Change Challenges for Large Open Pit Mines

Mining of lignite is the largest bulk materials handling activity in Europe. In order to mine this lignite, with an average calorific value of only a third of bituminous coal in an economical way, highly efficient opencast mining technology is mandatory. The total continuous mining of overburden and lignite was introduced more than 60 years ago and was subsequently developed stepwise into the largest mass transport system of the world. In 2011, the Inden Mine, one of three RWE Power mines, stripped 90 Mbcm of overburden to produce 22 Mt of lignite. In total, nearly 100 Mt of Lignite was produced from the three mines of RWE Power in Germany. Beside bucket wheel excavators (BWE), several high-performance in-pit crushing and conveying (IPCC) systems, which allow the adoption of continuous mining systems, even for typical shovel and truck (S&T) operations, are available today. RWE Power assists operators considering a change from the S&T to IPCC technology, both in the planning process involving large-scale belt conveyor systems and later with operational know how transfer. In a number of cases, the challenges associated with this system change have been addressed and solved successfully. One key challenge is managing the development of skills for operating the belt conveyor systems efficiently. This paper compares the effectiveness of S&T to different configurations of continuous mining operation for an up to 170 m deep mine with a total annual output of 117 Mbcm. From the mine operatorÆs point-of-view, the quantity and skill level of staffing required for operation and maintenance are discussed in detail. The main conclusion of this paper is the larger the operation becomes and the longer the mine life is, the earlier fully continuous mining systems should be planned and implemented.CITATION:Schmitz, R, Durchholz, R and Heiertz, A-J, 2012. Change challenges for large open pit mines, in Proceedings Eighth Open Pit OperatorsÆ Conference , pp 103-110 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).