The term “mining tools” refers to all mining machinery and equipment used to remove minerals from the earth. Mined minerals can be found in almost all consumer goods, including jewelry, electronics, and automobiles.
Energy-rich minerals like coal and uranium make up 50% of the country’s energy supply. These resources can all be found by using different kinds of mining machinery and equipment.
It’s important to comprehend the various mining methods for which these tools are used before we start identifying important mining tools and mining equipment.
Types of Mining Methods
Surface mining and underground mining are the two types of mining. The kinds of tools that miners use in their work are directly influenced by the kinds of minerals that a mining operation is trying to extract and the mining techniques they’re using to extract those minerals. Nevertheless, a standard procedure is always used for both surface mining and underground mining. This approach is:
- Extraction.?Extraction consists of digging, drilling, or blasting into the earth to extract minerals.
- Material handling.?Material handling consists of sorting 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, ground, 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:
- Strip mining.?Strip mining involves removing 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 lying near the surface, and it is a method that is used to prepare the area for open-pit mining.
- 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 the underlying rocks. This surface mining technique can be used to extract silver.
- Quarrying.?Quarrying is a process in which miners cut blocks of hard stone. Miners will also extract by-products from 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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:
- Blast mining.?Blast mining, just as it sounds, utilizes explosives to remove hard rock layers, loosen rocks, and open up underground mining areas.
- 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 with specialized underground mining equipment.
- 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 minerals 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.
- 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 rock caves inwards.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Shrinkage stopped 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.
- 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.
Mining Equipment for Soft Rock Mines vs. Hard Rock Mines
For various minerals and mining methods, different mining tools are employed. Similar to how there are specific mining machines for surface mining techniques and specific mining tools for underground mining techniques, there are specific mining tools for soft rocks and specific mining tools for hard rocks.
Hard rock mining uses explosives, whereas soft rock mining does not. This is the main distinction between the two types of mining.
- Do not require explosives for extraction.
- Examples of soft rock minerals include salt, coal, bauxite, and potash.
- All of these minerals can be mined using only specialized mining machinery.
- require explosives for extraction.
- Examples of hard rock minerals include copper, gold, iron, lead, platinum, silver, uranium, and zinc.
- 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 tools used in mining.
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:
- Miners’ tools—tools that miners carry on them, like pickaxes and chisels.
- 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.
Miner Tools
To this day, miners still use traditional mining tools, including:
- Pickaxes.
- Hammers.
- Chisels.
- Shovels?(for both surface and underground mining).
Mining PPE
In addition to traditional mining tools, miners also carry mining 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.
- Detection solutions.?for locating miners.
- Fall protection.?an array of safety tools to protect miners from falling.?
- 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 phone for emergency situations
- Protective eyewear.?to protect the eyes.
- Protective 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.
