Welcome Gentlemen

Mining without blasting by Ripper

Dozer-Surface Miner Combination

Presenter :- K. Ghosh

It is unconventional mining.

Normal practice to remove overburden (hard strata) is by drilling blasting.

Problems faced for blasting 1. Noise production.2. Vibration3. Village habitation.4. Surface structures near blasting site.

5. Storage of explosive materials.6. Difficulty in broken strata.

Ripper Dozer

Removal of OverburdenTop soil (Alluvium) can be excavated without

blasting by shovels only.It is possible to break the hard strata without

blasting by a “Ripper Dozer”.The hard strata is ripped layer by layer (up to

400 mm each layer).Dozed to make a heap.Then loaded on to the dumper by shovel.

Advantages of using Ripper DozerBlasting is not required.Fragmentation better.Less manpower required.Safer than blasting.Mixing of rock pieces with coal

seam is prevented.

Movie showing the Ripper Dozer Operation (recorded by me)

Surface MinerSM is deployed to break the coal seam.This can cut from 0-400 mm and width

of the cut depends on the width of the cutting drum of the Surface Miner.

Width of the cutting drum varies from 2 to 3.5 meters.

Surface Miner

Advantages of Surface Miner Applicable where drilling and blasting is prohibited.

Selective mining of mineral seams.

Excavation of very thin seams.

Less coal loss and dilution.

Improved Coal recovery especially in areas sensitive to blasting.

Less stress and strain on trucks due to minimum impact of the excavated material.

Primary crushing and fragmentation of coal.

Reduced capacity requirements for coal washing/preparation plants.

Thanks