How Utilizing Dust Control on Haul Roads Leads To Greater Profits for Mining Companies

By: Kurt Tompkins One might think of a haul road as merely a dusty road that only serves one purpose, and that is to redistribute the mined ore from one location to another. But that dirty road is the artery of the entire operation. Lacking that dusty haul road a mining venture would almost immediately expire. To properly maintain the road is in effect the same as taking care of one's own physical condition.

We understand what happens when our arteries stop operating properly, but what happens when a haul road is not maintained properly.

On a normal haulage road you will have haul trucks roaming day and night. Particular haulage roads have as many as 500 trucks for every day. At the same time others could have less trucks but the trucks they do have are many times bigger as well as heavier. Once more many of the operations are twenty-four hours all day each day with no occasion for stopping and re-starting.

While you have uninterrupted traffic on these haulage roads you have got to do something to eliminate the dust. Several of these haul roads are in excess of 5 miles long and in general 50 feet wide. Every one of these roads may need more or less one gallon per square yard every day to keep the dust down. If one was to work out these numbers you may discover that a normal haul road dust control plan will necessitate millions of gallons of water each week. In a number of places water is a very valued commodity that should be conserved whenever feasible not only for the availability but also for the cost of attainment. Just ask yourself, what would your water statement be like if you consumed over a million gallons each week?

When the Haulage road is watered to keep up controllable levels of fugitive dust, the road will begin to erode. This erosion will set off pot holes and new imperfections which over time will cause the road to become un-drivable. Not only will this turn out to be a terribly uneven road, but those conditions will also cause untimely failure to the haulage trucks.

Furthermore, the price of maintaining haulage trucks increases radically when they must work in a dusty location. There are countless parts on a truck that break down sooner when they are bounded by dust. The engine will consume dust from the haulage road which will unavoidably end up in the engine oil, consequently causing a premature failure of the truck and thousands of dollars in maintenance.

Working on a haulage truck is not a uncomplicated task. You could envision having to replace a tire that is 10 feet tall. The yearly cost to operate these behemoths is greater than most American families earn in five years. If you can lower that expense you will be saving the business vast amounts of cash that could be directed at something more beneficial.

Alleviating these expenses is rather simple. One only needs to use a modernized road dust control plan that not only regulates the dust yet will also add a high level of erosion control. The more successful programs may actually change the old dusty dirt road into a solid stabilized driving surface comparable to many asphalt roads. This in turn will get rid of 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.

Adding all these savings together will without doubt help a mining operation reduce their working costs to the point where the dust control program has paid for itself inside a year's time and the cash from such can subsequently be added to the bottom line.

Author Info

Kurt Tompkins specializes in the tradition of dust control with regards to dust abatement and all around dust supervision