Loading / Hauling

Once ore and waster materials have been reduced in size to a manageable size with drilling/blasting/mining techniques it must be transported to processing plants or waste dumps. Heavy machinery including loaders, bulldozers, trams, shovels, drag lines and haul trucks are used to load and transport these materials. Specialized equipment has been developed suitable for surface/sub-surface hauling and loading tasks.

Loading and hauling machinery located on the surface often are often very large to maximize productivity and to take advantage of the less confining environment. Large excavators, draglines, shovels and bulldozers excavate and prepare material so that loaders can easily load haul trucks or conveyors. The haul trucks or conveyors then transport the valuable ore to the processing plant or waste material to dumps.

Underground or sub-surfacing loading/hauling equipment is often very specialized and compact in size to deal with the associated space requirements. Often low ceiling heights dictate equipment that are significantly smaller, lower and wider than their surface counterparts. Underground loaders are used to load underground haul trucks, trams (carts or cars) or conveyors with ore or wastr material to be brought to the surface. Once it reaches the surface standard surface loading/hauling techniques may be used.

- Finning Canada, Komatsu America Corp, Bucyrus International Inc, Liebherr images.