The paper presents a theoretical analysis of highwall destruction by blasting. Peculiarities of blasting in high faces at open-pit mining operations in Russia are analyzed. New approaches to drilling processes in high faces are proposed. Possibilities of application of walking machines for downward digging (walking excavators) are described.
Improvement of efficiency of mining production is directly connected with increase of a degree of use of extracted from a subsoil both the basic and jointly developed or by-product minerals. Application of mass explosions at open-cast mining causes the necessity to protect the sites of jointly developed or nearby deposits from harmful seismic-explosive effects.
The general direction of development of mining works in the Muruntau open pit is to increase its development depth to 700 m and more with the expansion of the area of application of cyclic-flow technological schemes of development with the use of steep-slope conveyors, which significantly tightens the requirements to the size of the transported material. In view of this, the main concept of improving the technology of blasting in the quarry is the intensification of blasting processes and increasing the specific weight of the blasting method of crushing as the cheapest and most technologically advanced.
