Fundamentals of mining transportation analysis for open pit mines

Mining transportation analysis has been developed for a more complete accounting of transport operation when designing and planning open-pit mining operations, in particular, when conducting the mining geometrical analysis proposed by Academician V.V. Rzhevskiy. It is proposed to consider changes in the parameters of the transportation semi-trenches as the open pit gets deeper when forming the final open pit mine outline. As a development of mining geometrical analysis a method has been developed to calculate the work at lifting the rock mass represented in the form of projections onto the vertical plane of the geological section of the open pit field. Rock masses are represented as trapezoids, triangles and rectangles. The coefficient of transportation is proposed as the ratio of the work of lifting the overburden to the work of lifting the useful mineral to the surface. It has been established that if the density of rocks is essentially different, it is more correct to define the coefficient of transportation as a ratio of masses when calculating it. Under certain conditions it can correspond to the stripping ratio. It is proposed to take into account the total work of transportation in the open pit and on the surface by applying the 'reduced lifting height' criterion. The efficiency of the stated provisions has been verified using a case study of a specific open pit mine. The procedure of designing the material flows and routes of transport communications is presented in relation to the dynamics of the mining operations. The points stated allow to come to the conclusion that the presented materials are the next step in the analytical studies of open-pit mining operations. The author wishes to express his gratitude to G.F. Fokina and A.D. Argentova for their help in preparing this article.