1. Welcome
Gentlemen

2. Presenter :- K. Ghosh

3. It is unconventional mining.
Normal practice to remove overburden
(hard strata) is by drilling blasting.

4. Problems faced for blasting
1. Noise production.
2. Vibration
3. Village habitation.
4. Surface structures near blasting site.
5. Storage of explosive materials.
6. Difficulty in broken strata.

5. Ripper Dozer

6. Removal of Overburden
 Top soil (Alluvium) can be excavated without
blasting by shovels only.
 It is possible to break the hard strata without
blasting by a “Ripper Dozer”.
 The hard strata is ripped layer by layer (up to
400 mm each layer).
 Dozed to make a heap.
 Then loaded on to the dumper by shovel.

7. Advantages of using Ripper Dozer
Blasting is not required.
Fragmentation better.
Less manpower required.
Safer than blasting.
Mixing of rock pieces with coal seam
is prevented.

8. Movie showing the Ripper Dozer Operation (recorded by me)

9. Surface Miner
SM is deployed to break the coal seam.
This can cut from 0-400 mm and width of
the cut depends on the width of the
cutting drum of the Surface Miner.
Width of the cutting drum varies from 2
to 3.5 meters.

10. Surface Miner

11. Advantages of Surface Miner
 Applicable where drilling and blasting is prohibited.
 Selective mining of mineral seams.
 Excavation of very thin seams.
 Less coal loss and dilution.
 Improved Coal recovery especially in areas sensitive
to blasting.

12.  Less stress and strain on trucks due to
minimum impact of the excavated material.
 Primary crushing and fragmentation of coal.
 Reduced capacity requirements for coal
washing/preparation plants.