Experimental mining of three coal seams by transportless technology

¹ Stroyservice CJSC, 650055 Kemerovo, 121 Kuznetsky Avenue, Russian Federation
² Technical University in Kosice, Department of Earth Resources, Faculty BERG, Letná 9, 04200 Kosice, Slovak Republic
³ Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, P.O. Box 62000-00200, Nairobi, Department of Mining, Materials and Petroleum Engineering, Kenya

^* Corresponding author: a.strelnikov@stroyservice.com

Abstract

In conditions of market economy and competition it is of great importance to reduce the cost of coal mining. It is especially important when mining coal at the complicated deposits of Kuzbass. In these conditions it is important to choose the technology of stripping and winning works, providing a minimum cost for them. There are two essential factors for achieving this goal: reduction of expenses on transportation of overburden and expenses connected with alienation of lands for external dumps and their reclamation. Therefore, promising technologies are those that ensure the placement of the maximum amount of overburden in the internal dump. This condition sets the task of expanding the scope and boundaries of application of transportless technology, which is used in Kuzbass both independently and in combination with transport technology. In particular, the combined technology is used at Chernigovets open pit mine, where the upper part of the quarry field, containing Kemerovsky seam, is mined using transport technology. The lower part up to 70 m high, which includes three flat seams: Volkovsky, Podvolkovsky I, Podvolkovsky II, on an experimental basis is mined by transportless technology (the volume of stripping works is 5-10 % of the total volume). A distinctive feature of the experiment is the performance of stripping and winning operations with a single dragline excavator, which eliminates the cost of maintaining the rope shovel and bulldozer. Therefore, the experience of using this technology is of practical interest for other open pits in the basin, as well as for any other quarries with similar mining and geological conditions.