Parameters of Transition from Deepening Longitudinal to Continuous Lateral Surface Mining Methods to Decrease Environmental Damage in Coal Clusters

The presented paper deals with an original way to reduce the environmental damage caused to land and air resources by surface coal mines with external dumping, due to transition to internal dumping with filling the worked out space of surface mine with overburden. The basic principle of the proposed idea is the transition from deepening longitudinal mining method for development of inclined and steep coal seam strata to lateral ones. This article substantiates the choice of technology for a block-and-layer continuous lateral mining method, including the construction of a first-stage pit, the use of a combined transport and direct dumping technology for moving overburden to an internal dump when mining blocks using draglines. The advantage of the presented technology, along with filling the internal capacity of the surface mine field with overburden, is the possibility of leveling the relief within the boundaries of the pit allotment and the implementation of reclamation as the mining front moves forward, without waiting for the dump to be completely filled in the boundary contours. Attention is also paid to economic benefits of block-layer technology of continuous lateral mining method, in transition to which the overburden transporting costs can be significantly reduced, while limitations of proposed method’s implementation concern specific coal deposits that make up a small part of the fields being developed today by surface mining