Truck Thursday: Chilean Copper Mine Mega Trucks
Chile’s Chuquicamata mine is the world’s largest open pit copper mine. The scale of the operation and the volume of the excavation boggle the mind. And in order to get the job done, mammoth trucks are used.
First, the numbers behind the mine:
- The pit is 5 km long, 3 km wide, and 1 km deep.*
- 600,000 tons of rock are excavated every day.
- 1,500 tons of copper are extracted from the 600,000 tons of rock.
- The mine operates 24 hours per day.
- 22% of the copper goes to China.
Zoom in:
Zoom out:
Approximately 110 trucks haul the rocks 10 km from the bottom of the pit to the top of the pit. Although several brands of haul trucks are used at the mine, most of them appear to be Komatsus. They can carry up to 400 tons and burn three liters of fuel per minute. The mining concern is considering replacing the fleet of trucks with a conveyor belt given the cost of fuel.
This picture best captures the size of these monsters. All of the support trucks are red and are between the size of a Ford Ranger and Toyota Tundra. Look how tiny they are!
*For those of you in the non-metric nations of Liberia, Myanmar, and the U.S., that’s a big-ass hole.
Images source: Jim Yu
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That is a big-ass hole.
This is a big asshole.
<img src="http://www.moonbattery.com/jose-conseco.jpg" width="500/">
I think the best indicator of the size is the freaking staircase mounted to the front of it.
Every time I see those, my subconscious automatically thinks it's a Volvo.
Same here! There's a part of me that still thinks they are Volvos, and the parts surrounding that stubborn neuron is convinced that Volvo trucks must be the toughest in the world.
Stupid brain.
It sure is testimony to how well iconic styling works when it comes to branding. The fact that our minds automatically associate a simple slash with a brand name means they were successful.
I'm 100% with you guys on these trucks being Volvos. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that!
This was taken at a mine I used to work at. Cat 795F.
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/DP0e9.jpg" alt="" title="Hosted by imgur.com" />
3.1 miles long, 1.8 miles wide and 0.6 mile deep. Incredible how that would've meant nothing to me and yet, just by seeing 5km I froze.
Erosion is not an issue because it never rains. I was there in Dec 2010 and it had not rained since 2006!
I know, right? I plan on running that far after work, and I think that is an accomplishment. Clearly, it is not.
I would love to drive one of those dump trucks for a day!!!
<img src="http://media.canada.com/51df8522-e0a5-44bf-ad15-5fc7d54dfa34/797.jpg">
Three liters per minute sounds pretty efficient.
But what the hell do I know, we don't use those measurements in these parts.
About .8 gal per min, so 48 gal per hour.
As a point of comparison, my extensive research on the internet indicates that each jet engine on an MD 80 airliner uses about 500 gal per hour.
Thanks for the MD80 number. The Codelco (Chilean mining company) tour guide did not say if the figure was at idle or not. I can't even imagine what a conveyor belt would be like. But I guess it would be more efficient.
I thought I remembered seeing a show one time on the Canadian tar sands, and ho they were building some giant conveyors to increase efficiency. This picture is from here, and isn't the greatest detail, but it is definitely big stuff.
<img src="http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/media/mining-the-oil-sands-3217.jpg" width="500">
I also found the Bagger 288, which purports to be the worlds largest digging machine. Set to Rammstein even.[youtube DzWxW46GtDU&feature=player_embedded http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzWxW46GtDU&feature=player_embedded youtube]
Some of these trucks (I think all them except Cat) use a diesel electric drive train. At least one manufacturer is looking into reducing the size of the prime mover (diesel engine) and stuff the available space with Sodium Sulfur batteries thus creating a hybrid vehicle. Those batteries are perfect for the job as they need to be kept hot to work properly http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium%E2%80%93sulfu…
Given the nature of the work these trucks perform, they drive empty half of the time and require a lot of torque to start. They also have a lot of kinetic energy once in motion. That is an ideal operating mode for a hybrid drive train.
Another system uses power lines much like electric buses do in city. Those only work for the part of the mine that don't change too often, say the main road between the excavation site and the dump site at the processing plant.
Here is such a system:
<img src="http://www.sea.siemens.com/us/SiteCollectionImages/WSSResources/Internet/Misc/2008-04-25_12/TrolleySystem.jpg" width=500>
from: <a href="http://www.sea.siemens.com/us/industry_solutions/mining/mining-solutions/pages/ac-solutions-haul-trucks.aspx” target=”_blank”>http://www.sea.siemens.com/us/industry_solutions/mining/mining-solutions/pages/ac-solutions-haul-trucks.aspx
The 795F that I posted earlier uses a Diesel-Electric drivetrain not unlike a locomotive. Apparently its cheaper to maintain than an all mechanical drivetrain.
What's old is new again…LeTourneau built a few trolley-assist trucks 50 years ago. (Also I'm amused by LeTourneau's solution to their un-assisted truck being underpowered… they put another engine on it, equal to the one that it had.)
Heh…
It says "420."
/stonerpointingoutstonerthings
I'd click thumbsup twice if it'd let me.
First thing I noticed.
I came here just to make that comment. Good on ya!
I was wondering if you guys would pick up on that!
alas this former stoner olelongrooffan totally missed that….
Dang! These trucks don't just carry incredible loads. Check out how kickass they are at hill climbing!
<img src="http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-bHqrK2XyOJc/Ts20zs-e7XI/AAAAAAABjwc/KovLvL9KelQ/s720/ewt54rwefdrsfdsfsdfsdf.jpg" width="500/">