Assessing technical capacities and economic efficiency of granulated middling hydraulic transportation as applied to Kursk Magnetic Anomaly deposits development

Abstract

Introduction. The majority of iron ore open pits in Russia and the CIS belong to the category of deep open pits, same as prospective Kursk Magnetic Anomaly (KMA) deposits (Prioskolskoye, Chernyanskoye, Pogrometskoye, etc.) with the thickness of overburden equal to 100–150 m where the open pits will be deep already at the early stage of mining operations. Research objective is to provide rationale for hydraulic transportation advantage over other types of industrial transport and identify technical capacities and economic efficiency for a new scheme of opencasting and transport of promising fields of KMA at the stage of the pre-project development. Research objects are Prioskolskoye and Chernyanskoye deposits. The main methods of research were the graphic method, graphic-analytical method and method of technical and economical comparison of different options. The basis of the proposal for development of the prospective KMA deposits is a new layout of the industrial site of a miningand-processing facility with location of parts of the crushing and grinding complex in the open pit and hoisting of ore in the form of pulp to the surface by pipeline transport for further beneficiation. Results. In general, the prefeasibility study involving the technical and economical comparison of two prospective KMA deposits shows cost savings with regard to ore transportation from the open pit to the industrial site by hydraulic transport compared to the cyclic-flow technology. The new technology enables reduction of the transportation costs by 1,5–2 times and increase in labour productivity with regard to ore transportation by 2–3 times.