SURFACE MINING: QUARRY
July 17th, 2010No comments »
QUARRY
The quarries are quite similar to open cast mines, and equipment used is the same. The difference is that the materials are often extracted industrial minerals andconstruction materials. In general, almost all materials obtained from the quarry was transformed into a product, so there is far less waste material. In turn, this means that at the end of the life of the quarry is a large excavation.
However, due to low prices which are often products of most of the quarries, they must be located relatively close to markets. Otherwise, the transport costs could make the quarry would be unprofitable. Read the rest of this entry »
SURFACE MINING
July 14th, 20101 comment »
Surface mining is the largest sector of mining, and is used for more than 60% of materials removed. It can be used for any material. The different types of surface mine have different names, and usually tend to be associated with certain materials removed. Open pit mines are usually metal, on farms are often exposed to extract coal quarries are engaged in extraction of industrial materials and construction, and mining of minerals are usually obtained pleasure and heavy metals (often gold but also platinum, tin, and others).
Opencast mines
They are surface mines in the form of large pits on the terrace, increasingly deep and wide. The classic examples of open-pit mines are the diamond mines of South Africa, which is exploited kimberlite pipes, mineral deposits amounting cylindrical shape the Earth’s crust. They often have a more or less circular.
The extraction starts with the drilling and blasting of rock. This truck is loaded with large electric shovels or hydraulic excavators or front-loading, and removed from the pit. The size of these machines becomes so great that they can withdraw 50 m3 of rock at once, but often have a capacity of between 5 and 25 m3. Loading the trucks can range from 35-220 tons. A breakthrough of modern mining shovels is that download directly into a mobile crusher, from which is extracted from crushed rock mine on conveyor belts.
The classified material is transported mineral recovery plant, while classified as waste is poured into areas allocated for it. Sometimes there is a third category of low-quality material that can be stored in case in the future could be profitable exploitation.
Start as many mines and surface mines, when they reach a point where it is necessary to remove too much material waste for every ton of ore produced, you begin to use underground mining methods.
Seafloor Mining
July 10th, 2010No comments »
A Canada-based company is now planning the first commercial undersea explorationfor gold and world of high purity copper. The main interest of this company is focused on an area known as Backarc Manus Basin, off the coast of Papua New Guinea. The active hydrothermal vents in areas like this are created there where new oceanic crust is formed throughundersea volcanic activity.Until the late 1970s, scientists assumed that life required sunlight, but the discovery of these hydrothermal vent communities showed that life may also be using thermal and chemical energy. Because, as we tend today to think about, the oceans have existed more or less since the beginning of the history of the Earth, these seafloor hydrothermal vents may be the most ancient sites of life on Earth. Hydrothermal vents also arouse additional interest to the pharmaceutical sector, as the study of organisms that live around them could lead to new drugs and biotechnological applications.
Mining companies first turned their attention to the sea in the 1970s, and his interest grew as a result of manganese exist on the surface of the ocean floor. However, the high estimated costs and restrictive regulations of offshore deep sea mining in international waters by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS by its acronym in English) have put aside many of these projects.
In particular, says Halfar, restrictions on the ISA (International Seabed Authority) have diverted the operations of prospecting and exploration of the seafloor into areas under national jurisdiction, where regulations are often weak or nonexistent.
Approved Funds 4.3 million Miners
July 7th, 2010No comments »
Approved Funds 4.3 million Miners for the development of several projects in six councils Asturian.
The Governing Board approved at its meeting on Wednesday the signing of nine specific cooperation agreementswith the Institute for Restructuring of Coal Mining and Alternative Development of Mining Districts for municipal projects funded miners Plan 2006-2012.The councils in which the various projects are implemented Cangas del Narcea, Case, Langreo, Lena, Mieres, Oviedo and the overall budget amounts to 4.3 million euros.
Moreover, at the request of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Executive today authorized the signing of four cooperation agreements between the Administration of the Principality of Asturias, the Institute for Restructuring of Coal Mining and Alternative Development of Mining Regions (Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce) and local councils and Subscribe Case for a total of 1.2 million euros.
Underwater Mining
July 3rd, 2010No comments »
Underwater mining may threaten fragile marine ecosystems(NC & T) The black smokers are seafloor hydrothermal vents than those resulting from domestic matters. Spit water at 350 degrees centigrade at seafloor cold environment and support a sulfur-dependent bacteria, as well as exotic species of worms and clams.
Mining of massive sulphide deposits near “black smokers” can smother and contaminate these communities, which, according to many biologists believe may contain the most faithful descendants of primitive life forms on Earth and hold the keys to understand the origins of life on Earth.
“We need to act now to establish scientific and legal methods to protect such vulnerable ecosystems and minimize the potential environmental impact of this industrial activity,” argues the study’s lead author, Jochen Halfar, a geologist at the University of Toronto at Mississauga . “Imposing regulations after operations begin, be very problematic, and some governments in the geographical jurisdictions that host the sites where the mining industry is concerned, have a poor record of mining oversight. The outlook for the regulation of underwater mining are not good. ”
The study was coauthored by Rodney Fujita, a marine ecology expert at Environmental Defense (Environmental Defense), based in the United States. The study results are published in the journal Science.
Mineral Resources – Types of Mining
June 30th, 2010No comments »
Minerals are being exploited from the Metal Age until now. This has given us since once the raw materials needed to reach today.Copper, iron, aluminum, gold, silver … rarely found in nature in pure form and are always linked with other elements such as oxygen, sulfur or carbon thus forming minerals. A clear example is composed of sulfur and cinnabar mercury (pictured below)
The Origin of minerals varies widely. The vast majority of them has to do with the fluids that exist in the magmas that exist in Earth’s crust.
These fluids carry iron ore, gold, silver, and on arriving near the surface, the fluids are cooled and precipitate in the form of mineral elements.
One of the oldest mines in the world and more surprising is the mine of Almaden (Ciudad Real, Spain). It is exploited for over 2000 years. Almaden Mine was exploited by the Romans who gave it the name of Sisapo. He was later exploited by the Arabs who gave the name of Almaden (meaning mine). The operation has continued until today and is now practically exhausted.
Almaden Mine has resulted in the largest global production of mercury. This mine has been so important that one third of the mercury that has consumed mankind has come out of this mine.
This mine is the second largest metalliferous anomaly considering the first world, the Earth’s core.
All mines have a bad press because to extract the precious mineral to be drawn a lot of rock and always produces a significant environmental impact.
All mines have a bad press because to extract the precious mineral to be drawn a lot of rock and always produces a significant environmental impact.
Environmental Impact of Opencast Mining II
June 28th, 20101 comment »
Most of the problems resulting from mining activitiespersist for long periods of time. Therefore, the corrective measures is essential.Experts speak of three key aspects in managing a mining operation as sensitive as possible to the environment: Prevention of impact, before or during workings, restoration of the land, returning to its original appearance as possible, and remediation, trying to solve the problems that the restoration has failed.
In any case, open pit mines so alter the natural environment is not possible to fully recover the environment, even with the reintroduction of the original species.
Today we speak rather of compensatory measures to rehabilitate the affected area, providing the conditions to accommodate a new habitat.
And none of these tasks will be effective in the medium to long term if there is a strict monitoring of the process.
How to get open pit mines greener
How to get open pit mines greener
Experts offer a series of recommendations at the time of running a mining area and later retrieve the area:
* Selective extraction of materials and use of drainage systems and waste-dumping
Environmental Impact of Opencast Mining I
June 25th, 2010No comments »
The high growth in the sectors of construction and decoration and infrastructure development has made the open pit mining in the fundamental process ofextraction of materials, replacing the underground workings.Unfortunately, this type of mine has a much greaterenvironmental impact than underground.
On the one hand, increases the production of waste, and so, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE), generates about 75% of industrial waste in Spain.
On the other hand, the natural surface layer remained intact with underground mining is irreversibly altered, leaving behind a lifeless landscape. In addition, aquifers and water courses may be affected next, endangering wildlife and flora.
In addition, the drag of the particles for water damages to agriculture, and sterilize by eroding arable land.
The proximity of the quarries to the urban population also indirectly causes further problems for the environment, since the excavations and lack of plant cover become urban landfills.
The Mining Impacts on Women
June 22nd, 2010No comments »
While mining produce negative impacts on all who live in mining communities in general and those who are affected by mining operations, there are differential impacts and added burdens that affect women.
It is also necessary to understand that companies usually enter into negotiations only with men and exclude women from payments of compensation or royalties. Even with little or no control over the benefits of mining, or access to them, including money or employment. In this way, are deprived of their means of traditional occupation and become increasingly dependent on men, who are more likely to access these benefits and control.
The large-scale mining involving the replacement of subsistence economies that have fed generations of indigenous peoples and communities, an economy based on cash. The new market-based economy implies a significant erosion or destruction of traditional values and customs that have been essential in sustaining solidarity and unity of families, clans, tribes and communities.
In this process, women are increasingly marginalized, as their traditional roles such as collecting food, water, nutridora carer and are very concerned. The economic visibility depends on the work in the public sphere and those involved in unpaid work at home or in the community is categorized as “unproductive, unemployed and economically inactive.”
Environmental and Social Impacts of Mining
June 19th, 2010No comments »
Mining is an activity in the short term but with long-term effects. No one can (should) fit you doubt that it takes place in forest areas is a factor of predation on them. It is estimated that, in conjunction with oil exploration threatens 38% of the last tracts of primary forests worldwide.Mining activities include several stages, each of which carries a particular environmental impacts. In a broad sense, these stages are: prospecting and exploration of mineral deposits, development and preparation of the mines, the mining, mineral processing facilities obtained in respective order to obtain marketable products.
In the exploration phase, some of the environmental impact activities are the preparation of access roads, topographic and geological mapping, installation of camps and auxiliary facilities, geophysical, hydrogeological investigations, opening of trenches and pits of recognition takes samples.
During the operation phase, impacts that occur are a function of the method used. In areas of forest, deforestation, soil alone with the consequent removal of vegetation – more extensive in cases of open pit mines – has impacts in the short, medium and long term.
Deforestation not only affects the habitat of hundreds of endemic species (many driven to extinction), but maintaining a constant flow of water from the forests to other ecosystems and urban centers. Deforestation of primary forests and fluid causes rapid runoff of water from rainfall, exacerbating flooding in rainy periods because the soil can not hold water as it does in the presence of forested areas.
