Mining Tools &#; A Guide to Mining Equipment and Mining Machines
"Mining tools" is a general phrase that refers to all the mining equipment and mining machines used to extract minerals from the earth.
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Mined minerals appear in almost every consumer product&#;from cars, to electronics, to jewelry and more. Minerals like uranium and coal are major energy sources that account for 50% of the US&#;s energy supply.
All of these resources are obtained through the use of various types of mining tools and mining equipment.
Before we begin identifying key mining tools and mining machines, it&#;s important to understand the different types of mining methods for which these tools are used.
Toward that end, the first section of this guide covers the different mining techniques and methods. After we provide that context for the different ways mining is done we'll dive into the specific tools used for each type of mining.
Types of Mining Methods
Mining falls into 4 categories: underground, open surface (pit), placer, and in-situ mining.
The type of materials that a mining operation is trying to extract and the mining techniques they're using to extract those minerals directly informs the types of mining tools that are used.
That being said, a basic method is always followed for surface and underground mining. That method is:
- Extraction. Extraction consists of digging, drilling, or blasting into the earth to extract minerals.
- Material handling. Material handling consists of sorting through materials, sending target minerals to a processing site, and sending irrelevant materials to a waste area.
Material processing
. Material processing
is where minerals go to be smelted, crushed, grinded, or refined, converting the minerals into finished products for distribution.
Surface Mining Methods
Surface mining is a mining method used to extract minerals that are close to the earth&#;s surface.
Mining methods for surface mining include:
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Strip mining. Strip mining removes thin layers of surface material in order to reach the mineral. The layer above the mineral is called overburden, and it typically consists of soil and rocks. This surface mining technique is commonly used to extract coal that is laying near the surface, and it is a method that is used to prepare the area for open-pit mining.
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Open pit mining. Open-pit mining is a technique that involves drilling into the earth&#;s surface to set explosives. These explosions create a large pit for miners to access underlying rocks. This surface mining technique can be used to extract silver.
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Quarrying. Quarrying is a process in which miners cut blocks of hard stone. Miners will also extract by-products of these hard stones, like sand, gravel, or small stones. Quarrying is made accessible by open-pit mining. This surface mining technique is typically used to extract granite, marble, and other hard stones.
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In-situ leach (ISL) mining. In-situ mining is primarily used for extracting uranium, which is used for nuclear power. This surface mining technique consists of dissolving the mineral in place without moving rock from the surface layers.
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Placer mining. Placer mining is used to extract gold from sand or gravel by using pans and water. Gold, which has a higher density than sand and gravel, will sink faster, making it easier to collect.
Open-pit mine | Source: &#;&#;Adam Rhodes on Unsplash
Underground Mining Methods
There are several minerals that cannot be extracted by surface mining techniques.
In this case, underground mining will be used. Because of the confined nature of underground mining, the extraction process is different.
Mining methods for underground mining include:
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Blast mining. Blast mining, just as it sounds, utilizes explosives to remove hard rock layers, loosen rocks, and open up underground mining areas.
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Room and pillar mining. Room and pillar mining consists of the construction of rectangular pillars to support the weight of the ceiling while miners clear out the minerals from around the pillars. This technique can be done by specialized underground mining equipment.
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Retreat mining. Retreat mining is the process of removing the pillars from room and pillar mining. This underground mining technique strategically removes the pillars, extracting the remaining mineral from the mine. As the pillars are removed, the mine collapses onto itself. This is an incredibly dangerous underground mining technique. A lot of careful planning goes into the pillar removal process to prevent injury and death.
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Block caving. Block caving is a large-scale mining method that requires a longer development stage than any other underground mining method. This method blasts a gap at the bottom of the rock mass which causes the rock above to break up and collapse to fill the void while the surface of the mie caves inwards.
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Cut and fill mining. &#;&#;Is a small-scale mining method that involves cutting horizontal slices in the orebody. Once the level is excavated, the level is backfilled and excavation moves up to the next level.
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Drift and fill mining. Drift and fill mining is used when an orebody is wider than the drift itself. Drifts will be mined adjacent to one another, backfilling one before excavating another drift.
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Longwall mining. Longwall mining is commonly used in coal mines and involves the use of a shearer set on a kilometer long track to grind coal from the mine face.
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Shrinkage stope mining. Shrinkage stope mining is a highly productive mining method that is used to mine steep, uniform orebodies. Primary and secondary stopes are blasted throughout the orebody, with the primary stope being excavated and backfilled before extracting ore from the secondary stope.
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Sublevel caving. Sublevel caving is used on orebodies with a steep dip. Ore is extracted from the footwall side to prevent fracturing. The orebody is blasted from the top down while the host rock on the hanging wall caves.
Salt mine | Source: Szabolcs Molnar from Pixabay
Mining Equipment for Soft Rock Mines Vs. Hard Rock Mines
Different mining tools are used for different types of minerals and mining techniques.
There are specific mining tools for soft rocks and specific tools for hard rocks, just as there are specific mining machines for surface mining techniques and specific tools for underground mining techniques.
The basic difference between soft rock mining and hard rock mining is that hard rock mining requires the use of explosive, and soft rock mining does not.
Soft Rock Mines
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Do not require explosives for extraction.
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Examples of soft rock minerals include salt, coal, bauxite, and potash.
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All of these minerals can be mined using only specialized mining machinery.
Hard Rock Mines
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Require explosives for extraction.
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Examples of hard rock minerals include copper, gold, iron, lead, platinum, silver, uranium, and zinc.
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In hard rock mines, hydraulic drills are used to drill holes where explosives can be inserted and then blasted.
Mining Tools and Equipment
There are a lot of different types of mining tools.
Instead of naming all these tools in one giant list, we've organized this guide into the different types of mining methods and the tools used for each one.
But before we dive into those specific categories, we wanted to share a list of mining tools and equipment by category so you can have a general understanding of what each category contains.
Here's a general list of mining tools and equipment:
- Miner tools&#;tools that miners carry on them, like pickaxes, hammers, chisels, and shovels. These are classic mining tools that many are familiar with, so we won&#;t dive into more detail on them.
- Mining PPE&#;equipment that miners use to stay safe while working.
- Surface mining equipment&#;all the tools and mining machines used for surface mining.
- Underground mining equipment&#;all the tools and mining machines used for underground mining.
Now that we've covered things at a high level, let's dive into each specific category.
Mining PPE
In addition to traditional mining tools, miners also carry mining personal protection equipment (PPE) on them at all times, including things like:
- Air respirator systems. For breathing clean air.
- Cap lights. Lights that are attached on top of protective headwear.
- Hearing protection. For working in loud conditions.
- Miner&#;s pouch. A miner&#;s belt that provides lumbar support and carries cap light battery packs, tools, and a self rescuer.
- Protective communications. Wireless two way communications, plus a two way for emergency situations.
- Protective eyewear and headwear. To help protect the head from falling debris, etc.
- Reflective clothing. A safety measure so miners can easily be seen.
- Self-rescuers. A personal emergency respiratory protection device against carbon monoxide and other harmful noxious gases.
Surface Mining Equipment
Here are all the types of mining tools used in surface mining:
- Blasthole drills
- Blasthole drills are mining machines that drill holes into the earth&#;s surface for placing explosives
- Bucket-wheel excavators
- Bucket-wheel excavators are used in open-pit mining. These mining tools continuously dig, transport, and load materials, excavating up to 240,000 cubic tons of minerals per day.
- Dozers
- Dozers are earth-movers that drag dirt from one area to another.
- Dragline excavators
- Dragline excavators are used in strip mining to remove overburden. The massive bucket system is attached to large booms and dragged across the surface of the earth for excavation. This is one of the largest pieces of land mining equipment used in mining, or any industry.
- Graders
- Graders are used to create viable roads for mining trucks so they can transport minerals out of the mine and keep them profitable.
- Highwall miners
- Highwall miners are mining machines that extract coal from exposed seams. The highwall miners rotate up and down a wall, grinding mineral deposits out of the walls. These mining tools are also used for trench mining.
- Mining trucks
- Mining trucks are essentially large dump trucks used for mining. New technology has developed fully autonomous mining trucks that use both LiDAR and radar to freely move around a mining site.
- Shovels
- Shovels are used for digging and to extract broken rocks and minerals.
- Wheel tractor scrapers
- Wheel tractor scrapers are another earth-mover that operates similarly to a carpenter's plane. Unlike dozers, scrapers have the capability to load and carry materials.
Drones
Drones for mining
can be used for overground surveys to track progress, calculate stockpiles in and out of storage spaces, and inspect equipment and machinery.
Blasthole drill | Source: Cat Models
Underground Mining Equipment
Here are all the types of mining tools used in underground mining:
- Crane lifts
- Crane lifts are versatile in underground mining. These mining machines can be used to load explosives and carry other heavy loads and mining equipment.
- Continuous miners
- Continuous miners are a type of mining tool used in room and pillar mining, and have a large rotating drum with carbide teeth to scrape coal from seams. These mining tools can mine up to five tons of coal a minute and account for approximately 45% of underground coal production. They also have conveyor belts that transport coal, making this an automated process that is controlled remotely.
- Drones
- Underground
mining drones
, like Flyability's Elios 3
, are used for visual inspections in stopes, ore passes, ventilation shafts, conveyor belts, and other areas of an underground mine.
- Drone technology has allowed inspections to be conducted in areas that are unsafe for humans to enter, presenting an invaluable tool in such hazardous conditions. However not all drones can be used in mines. For a drone to be functional in an underground mine, it must be able to
operate without GPS.
- Jumbo drills
- Jumbo drills or mining drills are used to drill holes for explosives or to create mine shafts for miners to enter.
- Loaders and haulers
- Loaders and haulers are an extremely compact and maneuverable type of mining tool used in underground mining, which is designed specifically for underground work. Just like their names suggest, these mining tools load and haul away minerals.
- Longwall mining machines
- Longwall mining machines are the most common machines used in underground coal mining. These mining tools are used to build underground galleries and tunnels by leveraging the machine&#;s shearing capabilities.
- Refuge chambers
- Refuge chambers are stand-alone safety chambers for miners that are equipped with oxygen, food, water, and sanitary necessities in case of an emergency. These chambers can safely hold miners for 96 hours to eight days.
- Rock dusters
- Rock dusters are essential to preventing mining shafts from combusting. Dusters apply inert dust, or dust with a small amount of combustible materials, to counter the coal dust. This process is especially important when planned explosions are taking place.
- Roof bolters
- Roof bolters secure the ceiling of the mine with safety jacks to help prevent cave-ins.
- Scoops
- Scoops are used in room and pillar mining to load minerals onto trucks in an underground mine.
- Shotcrete machines
- Shotcrete machines spray concrete along mine tunnel walls and ceilings to reinforce the structural integrity of a mine shaft or tunnel.
- Underground rails
- Underground rails haul miners and materials in and out of a mine. It can sometimes take an hour or more for miners to arrive in the work zone.
- Ventilation systems
- Ventilation systems are crucial for workers to be present in the mines due to the noxious nature of coal and, specifically, coal dust. These systems are used to provide clean air for workers and regulate temperatures underground.
It&#;s important to note that underground mining tools that operate in an enclosed environment are no-emission machines. They are specially built to still have the power to move tons of rocks at a time in these harsh conditions.
Elios 3 drone | Source: Flyability
Other Mining Tools
There are a number of other mining tools that are used in both surface and underground mining. Surface level processing mines are used in both types of mining too, and include an array of transport and processing tools.
- Hoppers
- Chutes
- Conveyor belts
- Stackers
- Reclaimers
- Feeders
- Crushers
- Mills
- Screens
- Roasters
- Mixers and agitators
Mining Tools: rugged and ready for hard work
The mining industry is millenia old and even today requires tough equipment that can adapt to complex and challenging environments. With the emergency of digitalization technology, it is becoming increasingly necessary to have laser or LiDAR scans of mines to use as records as well as part of surveying practices.
In underground mines, LiDAR carrying drones such as the Elios 3 are now helping achieve this goal. Drones provide remote access, making it safer to complete inspections without human exposure to risk. They can be used to document old workings as well as survey new mine environments.
With mining being an old industry, it can be slow to adopt new technology. However, we are seeing many locations adopt drone technology as a new kind of mining tool that inspects, surveys, and documents mines as well as mining equipment, streamlining inspections so they are safer, faster, and overall more efficient.
Mining is one of the most vital components of modern society due to the use of mined minerals in almost every consumer product. Additionally, 50% of the nation&#;s energy comes from coal or nuclear power that uses uranium. To support this need for modern equipment, mines are found in all 50 states, including our home state of Nevada.
Mining in Nevada
Nevada&#;s mining industry is the biggest export sector in the state. Precious minerals such as gold, copper, and silver are well-known materials mined. However, the state also extracts many other goods from the earth, including minerals used for both construction work and consumer goods.
Products mined for construction work include gravel, sand, gypsum, and limestone. These goods contribute to the building sites for erecting structures and infrastructure components required for modern living.
Consumers also directly benefit from Nevada mining operations. Minerals such as iron, molybdenum, and lithium are integral components to cars, computers, electronics, and other innovations used in daily life. Gold, copper, and silver also appear in electronics and fine jewelry.
Even energy can come from mining. With Nevada&#;s rich sources of geothermal energy, mining can extract heat from the earth to help create power.
Because the mining industry is so critical to modern life, manufacturing mining equipment is a booming business, too. This industry offers numerous types of heavy equipment for mining to meet the specific needs of either underground or surface operations.
Types of Mining and Their Respective Equipment
Mining can happen at the surface or underground. The environment and type of material mined dictate the form of mining required and the equipment used. Both surface and underground mining have three main steps:
- Extraction: This involves drilling, blasting, or digging to remove materials from the mine site.
- Material handling: This includes sorting and loading materials to either go to a waste area or the processing site.
- Material processing: The final step involves grinding, separating, crushing, refining, and smelting mined ore or other goods at an off-site plant to turn them into finished products.
Surface Mining
Surface mining includes numerous techniques and is the most common method for non-fuel minerals, producing 97% of the amount mined. Miners choose surface extraction for minerals located close to the surface.
There are three main ways to mine on the surface. These methods include quarrying, open-pit mining, and strip mining.
In quarrying, miners may cut blocks of hard stone for ornamental purposes, such as granite for building. However, quarrying can also refer to extracting gravel, crushed stone, and sand using similar techniques to open-pit mining.
Open-pit mining requires creating a large pit in the ground from which the miners extract the needed material. This is one method miners may use to extract silver from the earth. The other technique is underground silver mining. Occasionally, removing a hilltop with explosives to expose the rocky materials beneath is the first step in creating an open pit. Rotary drills create the holes used for inserting the explosives for this process.
The third type of surface mining is strip mining, which primarily extracts thin layers of coal from near the surface. Since coal is not a major mining product of Nevada, the inclusion of strip mining here serves only to round out the three types of surface mining used around the world.
This form of mining starts with removing large strips of surface material, known as overburden. The first strips of overburden go outside the mine site. After extracting mined products from the initial strip, the newly created hole will hold the deposits of future strips of overburden removed from the mine. For hilly sites, contour strip mining requires using shovels or dozers to remove strips of overburden around the hill in terraces. For flat surfaces, area strip mining using equipment such as draglines or scrapers will suffice.
Underground Mining
Minerals, ore, metals, or other goods located deep underground require different techniques for their removal. Mining may involve hard or soft rock, each of which requires specific tools to extract the materials. For instance, the tools used to dig soft materials might not provide enough power for cutting through hard rock.
Uses of mining equipment for underground mining include automating processes and using no-emission vehicles to preserve miners&#; safety.
Types of underground mining include the following:
- Room and pillar mining: Miners create pillars of ore to support the ceiling as they dig out the rest of the desired material from the space. This system may also use a continuous mining system for extracting material instead of personnel.
- Retreat mining: This type follows room and pillar mining until mining completes in the room. This method removes the pillars for their ore content to maximize material recovery.
- Blast mining: Blast mining uses explosives to loosen rocks and open mining spaces, especially to remove hard rock from both underground or surface mines.
10 Types of Heavy Equipment Used in Mining
To understand the available options you have for machinery, here is a list of mining equipment used for surface or underground mining operations, plus their uses:
1. Large Mining Trucks
To move materials around a mine site, workers need heavy-duty trucks. Also known as off-highway trucks, large mining trucks include both powerful mechanical models and environmentally friendly electric drive models.
Unlike conventional trucks, these mining vehicles have extra-large tires to support the heavy loads over uneven terrain commonly found around surface mines.
Additionally, these trucks can carry high payload capacities to accommodate the need for moving weighty mined minerals or ore out of the site. Large mining trucks also need to perform in the most extreme conditions &#; cold, heat, heavy dust, high altitudes, and steep slopes while hauling heavy loads.
Common applications of these off-highway vehicles include:
- Moving materials at surface mines.
- Hauling materials up steep slopes.
- Carrying up to a 400-ton payload.
2. Hydraulic Mining Shovels
Sometimes called excavators, mining shovels used today grew out of the original steam shovel design used in years past. The models used now often employ hydraulics for moving the shovel to power through tough materials.
Overall, hydraulic mining shovels have similarities in their designs. Most have a base with either tracks or wheels atop which the pivoting cab sits. The pivoting action allows the operator to access material in a circle around the shovel without moving significantly. An articulated arm holds the shovel, both of which the operator controls from inside the cab.
Applications for hydraulic mining shovels include:
- Moving earth or mined materials.
- Digging.
- Scooping material into a loader.
- Removing rock or dirt, also known as overburden, from surface mines to open the site.
- Transporting some mined materials.
3. Large Dozers
Large mining dozers move materials easily around a mining site. Plus, the choice of vehicles with wheels or tracks increases the types of surfaces these dozers can operate on. Additional attachments can change the dozers&#; uses to include the following applications:
- Building mine sites by pushing the surface material away to expose the ground beneath.
- Maintaining a mine site by pushing dirt away from working areas.
- Reclaiming the land around mining sites.
- Ripping plant matter out of the ground.
- Raking the land around a mine site.
4. Electric Rope Shovels
Instead of using hydraulics to control the movement of the shovel at the end of the arm, electric rope shovels use a series of pulleys and ropes. Unlike hydraulic shovels, these models use electric operation, allowing for highly efficient performance over time.
Uses of electric rope shovels mimic those of hydraulic excavators. Therefore, rope shovels have the following applications:
- Removing overburden to prepare a mine site.
- Digging through hard materials.
- Moving earth.
- Removing boulders.
- Transferring mined material to a loader.
- Transporting material.
5. Rotary Drill Rigs and Rock Drills
Rotary drill rigs create holes through rock or soil, allowing placement of charges for blasting open mines. A rotary drill rig is one of two main types of drills used for mining. The other type is a percussion or hammer drill. For a rotary drill rig, the drill bit turns under pressure to cut into the rock. As the bit turns, the rock grinds down while compressed air sends it back up the drill to the top to keep the hole and bit clean.
Ideally, rotary drill bits create holes that range from 6 to 22 inches in diameter and average 30 to 60 feet deep. In some cases, though, miners will use rotary drills to dig holes up to 150 feet deep and as shallow as 15 feet.
For hammer rock drills, pressure forcefully shoves the bit into the ground to create a hole. To keep the hole clean, compressed air blows dirt out of the way to allow the bit to always strike new ground. Hammer drills with the piston located outside the hole (OTH) typically drill smaller holes of 5 inches or fewer in diameter.
Rotary and rock drills have the following uses:
- Creating holes for blasting charges for surface mining.
- Production drilling to make wells.
- Presplit rock drilling.
- Expanding mines.
6. Motor Graders
Mines rarely have ready access to roads. Even those near major roadways still need roads built within the area for moving material and hauling mined goods out. Motor graders are used for surface operations around mines to create and maintain these roads.
When hauling minerals, ore, or other mined materials along roads, things like debris or ponding water can slow vehicles. Motor graders ensure the roads have the necessary grading and adequate drainage. By maintaining the integrity of roads used for transporting the material around and out of the mining area, motor graders play a vital role in ensuring the efficiency of the mine&#;s operations.
Common uses for graders include:
- Pushing surface material to clear roads.
- Creating proper grades to allow water to drain away from roads.
- Constructing haul roads.
7. Large Wheel Loaders
For picking up and quickly moving material across a mining site for loading into trucks, nothing matches the versatility of large wheel loaders. Sizes vary from compact to large. As the wheel loader&#;s size increases, its bucket capacity and load handling also go up. Matching the wheel loader&#;s handling capabilities for both volume and density of materials at the mine is crucial to ensure the machine will hold up to the rigors of daily use without premature wear.
For Cat® wheel loaders, the compact models work best with light materials and have a bucket capacity of 2 cubic yards. However, large models can handle iron ore or rock and can hold up to 38 cubic yards of rock in the bucket. You will have a varied selection of wheel loaders to fit in the space around your surface mine and handle the loads you need to move.
Typically found at surface mines, large wheel loaders can take on many tasks, such as:
- Loading materials onto trucks for transport.
- Digging.
- Supporting jobs of other loading and transport vehicles on-site.
8. Draglines
Draglines are large excavators with a bucket supported by ropes and wires at the end of a boom. Lowering the bucket and scraping it along the ground collects overburden or mined material. Swinging the bucket at the end of the dragline around repositions it to dump its contents into a specified location.
Surface mining heavily uses draglines. These excavators have numerous functions, including:
- Moving tons of overburden to prepare a surface mine.
- Removing exposed material, such as tar sand, from a strip mine.
- Reducing emissions compared to other overburden removal methods.
- Cutting into high wall surfaces and removing material.
9. Wheel Tractor Scrapers
Wheel tractor scrapers have a design similar to motor graders. However, the scrapers typically have an attached bin that collects the material removed from the ground&#;s surface rather than pushing it to the side as a grader does.
To operate the scraper, the driver uses controls inside the cab to raise or lower the bin to the ground. When on the ground, the edge of the bin scrapes the ground materials, which feed directly into the bin. When filled, a vertical flap holds the material inside the bin, so it does not spill during transport. At the deposit location, the bin tilts and opens in the rear to empty the scraped dirt.
Applications for scrapers include:
- Building roads.
- Making initial cuts into the land for a mine.
- Reclaiming land.
- Performing mining operations.
10. Underground Mining Loaders and Trucks
Underground mining trucks and loaders require specific operating parameters to function in confined spaces. Additionally, these vehicles cannot produce emissions in the enclosed environment of a mine. Therefore, standard trucks used for surface mining will not suffice for underground work.
Mining trucks and loaders for underground operations have specially built engines that do not produce emissions but still have enough power to move tons of rock.
For these machines, their uses include:
- Digging.
- Loading rock or mined material into trucks.
- Transporting material to the surface.
Contact Cashman Equipment for More Information on Our Heavy Machinery Used in Mining
This guide to mining equipment should improve your understanding of the pieces available and their common applications. At Cashman Equipment, we want to be your source for all machinery, parts, and more for your mining operation. Whether you need new equipment, rentals, service, power solutions, fluid analysis, or parts, we can help you find what you need.
If you need more information or need to request a quote, contact us at Cashman Equipment by filling out a form or calling us at 800-937-. You can also visit one of our locations serving Nevada and the Eastern Sierras for direct customer service in helping you find the right types of heavy equipment for mining.
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