Chile)

The second place in this rating is occupied by another Chilean field. As with Chuquicamata, this quarry is famous for its copper deposits. Major ore mining operations began here in 1990, and since then the rate of extraction has grown rapidly. In 2014 alone, about 1.5 million tons of copper were mined here, the cost of which is estimated at ten billion US dollars.

This quarry is one of the main sources of income for the Chilean budget. In addition, the field employs about three thousand people, and the number of jobs is only growing.

In 2006 due to massive non-payment wages in the career, large strikes and rallies began. The quarry workers blocked the roads leading to the mine. In the end, their demands were heard and all the money was paid. Today, such problems are not observed, despite the fact that a certain negative reputation has nevertheless developed.

Third place - Udachnoe (Russian Federation)

Russia is also famous for its reserves natural resources... The number of quarries is also very large here. The largest in Russia is the Udachnoye field. Open pit and underground diamond mining is carried out in this quarry. Udachnoye is located in the Arctic Circle, which greatly complicates the mining process. Still use the latest technologies and equipment allows Russian companies extract the required fossil. Today, there is a gradual curtailment of diamond mining. open method... It was originally planned to complete it completely by the end of 2015, but work is ongoing to this day. At the same time, the volume of work on underground mining of the valuable resource is increasing. According to the promulgated plans, over the next decades more than one hundred million carats will be mined from the subsoil. No other canyon in the world can compete with Udachny in this indicator.

Fourth place - Bingham Canyon (United States of America)

The largest canyon in the United States is Bingham Canyon, which is also the fourth largest in the world. It is located in Utah, south of Salt Lake City. It is four kilometers wide and 1.2 kilometers deep. Work began here back in 1848. The main resource of the canyon is copper ore. However, in addition to copper, silver ore, molybdenum and even gold are mined in Bingham Canyon. Despite the fact that work at the facility has been going on for more than a hundred years, their volumes are not decreasing, but, on the contrary, are growing over the years. Mining is carried out both by open pit and underground.

Fifth place - Mir (Russian Federation)

In addition to "Udachny", Russian Federation has another big diamond quarry. The Mir mine is located in Eastern Siberia... To date, work has completely stopped there. Nevertheless, he has a fifty-year history behind him. Production began for the first time in 1957. It is noteworthy that the quarry was dug without the use of explosives. This is the deepest quarry of its kind in the world. The Mir is 1200 meters in diameter, and its depth is just over 500 meters.

Sixth place - Calgary (Australia)

The Australian continent is also famous for big amount canyons. The largest of these is Kalugri. It is located near the city of the same name. Gold ore is mined at this facility. Calgury is 3800 meters long and 1500 meters wide. The depth of the canyon is 600 meters. Work in Calgury has been going on for several decades. Over the years, hundreds of millions of tons of gold have been mined.

Seventh place - Kimberley (Republic of South Africa)

This facility is located in the south of the African continent in South Africa. The works in the canyon were carried out by the well-known company DeBeers. It is noteworthy that Kimberley is the largest open pit without the use of specialized equipment. In other words, the work at Kimberley was done by hand. The length of the quarry is 1600 meters. Its depth is two hundred meters. The facility was closed in 1920. Today it is of interest to tourists who visit it with particular interest. Until 1920, diamonds were mined here. The work has been going on for a hundred years.

Eighth place - Diavik (Canada)

This quarry is famous in the world not only for its size, but also for its beauty. This is truly one of the most unique quarries on the planet. It is located on an island in the northwest of the country. The views of the snow-covered quarry island are mesmerizing. Work at the facility began only in 2003. This is the youngest large quarry in the world. Diamonds are mined in Diavik, which are then sold to various companies in the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Ninth place - Mahoning Mine (United States of America)

Another representative of the United States in this rating. The quarry is located in northern Minnesota. Mahoning Mine is noteworthy, in addition to its size, primarily because the work in it was initially carried out only by the underground method. After a while began and open-pit mining... In other quarries, as a rule, everything happens the other way around, and open-pit mining precedes underground mining.

Mahoning Mine is also referred to as the "Great Northern Canyon" due to its size and geographic location... The quarry is almost eight kilometers long. Its width is 3200 meters, and its depth is 180 meters.

The first work on this facility began in 1985. Since then, eight hundred million tons of iron have been mined. To accomplish this, about one and a half billion tons of land were dug, which covered an area of 8,000,000 square meters.

Tenth place - Grasberg

The Grasberg quarry is located in Indonesia. It is the largest facility of its kind in South-East Asia... Large-scale diamond mining has been carried out here for half a century. The quarry provides this resource to many businesses in its region and beyond.

Today, Grasberg is mined by the American company McMoRan, which owns most of the shares in a joint venture with the Indonesian government. In 2006 alone, about 610 thousand tons of copper ore, sixty thousand kilograms of gold, one hundred fifty thousand kilograms of silver were mined.

Careers play an important role in industry throughout the world. It is they who provide it with the most important resources. All objects from this list are the most important donors of copper, silver, gold ore, diamonds and other minerals.

Career

Stone quarry

Marble quarry

Coal mine

Sand quarry

Flooded stone quarry in Petrozavodsk

Quarry bottom

PIT BOTTOM - the site of the open pit bottom ledge (also called the pit bottom). In the conditions of the development of steep and inclined bodies of minerals, the minimum dimensions of the D. to. are determined taking into account the conditions of safe removal and load rocks from the last ledge: in width - not less than 20 m, in length - not less than 50-100 m.

In the conditions of the development of morphologically complex deposits of significant stretching D. to. may have a stepped shape.

Quarry depth

A pit is a system of benches (as a rule, the upper ones are rock or overburden, the lower ones are mining), the movement of which ensures the extraction of rock mass in the contours of a quarry field. Transport links in Kazakhstan are provided by permanent or sliding ramps, and with the surface, by trenches. During operation, the working benches move, as a result of which the worked-out space increases. During stripping operations, the overburden is transferred to dumps, which are sometimes placed in the goaf. At a depth of up to 100 m with strong bearing rocks in the prime cost of 1 m³ of overburden, up to 25-30% is occupied by drilling and blasting operations, 12-16% - excavation, 35-40% - transport, and 10-15% - construction of the quarry itself. With an increase in the depth of K., part of the cost of transport increases to 60-70%. For drilling blast holes in Kazakhstan, heavy drilling rigs weighing up to 100-130 tons (of the SBSh-250 type) and light drilling rigs are used. The main type of explosives is granular ammonium nitrate granulites, gramonites (a mixture of nitrate with TNT) and water-filled (in water-cut wells). The main excavation and loading equipment in the extraction of coal and ore are electric excavators with a rope drive and a bucket with a capacity of 15-30 m³ with a boom length of up to 26 m. At the same time, hydraulic straight shovels with buckets with a capacity of 10-38 m³ are very common. Single-bucket loaders with buckets with a capacity of 4-20 m³ are used. In stripping operations, more and more powerful shovels and draglines are being introduced (for example, an overburden shovel with a mass of 12 thousand tons with a bucket with a capacity of 135 m³ with a drive power of 22 thousand kW and a dragline weighing 12 thousand kW and a dragline weighing 12 thousand tons with a bucket with a capacity of 168 m³ with a boom length of 92 m).

Continuous flow technology on a rotorcraft is achieved by the use of rotary excavators (with a rotor diameter of 22 m and buckets with a capacity of 6.6 m³, the daily productivity of the machine is up to 240,000 m³). On K. middle and low power high efficiency show compact bucket wheel excavators with reduced operating parameters. On K. with strong rocks, the largest volume of traffic is carried out by heavy dump trucks.

Advancement of the front of work in the quarry

MOVING THE FRONT OF WORK IN THE PIT is one of the indicators of the intensity of field development; It is characterized by the rate of PFRK, that is, by the distance of movement of the front of mining operations, expressed in meters per unit of time (for the most part, per year). Depends on h. on the scale of the work, the type and design of the loading and transport equipment that is used, the method of moving the front of mining operations and the height of the benches that are being worked out. Distinguish between fan, equilateral and mixed P.f.r.c.

Fan movement - movement of the front of mining operations during the development of a quarry field (or part of it) of a rounded shape, which is characterized by a higher rate of movement of the front sections separated from the turning point (movement of the front in terms of “fan”, “fan”). Equilateral movement of the front - movement of the front of mining operations parallel to one of the axes of the quarry field from one of its boundaries to another or from an intermediate position to the contours.

Front movement mixed - combination different schemes advancement of the front of mining operations, for example, equilateral and fan.

Depth of development of deformations in the quarry

The depth of development of deformations in the open pit is the horizontal distance from the initial position of the upper edge of the slope (upper edge of the open pit contour) to the last crack, which is visually traced in the direction opposite to the direction of movement of the displaced masses of the cut.

Notes (edit)

Extraction of raw materials

Even in ancient times, people drew attention to the fact that a mass of various raw materials is concentrated in the bowels of the earth, which, with the necessary processing, can give many useful materials. Naturally, in the first place was always the metal, from which the tools of labor and war were produced. Due to imperfect processing methods long time people used metals such as tin, copper and lead. But due to their ductility, the tools wore out quickly, and later various alloys were invented, which were distinguished by higher hardness and resistance. But with the beginning of industrial production of steel, the need for them disappeared.

However, in addition to metals in the bowels of the earth, there are other useful materials, in particular, sand and various types of stone. They are mined most often in quarries. So what is a quarry? And what is mined in it? In this we will figure it out. But first, let's define the terminology.

Definition

A quarry is a set of mining operations that are produced in an open way, that is, on the very surface of the earth, and not in mines. This word has French roots, and in the original it sounds like carrière, which means "cut". So now we know what a quarry is. But why is their development carried out precisely on the surface and what is most often mined there?

Technology

Most of the minerals and other valuable materials are located underground. The depth of occurrence usually depends on the specific area, material, its shape, etc. For example, coal is hidden by the thickness of the earth because it was formed from the remains of ancient plants, which were gradually mineralized under pressure. There are, of course, ground exits, they turned out due to faults crust... But not all substances are deeply hidden, some are on the surface itself or lie not far from it, and therefore for their extraction there is no need to build deep mines, it is much easier to produce opencast mining.

Most often, the quarry looks like a large funnel, on the slopes of which, as it deepens, a spiral road is made for technology.

So, we have sorted out the question of what a quarry is. But what is most often mined in them?

Sand

Sand is one of the most common substances on the planet, and no one really feels a lack of it. However, how can sand be useful, why is it needed at all?

Oddly enough, sand is very valuable. Of course, not like iron, and even more so gold and silver. Some are used to make glass, sand is added to concrete during construction, used as drainage in tunneling, and in the end, no playground is complete without a sandbox. And by the way, after the end of mining, the sand pit is often flooded and becomes a bathing place.

Stone

Humanity also cannot do without a stone. Naturally, not all stones are valuable, but certain varieties of it. Most often it is marble and granite. Since they usually lie near the surface, mines are not built for their extraction, but all the same open pits are used. Unlike sand, stone is somewhat more difficult to mine - you can't just load it with excavators. Therefore, depending on the type, it is either first crushed or exploded, or used special machines for cutting. This happens when you need monolithic and even lumps, which are further processed additionally.

The stone quarry is usually mined long years, and its reserves are practically inexhaustible.

That's all. Now we know what a quarry is for.

The most ancient, but retained its relevance to this day, mining technology is open pit mining. Already in Ancient egypt they knew what a quarry was, and the first open-pit workings are known to us from the Paleolithic era. V ancient world a similar technology was used for the extraction of marble. The greatest successes were achieved by the builders of Ancient Greece.

Until the 20th century, this method of extracting sand, marble, stone, coal, chalk, limestone and others building materials was leading in the world. This is due to the lack of a high-performance technique for opening upper layers lithosphere and taking out directly minerals. The relevance of the quarries has survived to this day, but the share of their participation in the extractive industry has slightly decreased.

Benefits of quarries

In order to understand what a quarry is, you need to get acquainted with the open pit mining. The essence of this method is that resources are extracted directly from the surface of the earth by opening the upper layers of the lithosphere. And the totality of mine workings or enterprises is called a quarry.

Quarrying has a number of advantages over underground mining:

High degree of security.
More comfortable conditions for workers.
Simplicity of work organization.
Short construction time.
Low investment.
More complete resource extraction.

But what is it that a quarry does not allow again to be made the main place of mining? The main factor is the decrease in economic benefits: the longer the earth's surface is developed, the deeper the quarry becomes, which increases the cost of delivering material to processing plants. On this stage development of the extractive industry is the main barrier to development open way extraction.

The main elements of the quarry

The simplest way is to imagine a quarry in the form of a cone, the top of which is immersed in the earth's surface. Inside such a "cone" you can see spiral ramps, which are formed by ledges. The main elements that can characterize any, be it a stone or sand quarry, are:

The bottom of the pit is the surface of the bottom ledge, which is also called the bottom. If morphologically complex and extended rocks are being mined, the bottom may have a stepped structure.
Pit Depth is the distance of the top cut to the lowest point of the mine. This value can reach 1000 meters.
Maximum depth - the maximum distance from the upper edge to the lower contour, at which the extraction of minerals is economically feasible.
Limiting contour - the contour of the open pit for the period of its closure due to low economic efficiency.

The main element, without which it is impossible to imagine what a quarry is, is a ledge. Its main characteristics - height, slope angle, dimensions of the upper and lower working platform - depend on the massiveness and value of the rocks being mined.

Mining technology

Open pit mining is carried out in two types of work - overburden and mining. At the first stage, an "opening" of the earth's surface is performed - upper layer lithospheres are cut off, a foundation pit is dug, thereby opening access to mineral resources. After that, they proceed directly to the extraction of resources.

As the layers of "earthly wealth" are developed, the diameter and depth of the quarry increase, the working benches move from the center to the edges. Obtaining almost any kind of resource involves drilling and blasting operations. Depending on the local conditions, their share can be 25-30% of the cost of the extracted material.

Economic efficiency

By mining marble, limestone, creating any kind of mining open type, including the sand pit, are striving to reduce costs. For this, bucket wheel excavators and heavy-duty transport are used: mainly BELAZ vehicles, which allows to reduce transportation costs.

Often, open pit mining of underground resources is used to obtain coal. At the same time, it is possible to reduce the costs associated with delivery directly to consumers, which makes it accessible to the general mass of the population. In addition, the open-pit method of coal mining is the safest, but the quality of raw materials leaves much to be desired due to the presence of a large amount of impurities.

Impact of quarries on the ecological situation

Quarrying provides Negative influence on ecological situation developed area. First, the top fertile layer of the earth is completely destroyed, which cannot be restored later. Secondly, the hydrogeological conditions of the site and the terrain are changing significantly.

Thirdly, the territory of the land allotment is polluted by the generated waste and waste water... In addition, one cannot ignore the noise impact on environment, as well as the release of a large amount carbon monoxide... Similar negative effects are observed at a time when both a granite quarry and any other open pit mine are being created.

Coal mine

Sand quarry

The coal mine is called coal cut .

History [ | ]

Open pit mining is known from the Paleolithic era. The first big quarries appeared in connection with the construction of the pyramids in Ancient Egypt. Later, in the ancient world, marble was mined on a large scale in quarries. The expansion of the field of application of the open method of development with the help of quarries lasted until the beginning. XX century, in the absence of highly productive machines for removing and moving large volumes of overburden. At the end of the 20th century, 95% of building rocks, more than 70% of ores, 90% of lignite and 20% of bituminous coal were mined in open pits.

The main explosives used in the development of quarries in the Soviet Union in the 1920s were ammonal and ammonites, in the 1930s - dynamons, during the Great Patriotic War - oxyliquites and ammonites, and from 1956 to the 1960s - igdanite.

Career elements[ | ]

Quarry bottom [ | ]

The pit bottom is the pit bottom (also called the pit bottom). In the conditions of the development of steep and inclined bodies of minerals, the minimum dimensions of the open pit bottom are determined taking into account the conditions for safe removal and loading of rocks from the last bench: in width - not less than 20 m, in length - not less than 50-100 m [ ] .

In conditions of development of morphologically complex deposits of significant stretching, the bottom of the open pit can have a stepped shape.

Quarry depth [ | ]

Pit depth is the vertical distance between the level of the earth's surface and the bottom of the pit, or the distance from the top of the pit to the bottom. Distinguish between design, final and maximum depth of the quarry [ ] .

The deepest quarries in the world reach a depth of almost 1 km. The deepest quarry is Bingham Canyon (Utah, USA), the Chuquicamata quarry (Chile) has a depth of more than 850 m.

Limit contour of the quarry[ | ]

The limiting contour of a quarry is the contour of a quarry for the period of its maturity, that is, the termination of work on the extraction of minerals and overburden [ ] .

Technology and organization of work in the quarry[ | ]

A quarry is a system of benches (as a rule, the upper ones are rock or overburden, the lower ones are mining), which are constantly moving, ensuring the extraction of rock mass in the contours of the open pit field.

The movement of rock mass is carried out different kinds transport. Transport links in the quarry are provided by permanent or sliding ramps, and with the surface - by trenches. During operation, the working benches move, as a result of which the worked-out space increases. During stripping operations, the overburden is transferred to dumps, which are sometimes placed in the goaf. With a pit depth of up to 100 m with strong bearing rocks in the prime cost of 1 m³ of overburden, up to 25-30% is occupied by drilling and blasting operations, 12-16% - excavation, 35-40% - transport and 10-15% - construction of the pit itself. With an increase in the depth of the quarry, part of the cost of transport increases to 60-70%.

Quarry working area[ | ]

The working area of a quarry is the area in which stripping and mining operations are carried out. It is characterized by a set of overburden and production benches that are simultaneously in operation. The position of the working area is determined by the elevation marks of the working benches and the length of their front of work. The working area is a moving and time-varying surface, within which work is carried out to prepare and excavate the rock mass. It can cover one, two or all quarry sides. When building a quarry work zone, as a rule, includes only overburden benches, and by the end of capital mining operations - and production. The number of stripping, mining and mining faces in the working area cannot be set arbitrarily, since the implementation of plans for certain types of work depends on this. In the working area of the quarry, each excavator in the process of work occupies a certain horizontal area, which is characterized by the width of the working platform and the length of the excavator block.

When developing horizontal and flat deposits of low and medium thickness, the altitude position of the open pit working zone remains unchanged. When developing inclined and steep deposits, as well as thick isometric deposits, the working area gradually decreases along with an increase in the depth of the open pit.

Advancement of the front of work in the quarry[ | ]

The advancement of the work front in a quarry is one of the indicators of the intensity of field development. The advancement of the front of work in a quarry is characterized by speed, that is, the distance of movement of the front of mining, expressed in meters per unit of time (for the most part, per year). The speed depends on the scale of work, the type and design of the loading and transport equipment that is used, the method of moving the front of mining operations and the height of the benches that are being worked out. Distinguish between fan, equilateral and mixed advancement of the front of work in the quarry.

Equilateral movement of the front - movement of the front of mining operations parallel to one of the axes of the quarry field from one of its boundaries to another or from an intermediate position to the contours.