History surface mining

From future vision to recognized technology

Why don’t we apply our know-how gained in asphalt milling to the mining of hard rock? In the mid 70s, this idea triggered the development of a new, economically efficient opencast mining method known as surface mining. What followed was an unparalleled success story, and it was headed by WIRTGEN as the driving force behind it right from the start.

WIRTGEN drives the development of surface mining

1980 marked the birth of the state of-the-art surface mining process – WIRTGEN developed a prototype based on road milling machines, the 3000 SM surface miner. Market entry was accomplished in 1983 when the first machine, a 1900 SM surface miner, was sold. In keeping with market requirements, we then continued to develop ever larger machines for ever higher performance rates.