Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth of a deposit. There are, depending on where it takes place, various types of mining.
Types of mining
Within this process, we distinguish two types of mining, open pit mining and underground mining.
Open pit mining
Open pit mining is the industrial activity that consists of the removal of large amounts of soil and subsoil, which is later processed to extract the mineral. This mineral can be present in very low concentrations, in relation to the amount of material removed.
Underground mining
Underground mining is the work that is carried out underground, and is carried out when the extraction of minerals in the open pit is not possible, either for environmental or economic reasons.
These processes have several stages and range from the extraction of the mineral until it becomes a marketable product.
Stages of the mining process
These stages change depending on the type of mining, but generally they are:
- Exploitation: mineral extraction processes in the mine.
- Loading: loading of the mineral in the trucks.
- Transportation: displacement of the mineral to the places where it is processed.
- Crushing or processing: they are carried out in specialized centers where the rocks are crushed to obtain the minerals.
- Refinement: it is the transformation and purification of minerals through techniques such as smelting.
- Marketing: Purchase, sale and distribution of the product.
- Recycling: after the useful life of the material it is melted to give them new uses.
For each of the mining processes, specialized machinery or installation is necessary.
Mining machinery and equipment
Exploitation equipment
Exploitation: both machinery and facilities specialized in the process, as well as those that can help in the process.
- Bucket Elevators and Accessories – Also known as vertical elevators. This equipment of great use in the primary and secondary industry, is designed in a standardized modular way for the vertical transport of solid bulks, both wet and dry, and is ideal especially when a conventional conveyor is not enough, there is a too steep slope or a great height. It has “heavy duty” bucket elevators, specially designed for lifting hard and abrasive minerals.
- Belt conveyors: The belt conveyor is probably the most used equipment in the transport and handling of solids.
- Screw conveyors: We have dosing augers specially designed for hard and abrasive materials, as well as for medium materials. Among the former, we highlight the dosage of siliceous sands and highly abrasive aggregates in our dry mortar manufacturing facilities. As well as augers for cement, plaster, lime, etc.
- Bin activators: Vibrating silo extractors facilitate the regular and continuous discharge of bulk products without disintegration or dead zones.
- Microdosers: These equipment ensure a precise and exact dosage, being able to be used in both continuous and discontinuous processes.
- Dynamic weighing on conveyor belt: System for dynamic weighing of solid products on rubber belt conveyor belts. Valid for any conveyor belt as the frame design is universal.
- Horizontal silos: They are used in cases of having a low height to install a traditional silo, products whose logistics require loading at origin and dosing at destination.
- Bag and cartridge filters: we have a wide range of dust filters for various applications, mainly for industrial mineral processing facilities, dry mortar manufacturing, cement, gypsum, lime, recycling facilities, etc.
- Discontinuous mixing: it is indicated for the manufacture of dry mortar. Continuous mixer: it is indicated for the manufacture of gravel-cement.
- Humidifiers: designed to add water to fillers or fines, and allow its subsequent handling as a manageable solid without dust emission.
As well as the importance of goods in the mining process, the facilities that are had to perform an efficient work are very important.
Mining machinery
The different equipment is combined and complemented to create complete facilities that allow a correct exploitation and processing of the extracted material.
In SOTECMA we supply turnkey facilities in addition to the modification and expansion of existing plants to improve their production, quality and environmental impact.
- Silage facilities: complete storage facilities for powder and granular products in silos.
- Dry mortar plants: designs, manufactures and supplies turnkey plants for the manufacture of dry mortar, glue cement, technical mortars, repair mortars, self-leveling, color monolayer, etc.
- Concrete plants: it is a fresh homogeneous mixture of aggregates, water and cement. Kneaded in an industrial plant. This product provides stability, resistance and durability to the terrain. Adapting its composition to the technical prescriptions of each work. This product is applied in high traffic demand roads.
- Gravel-Cement Plants: it is a homogeneous mixture of classified aggregates, cement, water and additives (in different proportions), which is mixed in a manufacturing plant. It provides greater resistance than soil-cement, due to the size classification of the aggregates, the higher percentage of cement and the contribution of various chemical additives. It is an ideal material for sub-base of very high demand pavements such as highways, highways or roads.
- Dedusting installations: to reduce dust emissions, which represents a significant improvement in environmental impact. Likewise, it designs and supplies filters and their installation associated with mineral process equipment, such as mills, dynamic classifiers, etc.
- Special facilities: facilities expressly adapted to any industrial application, always based on the handling, dosing, weighing and processing of solid bulks.
Loading equipment
- Telescopic loaders: for loading dry solid bulks in trucks and tankers. The products generally handled are cement, dry mortar, plaster, lime, sand, industrial minerals, etc.
Crushing and processing equipment
On the one hand we have the goods within the processing:
- Vibrating and Grizzly Feeders: we have a complete range of vibrating feeder-extractors, specially designed for hard and abrasive minerals. Its typical application is the feeding of primary crushers.
- The multi-deck sizer: It has other generic names such as statistical or probabilistic sieve. Its main characteristics are: linear vibration by two electric motor-vibrators.
- Vibrating screens: traditional, circular and inclined drive to use the force of gravity as a system for advancing the product on the meshes. Common use in aggregates crushing and classification plant, as well as in sand washing processes.
- The water clarifier tank: its function, in the sand washing processes and wet mineral treatments, is to recycle the dirty water generated in these processes to obtain clean water to be reused again in the process.
- Cone crushers: are used for secondary or tertiary crushing. They are used above all in the process of industrial minerals and aggregate treatment for the processing of hard and abrasive minerals.
- The impact crusher: it is a machine that uses the energy of an impact or strong blow to break the material in question. It is used for the processing of industrial minerals and aggregate treatment.
- Jaw crusher: It is a machine used in the so-called first level crushing, one in which a coarse and medium crushing is needed and the crushed particles that are obtained are not as fine as they would result from another process.
Crushing and mineral processing facilities
And on the other hand, the facilities used in this phase of the process:
- Pneumatic transport: a very widespread solid bulk transport system in handling facilities that include storage, transport, dosing and weighing equipment.
- Dosing and weighing facilities: In many production processes, based on solid bulks, it is necessary to prepare recipes or formulations, which require dosages of the different intervening components. Depending on the industrial process, the raw material used, the resulting final product and the quantities to be dosed, there are various techniques to carry out the dosed weighing of the ingredients.
- Washing and production of special sands: supply of facilities for manufacturing special sands for industrial applications. Both wet and dry.
- Industrial mineral processing: The field of industrial mineral processing is very broad and diverse. It ranges from metallic minerals to minerals used in the auxiliary construction industry. It also includes products assimilated to minerals such as fly ash, slags of various origin, products derived from the chemical industry, etc.
- Crushing and screening: One of the technologies in which Sotecma has great experience is the crushing and classification of aggregates.
In addition to all this, we have an electrical department that in addition to taking charge of the execution of the electrical part of its facilities has the capacity to serve our clients in electrical installations for industrial process plants carried out by third parties.