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More modern room and pillar mines use a more "continuous" method, that uses machinery to simultaneously grind off rock and move it to the surface. [12] Other processes, such as backfill, where discarded tailings are unloaded into mined-out areas, [9] can be used, but are not required. Retreat mining (below) is an example of a process like this.
Longwall mining is a form of underground coal mining where a long wall of coal is mined in a single slice (typically 0.6–6.0 m (2 ft 0 in – 19 ft 8 in) thick). The section of rock that is being mined, known as the longwall panel, is typically 3–4 km (1.9–2.5 mi) long, but can be up to 7.5 km (4.7 mi) long and 250–400 m (820–1,310 ft) wide.
Continuous mining utilizes a continuous miner machine with a large rotating steel drum equipped with tungsten carbide picks that scrape coal from the seam. Operating in a "room and pillar", also known as "bord and pillar" system, where the mine is divided into a series of 20-to-30-foot (5–10 m) "rooms" or work areas cut into the coalbed—it ...
Shortwall mining – A coal mining method that accounts for less than 1% of deep coal production, shortwall involves the use of a continuous mining machine with moveable roof supports, similar to longwall. The continuous miner shears coal panels 150–200 feet wide and more than a half-mile long, depending on other things like the strata of the ...
The continuous-line bucket system (CLB) is an older approach. It operates like a conveyor-belt, running from the bottom to the surface where a ship or mining platform extracts the minerals, and returns the tailings to the ocean. [75] Hydraulic suction mining instead lowers a pipe to the seafloor and pumps nodules up to the ship.
Continuous haulage systems – unlike the pulsed, batch load throughput made possible by usage of shuttle cars and battery haulers, continuous haulage systems feature a connected series of bridge structures that utilize chain conveyors to obtain continuous throughput of material from the mine face to the main mine load-out conveyor belts.
Automated mining involves the removal of human labor from the mining process. [1] The mining industry is in the transition towards automation.It can still require a large amount of human capital, particularly in the developing world where labor costs are low so there is less incentive to increase efficiency.
The Siilinjärvi carbonatite complex, [1] an open-pit mine owned by Yara International, in Siilinjärvi, Finland Coal strip mine in Wyoming. Surface mining, including strip mining, open-pit mining and mountaintop removal mining, is a broad category of mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit (the overburden) are removed, in contrast to underground mining, in which the ...