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The Grand Canyon in the USA is an ancient quarry for industrial uranium mining. Deep-sea diamond quarry What are quarries in geography

Open method (from the surface of the earth); in relation to a coal mining enterprise, the term “mine” is used. The quarry is a system of ledges. The upper ledges are usually overburden and rock, and the lower ones are mining: they are used for mining, export routes are located, the movement of machines is organized, the movement of drilling rigs to form blast holes, etc. When developing rocks, rippers, rotary and walking excavators are used, loaders, crushing units. Transportation of minerals and rock mass is carried out by dump trucks, trains, conveyor systems, spoilers, etc. The open method of mining has been known since the Paleolithic era: marble, stone, sand and others were mined in quarries. In Ancient Egypt, the first quarries were developed in connection with the construction of the pyramids. In con. 20th century This method produced up to 95% of building rocks, up to 70% of ores, 20% of hard coals, and 90% of brown coals. The scale of production in quarries reaches tens of millions of tons per year. The largest coal and ore mines with an annual production volume of 20–50 million tons or more are located in Russia, Canada, and Germany.

Encyclopedia "Technology". - M.: Rosman. 2006 .

Synonyms:

See what a “quarry” is in other dictionaries:

- (French carriere). 1) the fastest running horse. 2) quarry, breaking, breaking, mine. Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. Chudinov A.N., 1910. QUARRY To put a horse into a quarry means to gallop at full speed. Dictionary of foreign... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

Mining enterprise for open-pit mining of coal, ores and non-metallic minerals: sand, building stone, etc. Open-pit mine in the coal industry. A quarry in the mining industry, sometimes a mine. Quarry totality... ... Financial Dictionary

An operational open pit of significant transverse dimensions, used for the extraction of ore, sand, building stone, etc. Its depth can be insignificant (for example, when mining sand, gravel, etc.) or very significant up to 400-600 m... ... Geological encyclopedia

Horse running at a gallop; galloping at full speed (Dal) See... Dictionary of synonyms

Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary

1. CAREER1, career, many. no, husband (French: carrière) (special). The fastest gait, accelerated gallop, gallop. Let the horse go into a quarry or into a quarry. A hunting dog should not be carried around by a quarry. ❖ Right off the bat (colloquial) immediately, without any... ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary

1. QUARRY, a; m. [French] carrière] The fastest gait, accelerated gallop. Let the horse into the quarry. Rush at full speed. ◊ Right off the bat. Immediately, immediately, without preparation. ◁ Career, oh, oh. K. gait. 2. QUARRY, a; m. [French... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary

Husband. career for women, French path, course, field of life, service, success and achievement of what. | Quarry, gallop at full speed, at full speed; horse gallop, gallop, insole. | Quarry, break, break, break, mine. Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary. V.I.... ... Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary

career- QUARRY, a, m. Carrier signal. The modem does not pick up the quarry. From slang. computer users; from English Carier… Dictionary of Russian argot

- (French carriere) a set of mine workings formed during open-pit mining of minerals; open-pit mining enterprise... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

This is how a career is highlighted mining allotment. The principle of open mining is that the thicker layers of waste rock located on top, covering the mineral, within the mining allotment are divided into horizontal layers - ledges, which are removed sequentially in the direction from top to bottom with the lower layers ahead of the upper ones. The height of the ledge depends on the strength of the rocks and the technology used and ranges from several meters to several tens of meters.

Story

Open pit mining is known from the Paleolithic era. The first large quarries appeared in connection with the construction of pyramids in Ancient Egypt. Later in the ancient world, marble was mined in quarries on a large scale. The expansion of the scope of application of the open-pit mining method using quarries continued until the beginning. twentieth century, due to the lack of highly productive machines for removing and moving large volumes of overburden. At the end of the twentieth century, 95% of construction rocks, more than 70% of ores, 90% of brown coal and 20% of hard coal were mined in quarries.

The main explosives used in quarrying in the Soviet Union in the 1920s were ammonal and ammonites, in the 1930s - dynamons, during the Great Patriotic War - oxyliquites and ammonites, and from 1956 to the 1960s - igdanite.

Quarry elements

Quarry bottom

The bottom of the quarry is the area of the lower ledge of the quarry (also called the bottom of the quarry). In the conditions of development of steep and inclined mineral bodies, the minimum dimensions of the quarry bottom are determined taking into account the conditions for the safe removal and loading of rocks from the last ledge: in width - not less than 20 m, in length - not less than 50-100 m.

In conditions of development of morphologically complex deposits of significant extension, the bottom of the quarry may have a stepped shape.

Pit depth

The depth of a quarry is the vertical distance between the level of the earth's surface and the bottom of the quarry or the distance from the upper contour of the quarry to the lower one. There are design, final and maximum pit depths. (See deep quarry).

The deepest quarries in the world reach a depth of almost 1 km. The deepest quarry is Bingham Canyon (Utah, USA), the Chuquicamata quarry (Chile) has a depth of more than 850 m.

Limit contour of the quarry

The limiting contour of a quarry is the contour of a quarry for the period of its repayment, that is, the cessation of work on the extraction of minerals and stripping.

Technology and organization of work in the quarry

The quarry is a system of ledges (usually the upper ones are rock or overburden, the lower ones are mining), which are constantly moving, ensuring the excavation of rock mass within the contours of the quarry field.

The movement of rock mass is carried out by various types of transport. Transport connections in the quarry are provided by permanent or sliding ramps, and with the surface - by trenches. During operation, the working benches move, resulting in an increase in mined-out space. During stripping operations, the overburden is moved to dumps, which are sometimes placed in the goaf. With a quarry depth of up to 100 m with strong containing rocks, in the cost of 1 m³ of overburden, up to 25-30% is occupied by drilling and blasting operations, 12-16% by excavation, 35-40% by transport and 10-15% by the construction of the quarry itself. As the depth of the quarry increases, the portion of transport costs increases to 60-70%.

Quarry working area

The working area of a quarry is the area in which stripping and mining operations are carried out. It is characterized by a set of overburden and mining benches that are simultaneously in operation. The position of the working area is determined by the elevations of the working benches and the length of their work front. The working zone is a surface that moves and changes over time, within which work on the preparation and excavation of rock mass is carried out. It can cover one, two or all sides of the quarry. During the construction of a quarry, the working area, as a rule, includes only overburden benches, and by the end of capital mining work - also mining ones. The number of stripping, mining and mining faces in the working area cannot be set arbitrarily, since the implementation of plans for individual types of work depends on this. In the working area of the quarry, each excavator during operation occupies a certain horizontal area, which is characterized by the width of the working platform and the length of the excavator block.

When developing horizontal and flat deposits of small and medium thickness, the altitude position of the working area of the quarry remains unchanged. When developing inclined and steep deposits, as well as thick isometric deposits, the working area gradually decreases along with an increase in the depth of the quarry.

Advancement of work in the quarry

Advancement of the work front in the quarry is one of the indicators of the intensity of field development. The advancement of the work front in a quarry is characterized by speed, that is, the distance of movement of the mining work front, expressed in meters per unit of time (for the most part - per year). The speed depends on the scale of the work, the type and design of the loading and transport equipment that is used, the method of moving the mining front and the height of the benches that are being mined. There are fan-shaped, equilateral and mixed advances of the work front in a quarry.

Fan advance - movement of the front of mining operations when developing a quarry field (or part of it) of a rounded shape, which is characterized by a higher speed of advance of sections of the front separated from the turning point (movement of the front in a “fan”, “fan-like” plan).

Front advance is equilateral - movement of the mining front parallel to one of the axes of the quarry field from one boundary to another or from an intermediate position to the contours.

The front advance is mixed - a combination of different schemes for the advance of the mining front, for example, equilateral and fan-shaped.

Depth of development of deformations in the quarry

The depth of development of deformations in a quarry is the horizontal distance from the initial position of the upper edge of the slope (the upper edge of the quarry contour) to the last crack, which is visually traced in the direction opposite to the direction of movement of the displaced masses of the slope.

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Notes

Literature

Melnikov N.V. Engineer and Technician's Handbook of Open-pit Mining, 4th ed. - M., 1961.
Rzhevsky V.V. Technology, mechanization and automation of open-pit mining processes. - M., 1966.
Rzhevsky V.V. Technology and complex mechanization of open-pit mining. - M., 1968.
Kuleshov N. A., Anistratov Yu. I. Open pit mining technology. - M., 1968.

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Excerpt characterizing the Quarry

Bolkhovitinov told everything and fell silent, awaiting orders. Tol began to say something, but Kutuzov interrupted him. He wanted to say something, but suddenly his face squinted and wrinkled; He waved his hand at Tolya and turned in the opposite direction, towards the red corner of the hut, blackened by images.
- Lord, my creator! You heeded our prayer...” he said in a trembling voice, folding his hands. - Russia is saved. Thank you, Lord! - And he cried.

From the time of this news until the end of the campaign, all of Kutuzov’s activities consisted only in using power, cunning, and requests to keep his troops from useless offensives, maneuvers and clashes with the dying enemy. Dokhturov goes to Maloyaroslavets, but Kutuzov hesitates with the entire army and gives orders to cleanse Kaluga, retreat beyond which seems very possible to him.
Kutuzov retreats everywhere, but the enemy, without waiting for his retreat, runs back in the opposite direction.
Historians of Napoleon describe to us his skillful maneuver at Tarutino and Maloyaroslavets and make assumptions about what would have happened if Napoleon had managed to penetrate the rich midday provinces.
But without saying that nothing prevented Napoleon from going to these midday provinces (since the Russian army gave him the way), historians forget that Napoleon’s army could not be saved by anything, because it already carried in itself the inevitable conditions death. Why is this army, which found abundant food in Moscow and could not hold it, but trampled it under its feet, this army, which, having come to Smolensk, did not sort out the food, but plundered it, why could this army recover in the Kaluga province, inhabited by those the same Russians as in Moscow, and with the same property of fire to burn what they light?
The army could not recover anywhere. Since the Battle of Borodino and the sack of Moscow, it already carried within itself the chemical conditions of decomposition.
The people of this former army fled with their leaders without knowing where, wanting (Napoleon and each soldier) only one thing: to personally extricate themselves as soon as possible from that hopeless situation, which, although unclear, they were all aware of.
That is why, at the council in Maloyaroslavets, when, pretending that they, the generals, were conferring, presenting different opinions, the last opinion of the simple-minded soldier Mouton, who said what everyone thought, that it was only necessary to leave as soon as possible, closed all their mouths, and no one , even Napoleon, could not say anything against this universally recognized truth.
But although everyone knew that they had to leave, there was still the shame of knowing that they had to run away. And an external push was needed that would overcome this shame. And this push came at the right time. This was what the French called le Hourra de l'Empereur [imperial cheer].
The next day after the council, Napoleon, early in the morning, pretending that he wanted to inspect the troops and the field of the past and future battle, with a retinue of marshals and a convoy, rode along the middle of the line of troops. The Cossacks, snooping around the prey, came across the emperor himself and almost caught him. If the Cossacks did not catch Napoleon this time, then what saved him was the same thing that was destroying the French: the prey that the Cossacks rushed to, both in Tarutino and here, abandoning people. They, not paying attention to Napoleon, rushed to the prey, and Napoleon managed to escape.
When les enfants du Don [the sons of the Don] could catch the emperor himself in the middle of his army, it was clear that there was nothing more to do but to flee as quickly as possible along the nearest familiar road. Napoleon, with his forty-year-old belly, no longer feeling the same agility and courage in himself, understood this hint. And under the influence of the fear that he gained from the Cossacks, he immediately agreed with Mouton and gave, as historians say, the order to retreat back to the Smolensk road.
The fact that Napoleon agreed with Mouton and that the troops went back does not prove that he ordered this, but that the forces that acted on the entire army, in the sense of directing it along the Mozhaisk road, simultaneously acted on Napoleon.

When a person is in motion, he always comes up with a goal for this movement. In order to walk a thousand miles, a person needs to think that there is something good beyond these thousand miles. You need an idea of the promised land in order to have the strength to move.
The promised land during the French advance was Moscow; during the retreat it was the homeland. But the homeland was too far away, and for a person walking a thousand miles, he certainly needs to say to himself, forgetting about the final goal: “Today I will come forty miles to a place of rest and lodging for the night,” and on the first journey this place of rest obscures the final goal and concentrates on yourself all the desires and hopes. Those aspirations that are expressed in an individual always increase in a crowd.
For the French, who went back along the old Smolensk road, the final goal of their homeland was too distant, and the nearest goal, the one to which all desires and hopes strove, in enormous proportions intensifying in the crowd, was Smolensk. Not because people knew that there was a lot of provisions and fresh troops in Smolensk, not because they were told this (on the contrary, the highest ranks of the army and Napoleon himself knew that there was little food there), but because this alone could give them the strength to move and endure real hardships. They, both those who knew and those who did not know, equally deceiving themselves as to the promised land, strove for Smolensk.
Having reached the high road, the French ran with amazing energy and unheard-of speed towards their imaginary goal. In addition to this reason of common desire, which united the crowds of French into one whole and gave them some energy, there was another reason that bound them. This reason was their number. Their huge mass itself, as in the physical law of attraction, attracted individual atoms of people. They moved with their hundred-thousand-strong mass as an entire state.
Each of them wanted only one thing - to be captured, to get rid of all horrors and misfortunes. But, on the one hand, the strength of the common desire for the goal of Smolensk carried each one in the same direction; on the other hand, it was impossible for the corps to surrender to the company as captivity, and, despite the fact that the French took every opportunity to get rid of each other and, at the slightest decent pretext, to surrender themselves into captivity, these pretexts did not always happen. Their very number and close, fast movement deprived them of this opportunity and made it not only difficult, but impossible for the Russians to stop this movement, towards which all the energy of the mass of the French was directed. Mechanical tearing of the body could not accelerate the decomposition process beyond a certain limit.
A lump of snow cannot be melted instantly. There is a known time limit before which no amount of heat can melt the snow. On the contrary, the more heat there is, the stronger the remaining snow becomes.
None of the Russian military leaders, except Kutuzov, understood this. When the direction of flight of the French army along the Smolensk road was determined, then what Konovnitsyn foresaw on the night of October 11 began to come true. All the highest ranks of the army wanted to distinguish themselves, cut off, intercept, capture, overthrow the French, and everyone demanded an offensive.
Kutuzov alone used all his strength (these forces are very small for each commander in chief) to counteract the offensive.
He could not tell them what we are saying now: why the battle, and blocking the road, and the loss of his people, and the inhumane finishing off of the unfortunate? Why all this, when one third of this army melted away from Moscow to Vyazma without a battle? But he told them, deducing from his old wisdom something that they could understand - he told them about the golden bridge, and they laughed at him, slandered him, and tore him, and threw him, and swaggered over the killed beast.
At Vyazma, Ermolov, Miloradovich, Platov and others, being close to the French, could not resist the desire to cut off and overturn two French corps. To Kutuzov, notifying him of their intention, they sent in an envelope, instead of a report, a sheet of white paper.
And no matter how hard Kutuzov tried to hold back the troops, our troops attacked, trying to block the road. The infantry regiments are said to have charged with music and drums and killed and lost thousands of men.
But cut off - no one was cut off or knocked over. And the French army, pulled together tighter from danger, continued, gradually melting, its same disastrous path to Smolensk.

The Battle of Borodino, with the subsequent occupation of Moscow and the flight of the French, without new battles, is one of the most instructive phenomena in history.
All historians agree that the external activities of states and peoples, in their clashes with each other, are expressed by wars; that directly, as a result of greater or lesser military successes, the political power of states and peoples increases or decreases.
No matter how strange the historical descriptions are of how some king or emperor, having quarreled with another emperor or king, gathered an army, fought with the enemy army, won a victory, killed three, five, ten thousand people and, as a result, conquered the state and an entire people of several millions; no matter how incomprehensible it may be why the defeat of one army, one hundredth of all the forces of the people, forced the people to submit, all the facts of history (as far as we know it) confirm the justice of the fact that greater or lesser successes of the army of one people against the army of another people are the reasons or, according to at least significant signs of an increase or decrease in the strength of nations. The army was victorious, and the rights of the victorious people immediately increased to the detriment of the vanquished. The army was defeated, and immediately, according to the degree of defeat, the people are deprived of their rights, and when their army is completely defeated, they are completely subjugated.
This has been the case (according to history) from ancient times to the present day. All Napoleon's wars serve as confirmation of this rule. According to the degree of defeat of the Austrian troops, Austria is deprived of its rights, and the rights and strength of France increase. The French victory at Jena and Auerstätt destroys the independent existence of Prussia.

The article talks about what a quarry is, what they are like, how they are developed and why they are needed in general.

Extraction of raw materials

Even in ancient times, people noticed that in the bowels of the earth there is a mass of various raw materials, which, with the necessary processing, can yield many useful materials. Naturally, metal, from which tools of labor and war were made, always came first. Due to imperfect processing methods, for a long time people used metals such as tin, copper and lead. But due to their ductility, the tools quickly wore out, and later various alloys were invented, which were distinguished by higher hardness and stability. But with the beginning of industrial steel production, the need for them disappeared.

However, in addition to metals, in the bowels of the earth there are other useful materials, in particular, sand and various types of stone. They are most often mined in quarries. So what is a quarry? And what do they mine in it? We'll figure this out. But first, let's define the terminology.

Definition

A quarry is a collection of mineral deposits that are produced in an open-pit manner, that is, on the very surface of the earth, and not in mines. This word has French roots, and in the original it sounds like carrière, which means “cut”. So now we know what a quarry is. But why is their development carried out on the surface and what is most often mined from them?

Technology

Most minerals and other materials of value are concentrated underground. The depth of occurrence usually depends on the specific site, material, its shape, etc. For example, coal is hidden by the thickness of the earth because it was formed from the remains of ancient plants, which gradually mineralized under pressure. There are, of course, ground exits; they were created due to faults in the earth’s crust. But not all substances are hidden deep, some are on the surface itself or lie close to it, and therefore there is no need to build deep mines to extract them; it is much easier to mine in an open way.

Most often, the quarry looks like a large funnel, on the slopes of which, as it deepens, a spiral road is made for equipment.

So, we examined the question of what a quarry is. But what is most often mined from them?

Sand

Sand is one of the most common substances on the planet, and certainly no one feels a shortage of it. However, how can sand be useful, why is it needed at all?

Oddly enough, sand is very valuable. Of course, not like iron, and certainly not like gold and silver. Glass is made from some, sand is added to concrete during construction, used as drainage when laying tunnels, and in the end, not a single playground is complete without a sandbox. And by the way, after the end of mining, the sand quarry is often flooded and becomes a swimming place.

Stone

Humanity also cannot do without stone. Naturally, not all stones are valuable, but certain varieties. Most often it is marble and granite. Since they usually lie near the surface, mines are not built for their extraction, but the same quarries are used. Unlike sand, stone is somewhat more difficult to extract - you cannot simply load it with excavators. Therefore, depending on the type, it is either first crushed or by explosions, or special machines are used for cutting. This happens when monolithic and even blocks are needed, which are further processed additionally.

A stone quarry is usually developed over many years, and its reserves are practically inexhaustible.

That's all. Now we know what the quarry is for.

Open-pit mining is one of the most widely used methods in the world. It is used when mineral deposits are located close to the Earth's surface, and they are simply dug up using large quarry equipment or extracted through a series of controlled explosions.

This is one of the simplest and cheapest mining methods, however, it leaves giant craters on the surface that look very fascinating. Today we want to show you photographs of the ten largest open-pit mines in the world and tell you a little about them.

10. Escondida Copper Mine

Located in the Chilean Atacama Desert, this copper mine consists of two open pits - Escondida Pit and Escondida Norta. Dimensions: 3.9 kilometers long, 2.7 kilometers wide and 645 meters deep. In terms of depth, this is the third quarry of this type in the world.

9. Udachny Diamond Mine

This quarry is located in the Russian part of Eastern Siberia and is one of the largest in Russia. Now managed by the state company ALROSA, it was opened in 1971, and it is planned to close it this year, 2015. But only open-pit mining will stop; underground mining will continue, since according to the company, another 108 million carats of diamonds can be extracted from the ground.

8. Chuquicamata Copper Mine

For more than a century, the Chuquicamata copper mine, located near Santiago, Chile, has produced vast quantities of copper ore. It is 4.3 kilometers long, 3 kilometers wide and over 850 meters deep, making it the second deepest in the world. In 2018, open-pit mining there will cease and operations will be moved underground, where 1.7 billion tons of copper ore still remain.

7. Grasberg deposit

This "Holy Grail" of quarries is located in the Indonesian province of Papua. It ranks second in the world in gold and copper mining. Its depth reaches 550 meters.

6. Mahoning Mine

This quarry is interesting because mining there began with underground operations and only then came to the surface, although usually everything happens the other way around. This iron mine is called the “Grand Canyon of the North” and is located in the US state of Minnesota. Dimensions: 8 kilometers long, 3.2 kilometers wide and 180 meters deep.

Since its opening in 1985, the quarry has produced 800 million tonnes of iron ore and excavated 1.4 billion tonnes of earth over an area of 8 million m2. It is so gigantic that it has become a national monument in Minnesota.

5. Diamond quarry Diavik

This Canadian diamond mine was opened in 2003 and produces up to 8 million carats of diamonds per year. In width it reaches a size of 7 kilometers. Also unusual is that it is located on the island of Lac de Grace in Canada's Northwest Territories.

4. Kimberley Diamond Quarry

This quarry is located in South Africa and belongs to the famous De Beers company. This is the largest quarry in the world, the development of which was carried out without the use of special equipment; in fact, it was completely dug by hand. Its diameter is about 1.6 kilometers, and its depth is more than 200 meters. Although it was closed back in 1914, it is still visited by crowds of tourists and is now in the process of being registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

3. Kalgoorlie Super Quarry

Australia's largest open pit gold mine, the Kalgoorlie gold mine is 3.8 kilometers long, one and a half kilometers wide and approximately 600 meters deep, making it third in our list of the world's largest open pit mines.

2. Diamond mine Mir

Located in Eastern Siberia, this Russian diamond mine operated from 1957 to 2001 and produced up to 10 million carats of diamonds in its best years. It is now closed, but it is still the largest quarry in the world dug without the use of explosives. Its diameter is 1.2 kilometers and its depth is 525 meters.

1. Bingham Canyon

Our winner, the largest and deepest open-pit mine in the world, is located in the US state of Utah, southwest of Salt Lake City. This gigantic quarry is 4 kilometers wide and 1200 meters deep. It was opened in 1848 for the extraction of copper ore and since then copper, gold, silver and molybdenum have been mined there in large quantities.

Somehow, probably half a year ago, everyone seriously rushed to discuss mining projects on asteroids. They planned how they would pick them, and some even wanted to collect them in traps and transport them to Earth. But it’s not for nothing that they say that we still don’t know enough about our planet, and especially about the World Ocean.

As mineral resources on land become depleted, their extraction from the ocean will become more and more important, since the ocean floor is a colossal, almost untouched storehouse. Some minerals lie openly on the surface of the seabed, sometimes almost close to the shore or at relatively shallow depths.

In a number of developed countries, reserves of ore, mineral fuels and some types of construction materials have become so depleted that they have to be imported. Huge ore carriers ply across all oceans, transporting purchased ore and coal from one continent to another. Oil is transported in tankers and supertankers. Meanwhile, there are often sources of mineral resources very close by, but they are hidden under a layer of ocean water.

Let's see how it will be mined in the future...

Photo 2.

Closer to the outer edge of the shelf, nodules containing large amounts of phosphorus have been found in many parts of the world's oceans. Their reserves have not yet been fully explored and calculated, but, according to some data, they are quite large. Thus, off the coast of California there is a deposit of about 60 million tons. Although the phosphorus content in the nodules is only 20-30 percent, its extraction from the seabed is quite economically profitable. Phosphates have also been found on the tops of some seamounts in the Pacific Ocean. The main purpose of extracting this mineral from the sea is to produce fertilizers; but, in addition, it is also used in the chemical industry. Phosphates also contain a number of rare metals as impurities, in particular zirconium.

In some areas of the shelf, the seabed is covered with green “sand” - an aqueous oxide of iron and potassium silicates, known in mineralogy as glauconite. This valuable material is used in the chemical industry, where potash and potash fertilizers are obtained from it. Glauconite also contains rubidium, lithium and boron in small quantities.

Sometimes the ocean presents the researcher with absolutely amazing surprises. Thus, near Sri Lanka, at a depth of thousands of meters, accumulations of barite nodules were discovered, three-quarters consisting of barium sulfite. Despite the great depth, the development of the deposit promises significant benefits, since the chemical and food industries are constantly in need of this valuable raw material. Barium sulfite is added as a weighting agent to clay solutions when drilling oil wells.

In 1873, during the English expedition around the world on the Challenger, strange dark “pebbles” were raised from the bottom of the ocean for the first time. Chemical analysis of these nodules showed a high content of iron and manganese. It is currently known that they cover significant areas of the ocean floor at depths from 500 meters to 5-6 kilometers, but their largest accumulations are still concentrated deeper than two to three kilometers. Ferromanganese nodules have a round, cake-shaped or irregular shape with an average size of 3-12 centimeters. In many areas of the ocean, the bottom is completely covered with them and resembles a cobblestone road in appearance. In addition to the two indicated metals, the nodules contain nickel, cobalt, copper, molybdenum, that is, they are multicomponent ores.

According to recent estimates, the world reserve of iron-manganese nodules is 1,500 billion tons, which far exceeds the reserves of all currently developed mines. The deposits of ferromanganese ore are especially large in the Pacific Ocean, where the bottom is in some places covered with nodules in a continuous carpet and in several layers. Thus, in terms of providing iron and other metals, humanity has very favorable prospects; All that remains is to establish production.

This was first started in 1963 by an American company that previously specialized in shipbuilding. With a good manufacturing base at their disposal, shipbuilders created a device designed to collect nodules at relatively shallow depths and tested it off the coast of Florida. The technical side of the enterprise completely satisfied the designers - they achieved production of nodules on an industrial scale from a depth of 500-800 meters, but the business turned out to be unprofitable economically. And not at all because ore mining was too expensive. The trouble was different - it turned out that shallow Atlantic nodules contain much less iron than in similar deposits in the depths of the Pacific Ocean.

An ingenious method that allows one to lift nodules from the ocean floor without great expense was proposed by the Japanese. There are no collectors, pipes, or powerful pumps in their design. The nodules are picked up from the bottom of the sea using wire baskets, similar to those used in supermarkets, but, of course, more durable. A series of such baskets are attached to a long cable, shaped like a giant loop, the upper part of which is on the ship, and the lower part touches the bottom. With the help of the ship's winch drum, the cable continuously moves up at the bow of the ship and runs out to sea behind its stern. The baskets attached to it pick up the nodules from the bottom, bring them to the surface and dump them into the hold, after which they are lowered for a new portion of ore. The system gave good results at depths of up to 1,400 meters, but it is also quite suitable for working at a depth of 6 kilometers.

In the minds of the inventors, another, at first glance, absolutely fantastic design was born, which already exists in the drawings, but has not yet been brought to life. Typically, nodules lie on more or less level and sufficiently hard ground that allows a crawler scraper to be driven over it. Having filled the ballast tanks with sea water, the scraper sinks to the bottom and crawls along it on caterpillars, raking concretions with a wide knife into a voluminous bunker. Energy for operation is supplied via cable from the vessel, and control is carried out from there, with the operator guided by the underwater television system. Once the bunkers are full, water is removed from the ballast tanks and the scraper is raised to the surface. With modern technical capabilities, it is quite possible to build such a machine. Here it is appropriate to emphasize once again that the design of underwater industrial enterprises of the future is very far from creating the notorious underwater cities.

Among the richest offshore deposits that are being successfully developed today are titanomagnetite sands off the coast of Japan and tin-bearing (cassiterite) sands off Malaysia and Indonesia. The underwater tin ore deposits are a shelf extension of the world's largest onshore tin belt, stretching from Indonesia to Thailand. Most of the explored reserves of this tin are concentrated in coastal valleys and their underwater continuation. Heavier productive sands, containing from 200 to 600 grams of tin per cubic meter of rock, are concentrated in depressions in the area. As shown by the results of drilling at sea, their thickness in some places reaches 20 meters.

Far beyond the Arctic Circle, at 72 degrees north latitude, on Vankina Bay of the Laptev Sea, our country’s first floating tin mining enterprise was recently put into operation. Tin-bearing soil is extracted from a depth of up to 100 meters by a dredger capable of mining not only in clean water, but also under ice. Primary processing of the rock is carried out by a floating processing plant located on one of the vessels of the flotilla. The Polar Plant can operate year-round.

The development of underwater placers produces a significant amount of diamonds, amber and precious metals - gold and platinum. Like tin ores, these placers serve as a continuation of the land ones and therefore do not go far under water.

The only platinum deposit in the United States is located on the northwest coast of Alaska. It was discovered in 1926 and began to be exploited the following year. Prospectors, moving along small rivers, came close to the coast, and in 1937 work began directly in the bay. The depth from which rock containing grains of platinum is extracted is constantly increasing.

The marine placers of Australia and Tasmania, stretching for more than a thousand kilometers, are world famous. Platinum, gold and some rare earth metals are mined here.

In some cases, marine placers are characterized by a much higher content of valuable minerals than similar deposits on land. Waves constantly agitate and mix the rock, and the current carries away lighter particles, causing the sea to act as a natural enrichment factory. Off the coast of South India and Sri Lanka there are thick ilmenite and monocite sands containing iron-titanium ore and phosphates of the rare earth elements cesium and lanthanum. A multi-kilometer strip of enriched sand can be traced in the sea at a distance of up to one and a half kilometers from the coast. The thickness of its productive layer in some places reaches 8 meters, and the content of heavy minerals sometimes reaches 95 percent.

One of the largest diamond deposits, as is known, is located in South Africa. In 1866, a little girl from a poor Dutch village, playing on the banks of the Orange River, found a sparkling pebble in the sand. The visiting gentleman liked the toy, and the girl’s mother, Madame Jacobe, gave the guest a shiny trinket. The new owner showed the curious find to one of his friends, and he recognized it as a diamond. After some time, Mrs. Jacobs was stunned by the unexpected wealth that fell upon her - she received as much as 250 pounds sterling, exactly half the cost of the shiny stone her daughter found.

Soon South Africa was struck by diamond fever. Now, income from the development of diamond mines constitutes a very significant item in the South African budget. Surveys in 1961 showed that diamonds are found in alluvial deposits consisting of sand, gravel and boulders, not only on land, but also underwater at depths of up to 50 meters. The first sample of sea soil weighing 4.5 tons contained 5 diamonds worth a total of $450. In 1965, almost 200 thousand carats of diamonds were mined from the sea in this area, a hundred years after the discovery of the first diamond.

50-60 million years ago, northern Europe was covered with continuous coniferous forests. Four species of pine and one species of fir grew here, which no longer exist. Resin flowed from cracks in the tree bark down powerful trunks. During floods, its frozen drops and lumps fell into rivers and were carried out to the sea. Over the centuries, the resin hardened in salt water, turning into amber.

The most powerful placers of amber are located on the coast of the Baltic Sea near Kaliningrad. Beautiful yellow “stones” are hidden from view in bluish fine-grained glauconitic sands of marine origin, on top of which later strata have formed. Where the amber-bearing layer reaches the sea, the surf constantly destroys it, and then pieces of rock fall into the water. Waves easily wash away sand and clay lumps and release the amber contained in them. Being only slightly heavier than water, in calm weather it falls to the bottom, but in the weakest waves it begins to move.

Like any other light objects, amber is sooner or later thrown onto the beach by the waves. This is where the ancient inhabitants of the Baltic coast found it. Phoenician ships sailed to the amber coast and took away a huge amount of exchanged “electron”. Archaeological finds make it possible to trace the long route along which amber and products made from it, thanks to barter, reached from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean.

The jewelry value of amber has survived to this day. The best, transparent and large pieces are selected for products, while the bulk of small amber is used in industry. This material is used to make high-quality varnishes and paints, is used as an insulator in the radio industry, and is used to prepare biostimulants and antiseptics. A modern amber plant is a mechanized enterprise where the rock is washed and enriched, and the extracted valuable material is sorted and subjected to further processing. In 1980, an amber museum was created in Kaliningrad, which displays products made from this material and unique finds.

Some mineral deposits are hidden in the depths of the seabed. Their development is technically more difficult compared to placers. In the simplest case, the opening of the ore layer is carried out from the shore. For this purpose, a vertical shaft of the required depth is drilled, and then horizontal or inclined passages are laid towards the sea, along which they reach the deposit. This can be done when the development site is located near the coast. Similar mines, the faces of which are located under the seabed, exist in Australia, England, Canada, the USA, France and Japan. They mainly mine coal and iron ore. One of the world's largest "offshore iron ore" mines is located on a small island in the Strait of Belle Isle. Some of its sections go far from the shore, and above the faces there is a 300-meter thickness of rock and a hundred-meter layer of water. The mine's annual production is 3 million tons.

It is estimated that the seabed off the coast of Japan stores at least 3 billion tons of coal, and 400 thousand tons are extracted from this reserve every year.

If a deposit is discovered far from the coast, it is not economically profitable to open it using the described method. In this case, an artificial island is poured and minerals are penetrated through its thickness. Such an island was created in Japan at a distance of two kilometers from the coast. In 1954, a vertical shaft of the Miki mine was laid through it.

Experience in constructing underwater tunnels allows them to be used not only as transport arteries, but also to get closer to mineral reserves along the seabed. The finished reinforced concrete sections of the tunnel are laid on the bottom and the shaft excavation begins from the last section.

At a significant distance from the shore and at sufficient depth, you will have to do without a tunnel. In this case, it is proposed to install a large-diameter reinforced concrete pipe vertically at the bottom and then remove the soil from the inside. As it depletes, the pipe will lower slightly under the influence of its own gravity. There is no need to transport the extracted soil anywhere; it is simply thrown outside, and it will settle around the pipe, creating an embankment that prevents sea water from penetrating into the pipe. Upon completion of construction, miners will be lowered into the mine through this pipe, and ore or coal will be lifted up.

In order not to raise the mined ore to the surface of the ocean, one English company has developed a project for an underwater nuclear ore carrier. Although such a vessel has not yet been built, it has already received the name “Moby Dick” in honor of the legendary white sperm whale described in the novel of the same name by the American writer G. Chalkville. The underwater ore carrier will be able to transport up to 28 thousand tons of ore per voyage at a speed of 25 knots.

The development of minerals hidden in the depths of the seabed requires constant monitoring of water entering the mine, which can easily seep through cracks. The risk of flooding increases in seismically active areas. Thus, in some offshore mines in Japan, it was noticed that after each earthquake, the influx of water increases approximately three times. More attention has to be paid to the possibility of rock collapse, therefore in a number of offshore mines, especially where the faces are separated from the water by a small layer of rock, it is necessary to limit the excavation, leaving part of the ore-bearing layer as supports.

The extensive practical experience gained in extracting oil from the bottom of the sea turned out to be useful in the development of such a completely solid mineral as sulfur, deposits of which are also found in the soil layer on the seabed. To extract sulfur, a well is drilled, similar to an oil well, and a superheated mixture of water and steam is injected into the formation under high pressure. Under the influence of high temperature, the sulfur melts, and then it is pumped out using special pumps.

But what plans are already being actively implemented.

Photo 3.

In the spring of 2018, in the Bismarck Sea at a depth of 1600 m, Nautilus Minerals will begin commercial development of the Solwara 1 hydrothermal copper ore deposit. The commercial success of this project could launch the process of massive “immersion” of mining companies to the ocean floor in pursuit of colossal mineral reserves.

The idea of thoroughly rummaging through the “Davy Jones chest,” as British sailors call the ocean depths, is not new. The first who managed to put his hand into the bins of the sea devil was the Scottish engineer George Bruce, who in 1575 built a coal mine in the middle of Culross Bay with a waterproof headframe and a caisson-type mouth. And although in 1625 Davy Jones returned his, sending a storm of unprecedented force to Culross, which overnight smashed Bruce's brainchild into pieces, the technology quickly spread throughout the Old World. In the 17th-19th centuries, from Japan to the Baltic, coal, tin, gold and amber were mined at sea using the Bruce method.

Photo 4.

Diamonds from sand porridge

At the end of the 19th century, when powerful steam engines appeared in the arsenal of miners, a simple and flexible “horizontal” scheme for underwater gold mining was developed in Alaska using floating dredge pumps, dredges and dinghy barges onto which the rock was unloaded. Over time, due to the use of heavy special equipment for underwater work, the possibilities of horizontal mining have expanded significantly. Today, in shallow sea waters, everything from construction gravel and iron ore to rare earth monazite and precious stones is mined in this way.

For example, in Namibia, the De Beers company has been successfully extracting diamonds for more than half a century from sandy deposits, which for millions of years were carried to the shores of the Atlantic by the waters of the Orange River. At first, production was carried out at depths of up to 35 m, but in 2006, after the depletion of easily accessible deposits, De Beers engineers had to replace conventional dredgers with floating drilling rigs.

Solwara 1 deep sea quarry
The area of the Solwara 1 site, located on top of an extinct underwater volcano, is small by earthly standards - only 0.112 km2, or 15 football fields. But several thousand such deposits have already been discovered at the bottom of the World Ocean.

In 2015, specifically for the development of the Atlantic 1 concession (depth 100-140 m), Marine & Mineral Projects built for De Beers a new remote-controlled crawler “vacuum cleaner” - a 320-ton electro-hydraulic giant capable of clearing sand from an area two sizes in an hour. football fields. The short process cycle is completed on the support vessel Mafuta, where the precious sludge is continuously fed to a sorting conveyor. Every day, private De Beers special forces deliver about 700 large, high-quality diamonds from Mafuta to the mainland.

Photo 5.

However, gold and diamonds are trifles in comparison with the real treasures waiting in the wings of the deep ocean. In the 1970-1980s, as a result of large-scale oceanographic research, it became clear that the seabed was literally strewn with giant deposits of polymetallic ores. Moreover, due to the specific conditions of ore formation, the metal content in them is an order of magnitude higher than in deposits on land. True, lifting ore onto land is not an easy task.

The first to try to do this was the German company Preussag AG, which in 1975-1982, under a contract with the authorities of Saudi Arabia, carried out exploration of the Atlantis II Deep basin, discovered in the Red Sea at a depth of over 2 km ten years earlier. Exploration drilling over an area of about 60 km2 showed that the dense “carpet” of mineralized silt up to 28 m thick contains, in terms of pure metal, about 1,830,000 tons of zinc, 402,000 tons of copper, 3,432 tons of silver and 26 tons of gold. In the mid-1980s, in cooperation with the French company BRGM, the Germans developed and successfully tested a “vertical” deep-sea mining scheme, which was broadly copied from offshore drilling platforms.

During testing of the equipment - a suction unit with a hydraulic monitor mounted on a supporting pipeline 2200 m high - more than 15,000 tons of raw materials were lifted onto the auxiliary vessel, the quality of which exceeded the metallurgists' expectations. But due to a sharp drop in metal prices, the Saudis abandoned the project. In subsequent years, the idea was revived many times and again shelved. Finally, in 2010, it was announced that development of Atlantis II Deep, one of the world's largest deep-sea copper-zinc deposits, would begin. When this will happen is unknown. In any case, not before the stainless steel robots of Nautilus Minerals go to visit Davy Jones.

Photo 4.

Washing and rolling

The deal satisfied both parties. The islanders can now count on handsome rents, and the Canadians, having received 17 more licenses for deposits covering an area of 450,000 km2 in the Bismarck Sea, have provided themselves with work for the next decade. Today Nautilus is perhaps the only company in the world with sophisticated technology and unique equipment for deep-sea mining. The water-slurry ore mining scheme, adapted by Nautilus engineers to the conditions of Solwara 1, consists of three basic elements: underwater remote-controlled mining equipment, a vertical slurry lifting system and an auxiliary vessel. A key element of the technology is the world's first dedicated deep-sea mining vessel, construction of which began in April 2015 at China's Fujian Mawei shipyard. The 227-metre flagship Nautilus, equipped with a high-precision positioning system with seven tunnel thrusters and six Rolls Royce azimuth steering columns with a total power of 42,000 hp, is expected to roll off the slipways in April 2018. This floating mine will support, literally and figuratively, the entire technological cycle of the field: delivery of equipment to the diving point; lowering, lifting and servicing of machines; lifting, draining and storing sludge.

Photo 6.

All underwater technology for Nautilus was developed by the British company SMD. It was planned to create a complex multi-operational combine harvester capable of operating for months in an aggressive environment at zero temperature and enormous pressure. But after consulting with experts from Sandvik and Caterpillar, it was decided to make one specialized crawler robot for each of the three basic operations - leveling the working bench, opening the rock and lifting cuttings up the mountain. “Dry” tests of the steel monsters, worth a total of $100 million, took place in November 2015, and next summer they will undergo a series of tests in shallow water.

The first violin part in this trio is played by the Auxiliary Cutter, equipped with a dual milling ripper on a long rotating beam. Its task is to form a flat platform for the future quarry, cutting off uneven terrain. To maintain stability in areas with a strong slope, the Auxiliary Cutter will be able to use lateral hydraulic supports. Next will be the main “getter” of Nautilus - a heavy cutting machine Bulk Cutter weighing 310 tons with a huge cutting drum. Bulk Cutter function - deep opening, crushing and grading of rock into shafts.

Photo 7.

The most difficult operation of the cycle - collecting and feeding the water-sludge mass into the sludge riser - will be performed by a Collecting Machine “vacuum cleaner”, which is equipped with a powerful pump with a cutting-suction nozzle and connected to the riser with a flexible hose. The geometry and cutting power of the cutting machines are calculated by SMD engineers so that the output is rounded pieces of rock about 5 cm in diameter. This will achieve optimal slurry consistency and reduce abrasive wear and the risk of plugging. According to SMD experts, the Collecting Machine will be able to collect from 70 to 80% of the volume of the exposed rock.

On the ship, the sludge will be stored in holds and then transferred to bulk carriers. At the same time, at the insistence of environmentalists, the “bottom” sludge water will have to be filtered and reinjected to depth. Overall, the Nautilus harvesting scheme poses no more threat to ocean environment than trawling fisheries. Local deep-sea biological systems, according to scientists, are restored within a few years after the cessation of external influence. Man-made accidents and the notorious human factor are a different matter. But Nautilus has an effective solution here too. All processes on Solwara 1 will be controlled by a system developed by the Dutch company Tree C Technology.

If all goes according to plan, the sharp teeth of the mining machine will tear the first ton of rock from the surface of the ancient Solwara volcanic plateau in the spring of 2018. I would like to hope that this “small step” into the abyss that Nautilus dared to take will become a huge step for all of humanity.

Photo 8.