This illustration from Caterpillar shows typical haul road design considerations for a dual-carriage road. What's your mines standard for haul road width in terms of dual-carriage roads?

This video from PAMining is an up-close look at the surface blasting process, showing the charging activities and finally blasting. As they say - don't try this at home!!

Udachny diamond mine located in the Eastern-Siberian Region of Russia is currently the fourth deepest open pit mine in the world. The Udachny pit is currently 630m deep. Mining at the Udachnaya kimberlite pipe has been going on since 1971. The Udachny mine is owned and operated by Russia’s state-owned company Alrosa. The mine produced ten million carats of diamond per year until 2011. The probable contained diamond reserve at the open-pit was estimated to be 4.4 million carats as of July 2013. The Udachny open pit operation is scheduled to close in 2014 with the opening of Udachny underground mine which is under construction. The contained diamond reserves for Udachny underground mining are

This truly is a remarkable course for people that don't have a mining degree or diploma!! The information is extremely comprehensive and presented in a fun and visual way. You have the added benefit of doing the course even on your cell phone, and you have 365 days to complete the course. I highly recommend this course to people seeking a mining certificate!

The EX8000-6 is Hitachi’s largest standard backhoe excavator, with rated power of 2 x 1450 kW from its Cummins engines and a heaped bucket capacity of 43m3. It has an operating weight of 837 tonnes. A great safety feature is the fact that the cab is pressurised to keep dust out and has a highly efficient heating/air conditioning system - Hitachi.

The BELAZ 75710 made by Belarusian company BELAZ is the world largest, highest payload capacity haul truck. The truck is built with a conventional two axle setup but has doubled wheels, four to an axle. It has 4 wheel drive and 4 wheel hydraulic steering, which is unusual. The truck is 30 feet or 9 meters tall with wheels taller than most people. The BELAZ 75710 is powered by two 2,300 horsepower motors with a top speed of 40 mph or 64 kph. It was designed for work in giant mining operations - Titan Top list.

A very basic illustration from Venkat Masabattula of the effect of introducing a haul road into the mine design. Note the effect on the average pit slope angle in the illustration bottom left. That's why I would recommend doing mine design iterations as well when selecting truck sizes for your fleet. Bigger trucks means wider roads means more waste for same ore... comments welcome!

This clip from the Australian Centre for Geomechanics is a training video for underground metalliferous mine workers. The aim is to provide workers with the critical knowledge on drilling and blasting and to aid appreciation of the importance of these mining processes and their related hazards.

Muruntau mine in Uzbekistan, physically one of the largest open pit gold mines in the world, ranks as the fifth deepest open pit. The Muruntau open pit is 3.5km long and three kilometres wide. The depth of the mine has reached just more than 600m. Muruntau was discovered in 1958. Mining operations started in 1967. Uzbekistan’s Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Combinant own and operate the mine. The final pit depth under the current mine plan is reported to be 650m, after which the mine will switch to underground operation. Muruntau’s contained gold reserves and resource including the historical production is reportedly estimated at 170Moz. The mine is known for its production capacity of about

This clip from ABB illustrates the trend that mining is moving from a labour-intensive industry to an increased level of automation. Do you agree with this statement? What has your experience been with automation?

Have a look at the sublevel stoping method as illustrated by Atlas Copco. The method illustrates transverse stoping with backfill, which minimises surface subsidence.

Have a look at the basic sequence of events for strip mining and how it differs from open pit metal mining - Mt Owen Mining.

Who said mining can't be beautiful? Enjoy this clip from Dyno Nobel illustrating how elegant blasting can be when getting the basics right.

The Fimiston Open pit, also known as the Super Pit, located on south-east edge of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, is the sixth deepest open-pit mine in the world. The gold producing open pit mine is 3.8km long, 1.5km wide and up to 600m deep. The mine is owned and operated by Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines (KCGM), a 50-50 joint venture company comprised of Barrick Gold and Newmont Mining. The mine produced 296,000oz of gold during the first half of 2013. The proven and probable reserves at Fimiston open pit as of December 2012 was estimated to be more than 8Moz - Mining Technology.

Northparkes was the first mine in Australia to use the block cave mining process. This computer animation looks at how block caving is built and mined - Conrad Mill.

The Cut and Fill mining method is a favoured choice for steeply dipping and sometimes irregular ore bodies and preferred by mines that require the capability of selective mining and adaptability to variations in the rock mass - Atlas Copco.

A great example of how rehabilitation can be done. When doing your mine planning, keep in mind that the mine will not last forever, and the more concurrent rehab you can do, the cheaper and better for the environment.

Witness the blasting at Bremanger Quarry AS, Norway - the largest production blast in Norway to date. It consists of a 20 meters high bench, 385 meters long, 454 holes, 68 tons of explosives and 360,205 tons of high quality rock! Filmed and edited by Kai Jonny Thue Venoy for Bremanger Quarry AS, www.aerialnorway.com.

Grasberg mine located in the Papua province of Indonesia currently ranks as the world’s seventh deepest open pit operation. The mining operation at Grasberg consists of both open pit and underground mines. The Grasberg open pit is more than 550m deep. Grasberg is the largest gold mine in the world. The mine also produces copper and silver. The Grasberg open pit operation started in 1990. The mine is operated by Freeport Indonesia (PTFI), a subsidiary of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (FCX) which owns 90.64% of the Grasberg mining operation. The mine produced 862,000 ounces of gold and 695Mlbs of copper in 2012. The proven and probable ore reserve at Grasberg (open pit + underground) as of De

Another great YouTube clip from the guys at Atlas Copco illustrating the principles of Block Caving. Note how it differs from Sub Level Caving in that the whole block caves, whereas with SLC the caving is done level by level. Any comments from the experts most welcome!