Lecture 7 Flashcards
1
Q
Resource
A
concentration of minerals in a form & quantity, for which economic extraction is currently or potentially feasible
2
Q
Reserve
A
part of a resource that can be economically & legally extracted under current circumstances
3
Q
Ore
A
- material that contains economically extractable minerals or metals
- typically composed of
- valuable material (minerals &/ metals)
- non-valuable minerals (gangue)
- waste rock (doesn’t undergo processing
4
Q
Strip ratio
A
Mass of surface regolith removed per unit mass of regolith ore
5
Q
Yield
A
Mass of product produced per mass of feed
6
Q
Recovery
A
Mass of product produced per mass of product in feed
7
Q
Main steps in mining operations
A
- Rock preparation
- Drill
- Blast
- Excavation
- Backhoe
- Shovel
- Dragline
- Continuous miner
- Dozer
- Scraper
- Dredger
- Hauling
- Truck
- Train
- conveyor
- Aerial tramway
- Transfer
- Dumping
- Internal transfer
- Processors
- Waste disposal
8
Q
Types of mining
A
- Underground
- expensive
- used to access materials deep beneath the surface
- Surface
- > 2/3 of world’s minerals are mined like this
- most common with quarrying or open-pit mining
- Placer
- Mining a stream bed for mineral deposits
- In-Situ
- dissolve mineral in water while still in Earth & Pumping it up to be processed
9
Q
Inferred Resource
A
- Based on limited sampling
- Based on reasonably assumed, but limited information
10
Q
Indicated Resource
A
- Quantity, grade, shape, size & continuity can be more confidently reported
- Larger &is more closely space samples
- Preliminary economic viability & resource extraction calculations can be made
11
Q
Measured Resource
A
- Resource characteristics are well established through detailed & reliable exploration work
- Economic & technical factors can be more confidently applied
- Mine & production planning can give more detailed estimates of economic viability
12
Q
Underground Mining - Unsupported methods
A
- Room & pillar
- Parallel openings are mined in ore & blocks of ore or pillars are left in place
- Only fraction of ore can be mined
- Little artificial support required
- Stoping
- Used to recover steeply dipping orebodies
13
Q
Underground Mining - Supported methods
A
- Cut & fill
- Horizontal slices are mined in ore starting at bottom
- Immediately after ore slice is removed, opening is filled
- More expensive than unsupported methods
- Waste material can be used for backfill
- low-productivity mining method, but with high selectivity
14
Q
Underground Mining - Caving methods
A
- Block caving
- Suitable for extracting large volumes of rock
- requires longer development time for undercut & extraction level b4 extraction can be started
- Collapsing rock/ore causes subsidence of the surface
- Sublevel caving
- Similar as block caving, but mining starts at the top
15
Q
Surface Mining - Strip mining
A
- Ore/mineral are in the shallow subsurface, surface material is stripped
- Area stripping
- Extraction over a large flat terrain in long strips
- Overburden rock & soil is dropped in the previous strip, filling otherwise open pit
- Contour mining
- Follows contour of outcrops & hilly terrains
- Overburden is removed along the ore/mineral
- Ecosystem can be reestablished after filling the mine
16
Q
Open pit mining
A
- Same as strip mining, but open pit is left behind
- Commonly called quarries
- Mined until empty
- After closure, commonly converted to a landfill or waste disposal site
- Ecosystem is permanently altered
- more dangerous than strip mines
17
Q
Terrestrial mining approaches in space
A
- environment is different
- Production scale is smaller
- go after the easy minerals
- regolith is loose -> no rock preparation
- excavator & hauling are combined
- hauled materials into processor
- Things more important for space mining:
- Equipment mass
- max autonomy
- Energy efficiency
- Environmental effects
- Tele-operation capability
18
Q
Space mining
A
- autonomy necessary
- no navigation network
- maintenance/repair needed
- Limited energy sources
- Low reaction force -> reduced gravity
- Dust evolution & - resiliance
- Unknown soil properties
- thermal management
19
Q
Asteroid mining
A
- Stabilisation of Asteroid (de-spin)
- enable capture of asteroid
- enable surface operations
- Moving to Earth/Moon orbit
- for earth: mining will target precious metals
- for moon: mining will target water
- need for orbit manoeuvre & propulsion capability
20
Q
Asteroid mining systems
A
- WRANGLER -> Weightless Rendezvous & Net Grapple to limit excess rotation
- captures/de-spins asteroid
- APIS -> Asteroid Provided In-Situ Supplies
- encapsulates asteroid
- Inflatable solar concentrator heats asteroid surface
- outgassed water is cryopumped, separated from dust, stored as ice
- water is returned to LDRO
- Deep Space Industries Concepts
- Samples larger rocks from asteroid surface
- ARM -> Asteroid Redirect Mission - cancelled
21
Q
Excavation Technologies
A
- NASA RASSOR -> Regolith Advanced Surface Systems Operations Robot
- Counterrotating bucket drums on opposing arms
-> Near-zero reaction force (not reliant on traction or weight)
-> Load, haul, dump space regolith under extremely low gravity conditions - Compact & lightweight
22
Q
Excavators
A
- Discrete
- Continuous
23
Q
Excavators - Discrete
A
- Complete
- Back loader
- Scraper
- Front loader
24
Q
Excavators - Continuous
A
- Partial
- Bucket wheel
- Bucket drum
- Flexible auger
- Impeller
- Complete
- Pneumatic
- Bucket ladder
- Bucket drum
- Bucket wheel
25
Q
Best Transport options
A
- Hauler -> for horizontal long distance transport
- Belt -> for horizontal short distance transport
- Auger -> for vertical/inclined short distance transport
- Hopper/auger -> for transfer points
