Quarry Mining Notes:

Money spent on pre-production (1) geological, 2) geotechnical, and 3) technical)

investigations should not be seen as waste but as a means of improving the efficiency of the
mining operations, and hence its profitability.
Keywords:
geological assessment; geotechnical assessment, quarry operations; quarry management plan;
quarry economics
For a good quarry development, proper planning and careful consideration should be given to all
aspects for a systematic and unified approach to ensure the quarry runs efficiently and is
economically managed.

Step #1: GEOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT

determine the quality of the reserve
determine the recoverable reserve volume

Things To Do Pre-Production:
review previous studies on the area
review previous geologic and topographic information and maps of the area
visit the site for actual field investigation or groundtruthing
The three notes listed above must be performed by a professional geologist/geoscientist. Where
then he or she will produce a sound report.

To produce the geological report, the geologists will/should look at the following things:
1) "Nature and Extent of overburden
o Depending on the geologic terrain (either basement or sedimentary) the
problem of overburden could vary and if not properly checked could be a serious
draw back to the commencement of production of finished products.
o In assessing the viability of the quarry, it is important to use geophysical survey,
to help define: the depth and extent of the overburden. And knowledge of this can

further help in calculating the cost and time of removing this material, which
would be built into the overall economic evaluation of the site.
o Note: overburden excavation and storage are fundamental to the economics of a
well run quarry.

2) Extent of material (or in other words) Reserve Estimation.

o The reserve estimation will help determine the possible active mine life/life-span
of the quarry operation.
o Failure to estimate the reserve would:
1) create problems in evaluating the economic viability and profitability of
the quarry operation
2) Create difficulties in the computing of what the initial start-up capital
should be, expected returns, and for how long.
o The recoverable reserve estimate (which is the maximum quantity and quality of
reserve that can be exploited at economic value) is also built into this 2nd phase of
assessment (as this is the actual material available for production-hence what will
determine the actual expected revenue)
3) Quality (geochemistry) of material that is going to be quarried:
o The quality of the quarry material is obtained through obtaining/studying the
chemical composition/mineralogy of the rock/material. In other words, the study
of the different elements that are present in the rocks/material, and the abundance
(or ie concentration) of these elements in the rocks
o The quality of quarry materials is to a large extent dependent on the geochemistry
and mineralogy of the rock.
o Other factors of the quarry material that should be looked at/taken into
consideration, for marketability aspects are: desired aesthetic and physical
properties of the material
4) Deposit characterisation:
o this involves studying the whole quarry site and describing in details the lithology
of the area (ie the general physical characteristics of the rocks of the area) to see
if the entire area is covered by a particular rock type or if they vary and what is
the degree of variance.
o This study will help to define: the proper method of extraction/production (ie in
the case where different rock types are present)
o this study should be done to cover both vertical and horizontal profiles for best
results.
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Step #2: GEOTECHNICAL ASSESSMENT:

The geotechnical assessment is aimed at providing enough information to tackle likely
problems during operations that could result in downtime and stoppage of production.
A thorough and well carried out geotechnical study/assessment should be carried out with
the help of a sound and professional structural geoscientist

Major factors considered in the geotechnical study/assessment include:

1) Water ingress(ie entering) into the quarry pit:

o in quarries, water may sometimes begin to flow into the pit and operational areas
very common in places where the water table is high.
o Ground water ingress is one of the most important factors that influence the
stability of quarry faces.
The build-up of water pressure developed along joints or along bedding
planes and discontinuities can cause uplift forces which reduce shear
strength and tend to cause instability. Thus a proper check of this factor is
necessary in controlling rock/soil slope instability.
2) Fractures/joints characteristics in the rock:
o this factor plays a very crucial role in rock quarrying, especially when the
production is for dimension stones purpose (where initial large sizes of materials
are needed before later cutting and polishing into desired sizes).
o Where fractures are too much and too close, then the possibility of operating a
viable dimension stone quarry is reduced to near zero.
o this factor, if not properly studied, can greatly affect production even in crushed
stone quarry by affecting the blast design and the nature of blasted materials
(either by producing oversized material, or too small of material) there by
increasing production time and reducing profits.
3) Competence of materials:
o This factors controls: the quality of the product, the excavation methods, and to a
lesser degree the blast design.
o The competency of the material is greatly determined by the degree or extent of
weathering that has affected such material.
excessive weathering, which reduces the competency of
rock materials, is not desirable for quarry operations.

Note: Reserve estimation done on the assumption of uniform distribution of quality

materials throughout the site is dangerous to the economics of the quarry, and should
NEVER be done this way. Instead, reserve estimations should be done against the
background of quality control. The application of established geotechnical index tests
would help to ensure that proper quality control is put in place in quarry operations.
It is also advisable that geotechnical index tests be carried out before and
periodically during operations to ensure consistency of quality products.

4) Bench and Face design:

o benches will not only provide access to the quarry face, but also act as rock traps
to falling rocks in small scale failures.
o It is recommended that the individual benches should be steeper than the overall
face.
o the orientation and frequency, of the occurrence of, structural discontinuities
control the bench and face design, this structural discontinuity assessment must be
done by a competent structural geoscientist.
o Alongside this assessment is the slope stability study/assessment.
This is essential because if the slopes, are designed with low probability of
failure, and are cut too flat, then this would case an increased stripping
ratio, and an increased ratio of stripping would cause a rise in quarry costs.
Also if the slope is designed with a high probability of failure, then failure
and damages would arise, which would also cause an increase in the
quarry cost.
Thus it is essential to balance these 2 extremes(listed above) to get the
most cost effective slope angle.

--Step #3: TECHNICAL ASSESSMENT

o The assessment and evaluation of the machines and industrial requirements to
operate the quarry (with the background of the results obtained from the
geological and geotechnical assessment.)

For long term economic reason, it is better to install one machine of larger
capacity than two of smaller capacity because it would be easier to
maintain and replace.

Other miscellaneous factors also considered here are: workforce and

expertise; administrative buildings, fuel and explosives storing facilities;
waste disposal; and overburden removal and land reclamation processes.
As part of the overburden studies: climatic data (of the
region) and the physical characteristics of the overburden should be
ascertained in order to ensure the correct selection of machinery for allyear operation.