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Through history, the underground mining equipment has greatly impacted by technological advancements, some large and some small. Whether the new technology be comprised of gas analyzers and ventilation systems to replace age old canary in a cage and continuous miners to replace the shovel, technology has almost always improved and increased production.
Design better high tonnage mining operations were not good many times, however, nowadays, it is possible to obtain profitable and productive operations. If we take a look to the past we found is common to relate underground mining operation to shovels and mules, and when the man knew how to employ steam locomotive and a steam driven shovel, that man could improve his work. Often, advances in technology are linked to special events like the prices of metals.
Whether or not a deposit is economical to develop is related to its size and the cutoff grade. Change the cutoff grade of an ore body by small amount can have a huge impact in the project. One’s pen can never be too exact when drawing up a mining plan. It is often to contest to see who has the finest pen and what kind of pen is that.
Underground equipment has moved from jacklegs and pneumatic hammers to advanced jumbos. Equipment cost usually rise while utilization trends to be poor when seen from the point of view of equipment hours in service. Part of the process time is used for traveling to and from the mine. Nowadays, with robotic mining quick changes take place on same mine, in the office. These changes eliminate the travel time.
In conventional mining there is a wave and flow in productive operation which is why multiple faces are usually in operation. Although, there is a certain amount of surplus capacity built into the mine, especially when considering that some sections may be idle while blasting fumes clear or when there is not much available. Ventilation systems have increased in capacity following the introduction of diesel equipment and the need to maintain a breathable atmosphere.
All people involved in underground know that is there is a bigger hole, the less stable surrounding rock, especially as operations go deeper each time more and more. Thus, automatic mining gives the opportunity to modify part of this restriction. It is believed that increasing the effectiveness of the person in the mining environment through automatic operations, all rules trend to change.
As the mining equipment changes, mining changes too. No longer will there be a need for a large underground development due to the elimination of the human presence in the underground operation. The concept of healthy environment in the mine workings changes from one that will sustain human life to one that look machine operation. The underground support requirements also change due to smaller access ways. The entire development plan of the mine changes from one focused on people to one oriented to better equipment. The constant supply of information from the mining technology being developed each day, can only improve on equipment requirements.
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