Mining haul roads. Theory and practice / Автомобильные дороги для добычи полезных ископаемых. Теория и практика

Mining operations may be classified into surface mining, where the operations are unconstrained and open to the sky, and underground operations, where mining takes place in tunnels and galleries. In both situations roads play a key role as a typical mining operation consists of moving overburden (waste material) and ore from where the material was formed or deposited, to waste dumps or beneficiation plants.In surface mining, material movements are typically made by vehicles ranging from conventional on-highway trucks, road-trains (tractor-trailer combinations) and special purpose off the road (OTR) or off-highway dump trucks as shown in Figure 1.1; the current largest being over 600 t gross vehicle mass (GVM). In contrast, underground operations material transportation takes place by load-haul-dump units, delivering to an ore or waste-pass system which then either feeds underground haul trucks (typically 40–80 t payloads), or a conveyor or shaft system which delivers the material to surface. In both cases, but more especially surface mining applications, the haul road plays a critical and central role in safe, efficient and cost-effective mining <...>