A OPEN PIT MINING AÇIK OCAK MADENCİLİĞİ

23 rd
In – Pit Crushing and Conveying (IPCC): An Option to Transport
on Mining That Is Coast Lowering and Sustainable
T. Santos, J. Miranda
Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Brazil
ABSTRACT Aiming to work sustainably, mining companies all around the world search for
ways to minimize the impacts of mining on the environment. Ore transportation by trucks is
becoming one of the major causes of environmental impacts, due to the fact that it creates a
considerable amount of waste, such as tires and excessive carbon emissions on the
atmosphere. Beyond the environmental issue, the truck transportation method presents high
operational and maintenance costs. Thus, as an alternative to this transport model, emerged
on the decade of 1940 the possibility of carrying ores by conveyor belts and on the decade of
1950 emerged the first mobile crusher, which form together a system called IPCC. This
proposition for transport is becoming a trend on the mining sector. That because the main
issue became a factor of economy and viability of new enterprises along with the principles
of sustainability.
1 INTRODUCTION
Mining emerged in Brazil in the XVIII
century, when Portuguese expeditions,
called entradas e bandeiras, entered the
interior of the country searching for precious
metals. At that time, mining was predatory.
Mining was executed without caring for
environment issues and the main goal was to
bring richness to the Portuguese Crown. Past
the colonial period, mining activities
continued to happen without any concern for
the damage caused to the environment.
The first time the damage mining could
cause to the environment was discussed in
1988 with the creation of the Constitution of
the Federative Republic of Brazil. According
to the Federal Constitution, in its article 225,
subsection IV and paragraph 2, are provided,
respectively, the requirement of previous
study of environmental impact for the
implementation of works or potentially
harmful activities, besides the miner’s
obligations of recovering the degraded
environment, according to the technical
solution required by the responsible public
agency (Constituição, 1988). With the
regulation of mining exploration, nowadays
the companies do not care only about the
production levels, but also about minimizing
the environmental degradation. In the course
of time, the mining sector’s vision has been
suffering positive transformations, as
highlighted Farias, “mining is one of the
basic sectors of Brazil's economy. It
contributes decisively to the welfare and
quality of life improvement of present and
future generations. It is crucial to the
development of an equitable society,
provided it is operated with social
responsibility, and the principles of
sustainable development always present
"(Farias, 2002).
Mining operations consist generally of
dismantling, loading and transportation.
Among these operations, transportation of
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