USE OF HEAVY SINGLE-BUCKET EXCAVATORS IN OPEN-PIT COAL MINES OF EASTERN USSR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600310388-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 12, 2011
• Sequence Number: 388
• Publication Date: May 26, 1950
• Content Type: REPORT

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/17 :CIA-RDP80-00809A000600310388-7
-1
COUNTRY
SUBJECT
HOW
PUBLISHED
WNERE
PUBLISHED
DATE
PUBLISHED
LANGUAGE
or nt uNno rT~n
r, s. e.. /1 ~uY >ts.+ls ~ruoir, m Tursn>fnor or
0/ In COAT/rn 1 .~r~rMr{r 10 ~r YMYTIIOrInO /YMOr IL
WCTIOr 0/ TMI{ /Orr If -rOrINnO.
C'.ASS61'ICATIG?d ~ REPORT
CEIti1T~tAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS CD !':O.
Economic -Coal
Monthly periodical
Moscow
Jan 1949
ms ooeuruT eorT~l ~~ nTroini~ni irirliNO/ ~u-w%aniunoi
Ugol', No 1, 1949?
USE OF ~pVY SINGLE-BUCKET EXCAVATORS
IN OPEN-PIT COAL MINES OF EASTERN USSR
~ables are appended ?
of removing the overburden Yrom the
Open-pit coal mining cons3.sts mainly ounde. There are two main sys-
coal seams and depositing it on the dump g ~' ortniy) system, which
terns for the removal of overburden: the transport (transi ounds, and the
removes overburden by railroad sos~ ~ide~.sindh depositsdo~verburdn by heavy exca-
nontransport (bestransportniy) y , ~~?..,,
vators directly tc the worked-out areas. ~,
The nontrsnsport system is economically more efficient than the transport
method inasmuch as it does not requic~eailro~w. transportation (such as oco-
track-moving yiachines, traction sub-
motives, electric locomotives, dump building of roadbeds (including
stations, electrical contact network,"etc.), stations), and repair and
railroad tracks, ties, switches, and rock-loading
equipment installations (locomotive and~rd waot~)carTdepnumb~dof workers is
servicing locomotives with coal, sand,
also greatly reduced. I. I.
? Extensive development of the nontransport system, mainly developed by
Koggovitskiy and N. V. Mel'nikov, has been assured by its simplicity and its
highly technical and economic indexes. For the past 3 years, this method has
been adopted in the pits of the Urals, Karaganda, and Raychikha. The Yollow-
ing examples show the effectiveness and possible expansion of use of heavy ex-
cavators.
DATE OF 1949
INFORMATION
DATE DIST. ~ May 1950
N0. OF PAGES 9
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/17 :CIA-RDP80-00809A000600310388-7
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/17: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600310388-7
+l
This deposit consists of a single seam 25 meters thick which has a dip
of 8-12 degrees. The seam is covered with rock up to 10 meters thiclt (clay,
siltstone, argillite, and thin layers of sandstone). At present, overburden is
being removed to a depth of 70 meters. The lower 12 meters are transferred Ly
stripping excavators and walking drag lines which deposit the overburden in
worlced-out areas, while the remaining 40 meters are carried by railroad to dump-
ing grounds outside the mining area.
Before 1944, the overburden from the lower bench was also carried to
outside dumps by railroad. From 1944 to 1947, 5.7 million cubic meters of earth
were deposited in an interior dump by the nontransport system of working the
lower layers.
It is impossible to give a complete analysis of the effectiveness of
the nontransport system in the Bogoslovskoye pits because both methods remained
in use: railroad hauling was not discarded and the nontransport system was only
used in a small, but very important, part oP the operations, the working of the
lower stripping benches.
The following average figures pertaining to the operations in the Bogo-
slovskiy pits show the economic advantages of the nontransport system.
a. The removal of 1.6 million cubic meters of overburden by the non-
transport system, in 1947 :rould have required eight locomotives, 65 dump cars,
construction of 12 kilometers of railroad line on the rock benches of the pit
and dumping ground, and 230 workers for the service and maintenance of the rail-
road line and rolling stock.
b. Removal of overburden from the lower level to dumps outside the pits
would nece~~itate the construction of a railroad line to the bottom of the pits.
This would require building a grade out of the pit for the railroad and would
therefore call for an additional excavation of 100,000 cubic meters. Further-
more, this grade would have to be shifted periodically as the working face was
shifted, thus increasing the demand for labor and impairing operations of the
railroad. Railroad performance would fall off 8-10 percent each time the grade
is shifted.
c. Cost per one cubic meter of overburden is 3.3 rubles less by the
nontransport than the transport system. From 1941+ to 1947, 18 million rubles
were saved by using the former method.
It is necessary to note, however, that in spite of the considerable
advantages, the nontransport system of mining of the lower stripping bench has
also several drawbacks.
Relatively small excavators with only limited operating range work the
lower stripping benches. They are only able to work a bench which is less than
15 meters high and to dump the removed rock at a distance of not more than 10-
15 meters. The walking drag lines, which are engaged in secondary dumping, also
have an inadequate operating range. Their buckets are small and their produc-
tivity does not match the production rate of the entire deposit. The small op-
erating orbit of the excavators (especially in secondary dumping) causes the
dumps to slide down onto the coal seam and complicates working in the lower lev-
els. Excavators (for primary excavation) with a bucket capacity of 10-15 cu-
bic meters and walking drag lines (for secondary dumping) with a bucket capacity
of 10 cubic meters and'jmprove this situation.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/17: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600310388-7
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/17: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600310388-7
The maximum height of a bench being worked is 35 meters (with use of
blasting). The operating range of the wallsing drag line permits the safe piling
of the overburden and the formation of piles with safe slopes. After 35 meters
of bench are broken up, the excavator piles it in worked-out sections alongside
the coal seam. A walking drag line t:hich rests on the dumps removes the over-
burden to worked-out areas.
Technical and economic indexes of the transport and nontransport sys-
tem in mining the lower stripping bench in the Bogoslovskiy deposit are shown
in Table 1.
It is evident that the nontransport system, using heavy excavators, is
many times more efficient than the transport system in mining the lower bench
because:
a. The number of workers employed is decreased approximately 85 per-
b. Productivity per worker is increased nearly 600 percent.
c. The weight of equipment and supplies per 1,000 cubic meters of daily
stripping is decreased 80.5 percent.
d. The cost of equipment per 1,000 cubic meters of daily stripping is
decreased 56 percent.
Heavy excavators will be used to an increasing extent in the Bogoslov-
skiy lignite deposit.
2. Mikhaylovka Lignite Deposit (Karaganda Basin)
This deposit r_onsists of a horizontal layer up to 17 meters thick which
is covered by a 30-meter-thick overburden of clayey shale, argillite, and sand-
stone. The nontransport system of removing the overburden is practiced here by
pit No 1-2 of the Karagandauglerazrez Trust, using excavators of the 6 cubic-
meter type. They are equipped with a dragline with a tucket capacity of 4.5
cubic meters.
The section of the deposit which is being worked by these excavators
has an overburden of 15 meters and many old rock formations. The excavator
stands on top of the overburden and deposits the removed rock in the worked-
out areas.
From 1944 to 1947, 2,306,000 cubic meters of overburden were removed in
pit No 1-2 oy the nontransport system. In comparison with the transport system
of mining, a saving of 3 locomotives, 30 dump cars, a track-moving machine, a
banking plow (otvalnyy plug), 800 tons of rails, 20,000 ties, and 200 workers
was achieved. As a result, production costs per cubic meter of excavation were
considerably less than the expenditure in operating the transport system, and
the technical and economic indexes were higher.
However, the relatively small operating range of the 6-cubic-meter type
excavator and the thickness of the coal seam and overburden make it impossible
to mine the entire Mikhaylovka deposit by the nontransport system (even in pit
No 1-2, which does not have a thick coal seam or overburden layer, 30-40 per-
cent of the excavated rock must be shoveled a second time). For example, in
order to work pit No 4, which has a coal seam 17 meters thick sod a layer of
overburden 30 meters thick, the nontransport system requires a second excava-
tor for reshoveling. A heavier excavator is needed to 9ttain an efficient pro-
duction level of the pit (productivity of the 6-cubic-meter type excavator is
1,500,000 cubic meters of overburden per year).
-3-
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/17: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600310388-7
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/17: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600310388-7
_.~
It would be possible to work the idikhaylovlca deposit completely and
efficiently by the nontransport system by using heavy excavators (excavators
with a bucket capacity of 15 cubic meters and walking drag lines with a bucket
capacity of 10 cubic-meters). The excavator would perform the preliminary
breaY.ing up of the 30-meter stripping bench and the walking drag line would
then remove the overburden to the worked-out areas.
Technical and economic indexes of the transport and nontransport sys-
tems in the Mikhaylovlca deposit are shown in Table 2.
It is evident that the nontransport system is several times more ef-
ficient than the transport method because:
a. The number of workers employed is greatly decreased.
b. Labor productivity is increased
c. The oreight of equipment per 1,000 tons of daily extraction is de-
creased 77.5 percent.
d. The cost of equipment per 1,000 tons of daily extraction is de-
creased 59.4 percent.
3. Raychikhinsk Lignite Deposit
This deposit consists of a single horizontal lignite seam, 5 meters
thick, which lies under 5-60 meters of clay snd sand. At present, a few sec-
tions, which lie under 10 meters of overburden, are being worked by the non-
transport system. Excavators with a bucket capacity of 2.7-3.8 cubic meters
are being used.
The technical and economical indexes attained by these excavators
from 1945 to 1947 give the following information:
a. Overburden removed amounted to 2,510,000 cubic meters, of which
1.3 million meters were removed in 1947.
b. The removal of 1,300,000 cubic meters of overburden in 1947 by
the nontransport system would have required, by the transport system, 3 loco-
motives, 30 dump cars, a track-moving machine, 900 tons of railroad track,
22,000 ties, and 350 workers.
c. Cost per one cubic meter of overburden in 1947 by the nontransport
method was 2.8 rubles cheaper than the expenditures by the transport system.
The excavators used in this work had a small operating range and could
only work the overburden to a depth of 8-10 meters. This was inadequate, since
most of the pits were covered with 15~and more meters of overburden.
The Raychikhinsk deposit can be most efficiently exploited by the non-
transport system by using heavy excavators with a bucket capacity of 15 cubic
meters and wa]lting drag lines with a bucket capacity of 10 cubic meters.
The technical and economic indexes of the Sorokinsk pits, which used heavy
excavators, were computed to show the comparison between the nontransport ana
the transport systems (at a coefficient of overburden removal of 3.5 and at a
volume of overburden removal of ~+ million cubic meters per year).
a~
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/17: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600310388-7
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/17: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600310388-7
. 1.
Nearly 60 percent of the whole deposit lies under an overburden not
more than 35 meters thick. This attests an excellent opportunity for using
the nontransport system. The sections with thicker overburden layers will
probably be worked by both methods, the nontransport system in the lower levels
and transport in the upper (as in the Bogoslovskiy deposit).
As can be seen from Table 3, the nontransport system showei the follow-
ing advantages:
a. Th.e number of workers employed decreased 73 percent.
b. Productivity per worker is increased 350 percent.
c. The weight of equipment and material (metal) per 1,000 tons of
daily extraction is decreased 44.5 percent.
d. The cost of principal mining transportation equipment and material
(metal) per 1,000 tons of daily extraction is decreased 21.4 percent.
4. Cheremkhovo Coal Deposit
This deposit consists of a 7-meter-thick coal seam of composite struc-
ture. The overburden consists mainly of hard sandstones 20 to 70 meters th:4ck.
The coal reserves suitable for open-pit mining are very considerable.
The Cheremkhovo deposit will be worked by the nontransport system using
heavy excavators with a bucket capacity of 15 cubic meters and drag lines with
a bucket capacity of 10 cubic meters.
The walking drag line will shovel 70 percent of the total overburden.
Production norms will be arranged to permit efficient utilization ~? Both ma-
chines.
Table 4 shows the technical and economic indexes of the nontransport
method. For reasons of comparison, the transport system for removing the over-
burden to piles inside and outside the pit (Khramtsovskiy Pit No 1) is also
shown.
As can be seen from Table 4, the nontransport system showed the follow-
ing advantages:
b. Productivity per worker is increased 530 percent.
c. The weight of equipment and metal per 1,000 tons of daily extrac-
tion is decreased 81.5 percent.
d. The cost of equipment per 1,000 tons of daily extraction is de-
creased 70.0 percent.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/17: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600310388-7
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/17: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600310388-7
Annual volume of overburden removal
(1,000 cu m)
height of stripping bench (meters)
Transport System
Nontrans- (figures based on
port Sys- operations in up-
tem per levels)
Excavator with a bucket capacity of
15 cu m
1
--
Excavators with a bucket capacity of
3 cu m
__
5
Dragline with a bucket capacity
of 10 cu m
1
__
29T drills
2
2
Series E locomotives
--
13
40??~< ~n dump cars
--
160
45-ton railroad cranes
__
2
Banking plows
--
1
Railroad track (~)
--
21
Number of workers employed
67
450
Productivity per worker (cu m)
204
30.2
Wei~it of equipment F.nd materials
(metal per 1,000 cu m of daily strip-
ping (tons)
149
765
Cost of equipment and materials (metal)
per 1,000 cu m of daily stripping (1,000
rubles)
1,080
2,580
Nontrans-
por+. Sys- Transport
tem. System
Annual volume of overburden removal
(1,000 cu m) 4,000 4,000
Overburden removal (cu m~ton)
Annual coal production (1,000 tons)
Main equipment for stripping
Excavator with a bucket capacity of
15 cu m)
Excavators with a bucket capacity of
3.8 cu m
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/17: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600310388-7
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/17: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600310388-7
Indexes
Drag lines with a bucket capacity
of lu cu m
Locomotives
Dump cars
(Continued)
Ltain coal-mining equipment
Excavators with a bucket capacity
of 2 cu m
Excavators with a bucY.et capacity
of 1.5-2 cu m
Dump trucks ~?rith a 25-ton capacity
Locomotives
Iiumber of workers employed
Productivity per worker (tons)
Wei;ht of equipment and materials per
1,000 tons of daily extraction (tons)
Electric power consumption (kw-h~ton)
Cost of equipment per 1,000 tons of daily
extraction (1,000 rubles)
Nontrans-
part Sys-
tem
Transport
System
26
154
360 1,980
21.6 3.8
Nontrans-
port Sys-
tem with
Heavy Ex- Transport
cavators System
4,000 4,000
3.5-5.3 3.5-5.8
1,200-7~ 1,200-700
16
140
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/17: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600310388-7
Annual+ volume of overburden removal
(1,000 cu m)
Overburden removal (cu m~ton)
Maximum height of stripping bench
(meters)
Annual coal mining (1,G00 tons)
Main equipment for stripping
Excavators with a bucket capacity
of 15 cu m
Excavators with s bucket capacity
of 2-3 cu m
Drag lines with a bucket capacity
of 10 cu m
Locomotives
Dump cars
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/17: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600310388-7
Nontrans-
port Sys-
tem with
Heavy Ex- Transport
cavators System
1,000 tons ~f dn.ly extraction (tons) 810 1,460
Electric power consumption (l:~r-h~ton) 6.55 2.5
Cost of equipment per 1,000 tons of daily
extraction (1,000 rubles) 4,600 5,850
Nontrans-
port Sys- Transport
tem S stem
Annual volume of overbiu?den removal
(1,000 cubic iaeters) 4,000 4,000
Overburden removal (cu m) 2.8-3.6 2.8-3.6
Annual. coal production (1,000 tons) 1,200-950 1,200-950
Excavators frith a bucket capacity
of 15 cu m
Excavators with a bucket capacity
of 2-3 cu m
Drag lines with a buc::et capacity
of 10 cu m
Locomotives
Dunp cars
Excavator with a bucket capacity
oflcum
3
Dump trucks with a 10-ton capacity
12
~ _ _ --
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/17: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600310388-7
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/17: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600310388-7
(Continued)
Indexes
Number of workers employed
Productivity per worker (tons)
-
...,~~-~ -- -z--=--
1,000 tons of daily extraction (tons)
electric power consumption (kw-hjton)
Cost of equipment per 1,000 tons of daily
295 1,870
11.6-9.2 1.85-1.45
590 3,200
4.00 2.5
4,540 15,100
T{A1
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/17: CIA-RDP80-00809A00060031