One could think of a haul road as merely a filthy path that only serves one objective, and that is to relocate the mined ore from one site to a new. But that dusty road is the artery of the total operation. Without that dusty haul road a mining venture would soon crash. To properly maintain the road is in essence the same as taking care of one's own health.
We appreciate what occurs when our arteries stop operating properly, but what occurs when a haulage road is no longer maintained appropriately.
On a standard haul road you will have haul trucks roaming day and night. Particular haulage roads have as many as 500 trucks for each day. While others might have less trucks but the trucks they do have are many times bigger as well as heavier. Again many of the operations are 24 hours every day every day with no occasion for stopping and starting.
When you have constant traffic on these haul roads you have to do something to get rid of the dust. Several of these haul roads are greater than 5 miles long and usually 50 feet wide. Every one of these roads will require around one gallon per square yard every day to keep the dust down. If one was to evaluate these numbers you may discover that a typical haul road dust control program will require millions of gallons of water every week. In a number of places water is a extremely treasured commodity that ought to be conserved when possible not only for the availability yet also for the cost of attainment. Think about it, what would your water statement be like if you used more than a million gallons each and every week?
When the Haulage road is watered to maintain controllable levels of fugitive dust, the road will start to wear away. This erosion will set off pot holes and further imperfections that over time will cause the road to turn out to be un-drivable. Not only will this turn out to be a terribly uneven road, but those circumstances will as well cause premature failure to the haul trucks.
In addition, the price of maintaining haul trucks increases dramatically when they must work in a dusty location. There are numerous parts on a truck that fail sooner when they are encircled by dust. The engine will ingest dust from the haulage road which will unavoidably end up in the engine oil, as a result causing a premature failure of the truck and thousands of dollars in maintenance.
Maintaining a haul truck is not a uncomplicated duty. You might picture having to change a tire that is 10 feet tall. The year on year expense to run these behemoths is more than most American families get paid in five years. If you can lessen that cost you will be saving the corporation enormous amounts of money that might be directed at something more positive.
Alleviating these costs is very simple. One merely needs to employ a modernized road dust control plan that not only regulates the dust but will also add a elevated level of erosion control. The more successful programs may actually transform the old dusty dirt road into a unyielding stabilized driving surface comparable to many asphalt roads. This in turn will eradicate the need for water as a dust control agent and will deliver a exceptionally smooth dust free driving surface that will lower the expense of operating the million dollar trucks.
Totaling all these savings at once will easily help a mining operation reduce their operating expenses to the point where the dust control program has paid for itself inside a year's time and the cash from such can then be added to the bottom line.
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