Technology: Surface Mining
Cutting, crushing and loading of rock in a single, continuous operation
WIRTGEN’s expertise in advanced cutting technology makes it possible to selectively mine mineral deposits without drilling or blasting. By eliminating the need for drilling and blasting, the selective cutting process generates verifiably less dust and noise emissions than conventional mining and quarrying methods.
Discover the operating principle and technical components of Surface Miner technology. Find out more about the state-of-the-art cutting technology and new ways of exploiting mineral resources.
How a state-of-the-art Surface Miner works
While the Surface Miner moves forward, a special cutting drum rotates against the direction of travel, cuts material layer by layer from the rock formations and crushes it in the process. The primary conveyor receives the mineral material from the drum housing and transports it to the end of the machine, where it is transferred to the height-adjustable discharge conveyor that features wide swing angles. From there, the material is loaded onto trucks or dumpers or sidecast. The discharge height can be adjusted to match the size of the available transport equipment. The surface miner is driven by four steerable and height-adjustable crawler units. An automatic leveling system ensures that the machine maintains the exact cutting depth. This allows even thin seams or layers to be selectively mined with maximum precision.
Discharge conveyor
Counterweight
Operator's cabin
Track unit
Cutting drum
Access steps
Safety equipment
Drum tooling
Power unit with diesel engine
Advantages of our mining fleet
Surface Miner are just one link in a process chain, but they have a major impact on the entire process – especially the end result. This innovative process stands out due to the following key features:
Cut, Crush, and Load in a Single Operation
The mined material is cut, crushed, and, if required, directly loaded in a single operation. Conventional primary crushing of the rock as an additional operation is no longer necessary. This makes Surface Miner significantly more cost-efficient than conventional drilling and blasting processes with subsequent material loading.
Selective Mining
Surface Miner selectively mine raw materials, achieving a high degree of purity and maximizing exploitation of the deposits. The selective process significantly reduces the amount of equipment, personnel, time and overburden – and the capital expenditure is also considerably lower.
Eliminate Blasting and Create Stable Surfaces
Stringent environmental regulations governing noise and dust emissions make vibration-free surface mining an attractive alternative to drilling and blasting. The stable, precise, even surfaces created during mining, earthworks and rock construction can be directly used as road surfaces, tunnel floors or embankments.
Efficient Material Mining
We not only develop innovative machines of exceptional quality. Our ongoing goal is the reduction of both emissions and other impacts resulting from machine operation. A prime example of this is a WIRTGEN Surface Miner: t unites cutting, crushing, and loading of material in a single operation. The tremendous advantage of the selective mining method is that vibration-free material extraction without drilling and blasting produces very little dust and noise. At the same time, the characteristic processes of this method also allow the extraction of mineral resources in the immediate vicinity of communities. When using the selecting mining method, the area required for extracting high-quality material is much smaller than with conventional methods. Our fuel-efficient, intelligently-controlled engines fulfill all currently applicable exhaust emission standards.
WIRTGEN is the world market-leader in the manufacturing of machines for cutting extraction of mineral resources in open-cast mines and quarries. WIRTGEN Surface Miners extract primary resources such as coal, gypsum, iron ore, rock salt, phosphates, bauxite, limestone or granite in exceptional purity. They are also increasingly being used as the primary extraction equipment in newly developed open-cast mining areas and in open-cast mine extensions.
