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Wirtgen Surface Miner in Action

The Wirtgen Surface Miner 220 SM in the gypsum quarry, overhead power lines in the background.

Cutting as an Alternative to Blasting

The Wirtgen 220 SM is breaking new ground in the field of gypsum mining in Brazil

At the Grajaú gypsum mine in north-eastern Brazil, a Wirtgen Surface Miner is enabling the extraction of mineral resources by cutting. Mineral extraction by cutting with eliminates the need for conventional methods such as drilling and blasting and enables cost-efficient mining and quarrying operations. For the mining company Gesso Integral, the deployment of the 220 SM is a technological game changer with a focus on productivity and state-of-the-art mining methods.

Company CEO with a Vision for the Future

In Brazil, resources have been mined and quarried by drilling and blasting for over 100 years. This was also the standard method used for many years by Gesso Integral at the mine. However, for CEO Marcos Vasconcelos Ferreira, the mining method with the most inherent safety risks no longer represented a forward-looking, contemporary solution: “Just because something has been done this way for over 100 years doesn’t mean that it’s not possible to do some things better.”

“We wanted to achieve high productivity.”

Marcos Vasconcelos Ferreira, CEO at Gesso Integral

During the search for a more efficient extraction method, the company CEO came across the Surface Miner from Wirtgen, which cuts, crushes, and, if required, also loads the cut and crushed rock into trucks in a continuous process. The mineral resources are selectively extracted in purest quality, which allows optimum exploitation of mineral deposits. Ferreira quickly recognised the potential of the machine and the advantages of the new extraction method: no more drilling, no more blasting, lower noise and dust emissions, increased safety in open-cast mines and quarries and other, cost-related, advantages. The decision to change the mining technology was made and a first Surface Miner was purchased. With the purchase of a further Surface Miner SM 220 in 2023, production in the quarry was able to be increased by an astounding 84%.

The Grajaú gypsum mine is located in the federal state of Maranhão in the north-east of Brazil.

The 220 SM is ideal for use in small and medium-scale mining operations.

The cut and crushed material is continuously deposited behind the machine.

Bird’s-eye view of the Grajaú gypsum mine, quarry with surrounding woodland.

The 220 SM continuously deposits the cut and crushed material behind the machine.

Surface Miners – The advantages at a glance:

Cutting, crushing, and, if required, loading in a single working pass
Conventional pre-crushing of the mined or quarried rock is no longer required.
Increased productivity
Selective mining of raw materials in outstanding purity
Reduced noise and dust emissions and a contribution to occupational safety, by eliminating the need for explosives.
Low-vibration extraction enables the exploitation of mineral deposits in the immediate neighborhood of infrastructure or residential areas.

A Personal Success Story

The success story also has a personal side to it. Marcos Vasconcelos Ferreira was intentionally looking for someone with no previous experience in the handling of large machines as an operator for the new Surface Miner who could approach it and the new mining method with an objective viewpoint.Marlete Ribeiro Souza Guajajára from the indigenous Guajajára community was recruited and trained as a machine operator. ‘My boss told me that he needed an unskilled person he could train from scratch for the job. And that person turned out to be me. At the time, I had never even learned how to ride a bike, a motorcycle or drive a car.’ His trust in the abilities of his new employee paid off. In the meantime, working with the Surface Miner has become second nature to Marlete, and she knows how to make the best of the machine’s advantages.