What is the difference between quarries and mines

Notify me of new posts via email. Source A quarry is a place from which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate has been excavated from the ground.

Rate this:. Like this: Like Loading Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:. The term 'mining' was similarly associated with places where minerals were extracted to produce metals or coal.

If you are searching for more information on minerals, please take a look at our Minerals Use page that highlights its importance and how they are used all around us. The materials produces by quarrying are essential to our everyday lives, providing the construction materials to build roads and buildings, delivering vital minerals to agriculture and supporting the generation of electricity — to name just a few uses. Furthermore, we need talented, professional women and men to operate quarries in a way that is safe, productive and good for our environment.

Our Quarry Garden demonstrates how quarrying supports the environment and biodiversity whilst our Quarry Trails inspires people to get on their bikes and enjoy the great outdoors with trails covering all the UK. Quarrying is an industry with plenty of opportunity and if you join the Institute of Quarrying we are committed to providing you with training and recognition. Help us improving the Re3gistry software! Mining and quarrying include the extraction of minerals occurring naturally as solids coal and ores , liquids petroleum or gases natural gas.

Extraction can be achieved by different methods such as underground or surface mining, well operation, seabed mining etc. This section includes supplementary activities aimed at preparing the crude materials for marketing, for example, crushing, grinding, cleaning, drying, sorting, concentrating ores, liquefaction of natural gas and agglomeration of solid fuels.

Vehicles must have regular maintenance and contain adequate equipment including survival gear. Protective clothing and a helmet are required when operating ATVs or 2-wheel motor bikes. Access to remote sites frequently depends on fixed wing aircraft and helicopters see figure 6. Only charter companies with well-maintained equipment and a good safety record should be engaged. Aircraft with turbine engines are recommended.

Pilots must never exceed the legal number of allowable flight hours and should never fly when fatigued or be asked to fly in unacceptable weather conditions.

Pilots must oversee the proper loading of all aircraft and comply with payload restrictions. To prevent accidents, exploration workers must be trained to work safely around aircraft. They must follow safe embarkation and loading procedures. No one should walk in the direction of the propellers or rotor blades; they are invisible when moving. Helicopter landing sites should be kept free of loose debris that may become airborne projectiles in the downdraft of rotor blades.

Helicopters are often used to move supplies, fuel, drill and camp equipment. Some major hazards include overloading, incorrect use of or poorly maintained slinging equipment, untidy worksites with debris or equipment that may be blown about, protruding vegetation or anything that loads may snag on. In addition, pilot fatigue, lack of personnel training, miscommunication between parties involved especially between the pilot and groundman and marginal weather conditions increase the risks of slinging.

For safe slinging and to prevent accidents, all parties must follow safe slinging procedures and be fully alert and well briefed with mutual responsibilities clearly understood.

The sling cargo weight must not exceed the lifting capacity of the helicopter. Loads should be arranged so they are secure and nothing will slip out of the cargo net. When slinging with a very long line e. Fatal accidents have occurred when unweighted lanyards have struck the helicopter tail or main rotor during flight.

Workers who rely on boats for field transportation on coastal waters, mountain lakes, streams or rivers may face hazards from winds, fog, rapids, shallows, and submerged or semi-submerged objects. To prevent boating accidents, operators must know and not exceed the limitations of their boat, their motor and their own boating capabilities. The largest, safest boat available for the job should be used.

In addition, all boats must contain all legally required equipment plus spare parts, tools, survival and first aid equipment and always carry and use up-to-date charts and tide tables.

The rationale for selecting a method for mining coal depends on such factors as topography, geometry of the coal seam, geology of the overlying rocks and environmental requirements or restraints. Overriding these, however, are the economic factors. They include: availability, quality and costs of the required work force including the availability of trained supervisors and managers ; adequacy of housing, feeding and recreational facilities for the workers especially when the mine is located at a distance from a local community ; availability of the necessary equipment and machinery and of workers trained to operate it; availability and costs of transportation for workers, necessary supplies, and for getting the coal to the user or purchaser; availability and the cost of the necessary capital to finance the operation in local currency ; and the market for the particular type of coal to be extracted i.

A major factor is the stripping ratio , that is, the amount of overburden material to be removed in proportion to the amount of coal that can be extracted; as this increases, the cost of mining becomes less attractive. An important factor, especially in surface mining, that, unfortunately, is often overlooked in the equation, is the cost of restoring the terrain and the environment when the mining operation is closed down. Another critical factor is the cost of protecting the health and safety of the miners.

Unfortunately, particularly in small-scale operations, instead of being weighed in deciding whether or how the coal should be extracted, the necessary protective measures are often ignored or short-changed. Actually, although there are always unsuspected hazards—they may come from the elements rather than the mining operations—any mining operation can be safe providing there is a commitment from all parties to a safe operation.

Surface mining of coal is performed by a variety of methods depending on the topography, the area in which the mining is being undertaken and environmental factors. All methods involve the removal of overburden material to allow for the extraction of the coal. While generally safer than underground mining, surface operations do have some specific hazards that must be addressed. Prominent among these is the use of heavy equipment which, in addition to accidents, may involve exposure to exhaust fumes, noise and contact with fuel, lubricants and solvents.

Climatic conditions, such as heavy rain, snow and ice, poor visibility and excessive heat or cold may compound these hazards. When blasting is required to break up rock formations, special precautions in the storage, handling and use of explosives are required.

Surface operations require the use of huge waste dumps to store overburden products. Appropriate controls must be implemented to prevent dump failure and to protect the employees, the general public and the environment. There is also a variety of methods for underground mining. In addition to the high frequency of accidents—coal mining ranks high on the list of hazardous workplaces wherever statistics are maintained—the potential for a major incident involving multiple loss of life is always present in underground operations.

It is best controlled by providing adequate air flow to dilute the gas to a level that is below its explosive range and to exhaust it quickly from the workings. Methane levels must be continuously monitored and rules established to close down operations when its concentration reaches 1 to 1.

In addition to causing black lung disease anthracosis if inhaled by miners, coal dust is explosive when fine dust is mixed with air and ignited. Airborne coal dust can be controlled by water sprays and exhaust ventilation.

There are underground mines all over the world presenting a kaleidoscope of methods and equipment. In addition, it is estimated that there are 6, smaller mines each producing less than , tonnes. Each mine is unique with workplace, installations and underground workings dictated by the kinds of minerals being sought and the location and geological formations, as well as by such economic considerations as the market for the particular mineral and the availability of funds for investment.

Some mines have been in continuous operation for more than a century while others are just starting up. Mines are dangerous places where most of the jobs involve arduous labour. The hazards faced by the workers range from such catastrophes as cave-ins, explosions and fire to accidents, dust exposure, noise, heat and more. Protecting the health and safety of the workers is a major consideration in properly conducted mining operations and, in most countries, is required by laws and regulations.

The underground mine is a factory located in the bedrock inside the earth in which miners work to recover minerals hidden in the rock mass. They drill, charge and blast to access and recover the ore, i. The ore is taken to the surface to be refined into a high-grade concentrate.

Working inside the rock mass deep below the surface requires special infrastructures: a network of shafts, tunnels and chambers connecting with the surface and allowing movement of workers, machines and rock within the mine.

The shaft is the access to underground where lateral drifts connect the shaft station with production stopes. The internal ramp is an inclined drift which links underground levels at different elevations i.

All underground openings need services such as exhaust ventilation and fresh air, electric power, water and compressed air, drains and pumps to collect seeping ground water, and a communication system. The headframe is a tall building which identifies the mine on the surface. Shaft and hoist installations vary depending on the need for capacity, depth and so on. Each mine must have at least two shafts to provide an alternate route for escape in case of an emergency.

Hoisting and shaft travelling are regulated by stringent rules. Hoisting equipment e. The shaft interior is regularly inspected by people standing on top of the cage, and stop buttons at all stations trigger the emergency brake.

The gates in front of the shaft barricade the openings when the cage is not at the station. When the cage arrives and comes to a full stop, a signal clears the gate for opening. After miners have entered the cage and closed the gate, another signal clears the cage for moving up or down the shaft.

Practice varies: the signal commands may be given by a cage tender or, following the instructions posted at each shaft station, the miners may signal shaft destinations for themselves. Miners are generally quite aware of the potential hazards in shaft riding and hoisting and accidents are rare.

A mineral deposit inside the rock must be mapped before the start of mining. It is necessary to know where the orebody is located and define its width, length and depth to achieve a three-dimensional vision of the deposit.

Diamond drilling is used to explore a rock mass. Drilling can be done from the surface or from the drift in the underground mine. A drill bit studded with small diamonds cuts a cylindrical core that is captured in the string of tubes that follows the bit. The core is retrieved and analysed to find out what is in the rock. Core samples are inspected and the mineralized portions are split and analysed for metal content.

Extensive drilling programmes are required to locate the mineral deposits; holes are drilled at both horizontal and vertical intervals to identify the dimensions of the orebody see figure 1.

Mine development involves the excavations needed to establish the infrastructure necessary for stope production and to prepare for the future continuity of operations.

Routine elements, all produced by the drill-blast-excavation technique, include horizontal drifts, inclined ramps and vertical or inclined raises. It requires experienced workers and special equipment, such as a shaft-sinking headframe, a special hoist with a large bucket hanging in the rope and a cactus-grab shaft mucking device.

The shaft-sinking crew is exposed to a variety of hazards. They work at the bottom of a deep, vertical excavation. People, material and blasted rock must all share the large bucket. People at the shaft bottom have no place to hide from falling objects. Clearly, shaft sinking is not a job for the inexperienced. A drift is a horizontal access tunnel used for transport of rock and ore.

Drift excavation is a routine activity in the development of the mine. In mechanized mines, two-boom, electro-hydraulic drill jumbos are used for face drilling.

Typical drift profiles are The holes are charged pneumatically with an explosive, usually bulk ammonium nitrate fuel oil ANFO , from a special charging truck. Short-delay non-electric Nonel detonators are used.

Mucking is done with load-haul-dump LHD vehicles see figure 2 with a bucket capacity of about 3. Muck is hauled directly to the ore pass system and transferred to truck for longer hauls.

Ramps are passageways connecting one or more levels at grades ranging from to a very steep grade compared to normal roads that provide adequate traction for heavy, self-propelled equipment.

The ramps are often driven in an upward or downward spiral, similar to a spiral staircase. A raise is a vertical or steeply-inclined opening that connects different levels in the mine. Raising is a difficult and dangerous, but necessary job. Raising methods vary from simple manual drill and blast to mechanical rock excavation with raise boring machines RBMs see figure 3.

It is a job to be assigned only to experienced miners in good physical condition. As a rule the raise section is divided into two compartments by a timbered wall. One is kept open for the ladder used for climbing to the face, air pipes, etc. The other fills with rock from blasting which the miner uses as a platform when drilling the round. The timber parting is extended after each round.

The work involves ladder climbing, timbering, rock drilling and blasting, all done in a cramped, poorly ventilated space. It is all performed by a single miner, as there is no room for a helper. Mines search for alternatives to the hazardous and laborious manual raising methods. The raise climber is a vehicle that obviates ladder climbing and much of the difficulty of the manual method.

This vehicle climbs the raise on a guide rail bolted to the rock and provides a robust working platform when the miner is drilling the round above. Very high raises can be excavated with the raise climber with safety much improved over the manual method. Raise excavation, however, remains a very hazardous job. The RBM is a powerful machine that breaks the rock mechanically see figure 4.

It is erected on top of the planned raise and a pilot hole about mm in diameter is drilled to break through at a lower level target. The pilot drill is replaced by a reamer head with the diameter of the intended raise and the RBM is put in reverse, rotating and pulling the reamer head upward to create a full-size circular raise.

Ground control is an important concept for people working inside a rock mass. It is particularly important in mechanized mines using rubber-tyred equipment where the drift openings are The roof at 5.

Different measures are used to secure the roof in underground openings. In smooth blasting, contour holes are drilled closely together and charged with a low-strength explosive. The blast produces a smooth contour without fracturing the outside rock. Nevertheless, since there are often cracks in the rock mass which do not show on the surface, rock falls are an ever-present hazard. The risk is reduced by rock bolting, i.

The rock bolt holds the rock mass together, prevents cracks from spreading, helps to stabilize the rock mass and makes the underground environment safer. The choice of mining method is influenced by the shape and size of the ore deposit, the value of the contained minerals, the composition, stability and strength of the rock mass and the demands for production output and safe working conditions which sometimes are in conflict.

While mining methods have been evolving since antiquity, this article focuses on those used in semi- to fully-mechanized mines during the late twentieth century. Each mine is unique, but they all share the goals of a safe workplace and a profitable business operation. The deposits are often of sedimentary origin and the rock is often in both hanging wall and mineralization in competent a relative concept here as miners have the option to install rock bolts to reinforce the roof where its stability is in doubt.

Room-and-pillar is one of the principal underground coal-mining methods. Room-and-pillar extracts an orebody by horizontal drilling advancing along a multi-faced front, forming empty rooms behind the producing front.

Pillars, sections of rock, are left between the rooms to keep the roof from caving. The usual result is a regular pattern of rooms and pillars, their relative size representing a compromise between maintaining the stability of the rock mass and extracting as much of the ore as possible. This involves careful analysis of the strength of the pillars, the roof strata span capacity and other factors. Rock bolts are commonly used to increase the strength of the rock in the pillars.

The room-and-pillar stope face is drilled and blasted as in drifting. The stope width and height correspond to the size of the drift, which can be quite large. Large productive drill jumbos are used in normal height mines; compact rigs are used where the ore is less than 3. The thick orebody is mined in steps starting from the top so that the roof can be secured at a height convenient for the miners. The section below is recovered in horizontal slices, by drilling flat holes and blasting against the space above.

The ore is loaded onto trucks at the face. Normally, regular front-end loaders and dump trucks are used. For the low-height mine, special mine trucks and LHD vehicles are available.

Room-and-pillar is an efficient mining method. Safety depends on the height of the open rooms and ground control standards. The main risks are accidents caused by falling rock and moving equipment. This is too steep an angle for rubber-tyred vehicles to climb and too flat for a gravity assist rock flow. The traditional approach to the inclined orebody relies on manual labour. The miners drill blast holes in the stopes with hand-held rock drills. The stope is cleaned with slusher scrapers. The inclined stope is a difficult place to work.

The miners have to climb the steep piles of blasted rock carrying with them their rock drills and the drag slusher pulley and steel wires. In addition to rock falls and accidents, there are the hazards of noise, dust, inadequate ventilation and heat. The steps are produced by a diamond pattern of stopes and haulage-ways at the selected angle across the orebody.

Ore extraction starts with horizontal stope drives, branching out from a combined access-haulage drift. The initial stope is horizontal and follows the hanging wall. The next stope starts a short distance further down and follows the same route.

This procedure is repeated moving downward to create a series of steps to extract the orebody. Sections of the mineralization are left to support the hanging wall. This is done by mining two or three adjacent stope drives to the full length and then starting the next stope drive one step down, leaving an elongated pillar between them. Sections of this pillar can later be recovered as cut-outs that are drilled and blasted from the stope below.

Modern trackless equipment adapts well to step-room mining. The stoping can be fully mechanized, using standard mobile equipment. If the stope is not high enough for truck loading, the trucks can be filled in special loading bays excavated in the haulage drive. It has largely been replaced by mechanized methods but is still used in many small mines around the world.

It is applicable to mineral deposits with regular boundaries and steep dip hosted in a competent rock mass. Also, the blasted ore must not be affected by storage in the slopes e. Its most prominent feature is the use of gravity flow for ore handling: ore from stopes drops directly into rail cars via chutes obviating manual loading, traditionally the most common and least liked job in mining. Until the appearance of the pneumatic rocker shovel in the s, there was no machine suitable for loading rock in underground mines.

Shrinkage stoping extracts the ore in horizontal slices, starting at the stope bottoms and advancing upwards. Most of the blasted rock remains in the stope providing a working platform for the miner drilling holes in the roof and serving to keep the stope walls stable.

The remaining ore is drawn after blasting has reached the upper limit of the stope. The necessity of working from the top of the muckpile and the raise-ladder access prevents the use of mechanized equipment in the stope. Only equipment light enough for the miner to handle alone may be used. The air-leg and rock drill, with a combined weight of 45 kg, is the usual tool for drilling the shrinkage stope. Cut-and-fill mining is suitable for a steeply dipping mineral deposit contained in a rock mass with good to moderate stability.

It removes the ore in horizontal slices starting from a bottom cut and advances upwards, allowing the stope boundaries to be adjusted to follow irregular mineralization. This permits high-grade sections to be mined selectively, leaving low-grade ore in place. After the stope is mucked clean, the mined out space is backfilled to form a working platform when the next slice is mined and to add stability to the stope walls. Development for cut-and-fill mining in a trackless environment includes a footwall haulage drive along the orebody at the main level, undercut of the stope provided with drains for the hydraulic backfill, a spiral ramp excavated in the footwall with access turn-outs to the stopes and a raise from the stope to the level above for ventilation and fill transport.

Overhand stoping is used with cut-and-fill, with both dry rock and hydraulic sand as backfill material. Overhand means that the ore is drilled from below by blasting a slice 3. This allows the complete stope area to be drilled and the blasting of the full stope without interruptions. Up-hole drilling and blasting leaves a rough rock surface for the roof; after mucking out, its height will be about 7.

Before miners are allowed to enter the area, the roof must be secured by trimming the roof contours with smooth-blasting and subsequent scaling of the loose rock. This is done by miners using hand-held rock drills working from the muckpile. In front stoping , trackless equipment is used for ore production.

Sand tailings are used for backfill and distributed in the underground stopes via plastic pipes. The stopes are filled almost completely, creating a surface sufficiently hard to be traversed by rubber-tyred equipment. The stope production is completely mechanized with drifting jumbos and LHD vehicles. The stope face is a 5. Five-meter-long horizontal holes are drilled in the face and ore is blasted against the open bottom slot.

The tonnage produced by a single blast depends on the face area and does not compare to that yielded by the overhand stope blast. However, the output of trackless equipment is vastly superior to the manual method, while roof control can be accomplished by the drill jumbo which drills smooth-blast holes together with the stope blast. Fitted with an oversize bucket and large tyres, the LHD vehicle, a versatile tool for mucking and transport, travels easily on the fill surface.

In a double face stope, the drill jumbo engages it on one side while the LHD handles the muckpile at the other end, providing efficient use of the equipment and enhancing the production output. Sublevel stoping removes ore in open stopes.