Sand mining dry

Dry mining methods for unconsolidated, free dig material are widely applied on the topsoil and soft sections of any surface mine, but also exclusively on alluvial gold, alluvial diamonds and heavy mineral sand mines (rutile, ilmenite, zircon, monazite, xenotime and rubies) and even salt mines. Our clients that apply dry mining methods for dry sand, weathered material, clay and salt are situated widely spread throughout Africa, the Middle East and Europe, with the larger operations in Madagascar, Mozambique, central Africa, on the African coastline and along the major rivers. Water is a scarce commodity and dry mining methods are becoming significantly more prevalent. Although tailings storage facilities and mineral residue facilities are historically mined using wet mining methods, we have developed unique, cost-competitive dry mining alternatives with a significantly lower environmental footprint, with specific reference to water and diesel.

Although the mining methods are dry (not using water for primary material movement), the associated bulk materials handling system can be wet (generally high-pressure pump and pipe systems), or dry such as conveyance or trucking to the centralised process facility. Dry mining methods include conventional load and haul, doze and trap, bucket wheel excavators or articulated dump truck pull scrapers that can be applied in a train configuration for a significant cost advantage.

The use of surface miners is becoming more popular, specifically for bauxite, manganese and salt mines. Combined with articulated dump truck pull scrapers in a train configuration the windrows of broken material are loaded and hauled to the centralised position for a very cost effective, high production rate and safe solution.