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 carat

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 m

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

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?