South African dust management company Dust-A-Side (DAS) has finished a project which proves that road material does not have to end up as mining waste.
During a pit expansion at one of the mines that DAS services, those expanding the pit reached an existing haul road. The company proposed recovering the road’s treated wearing course rather than losing it to the waste dump.
The mine accepted DAS’ proposal. About 1km of previously treated wearing course was ripped up, recovered and reused to construct a new haul road.
To do this, the existing treated wearing course was ripped, loaded and tipped along the line of the new haul road. On site, the recovered material was blended 50/50 with coal discard, then compacted and plate mixed with DAS LC product. The surface was reshaped and finished with a grader before being sealed.
Because the recovered material had already been treated, the new road only needed half the volume of wearing course and product normally needed. “DAS-treated wearing course is fully reclaimable and reusable,” says DAS CTO Fillipus Masipa. “Reusing material cuts product consumption and saves the time spent sourcing new material.”
The result was a smooth, sealed, production-ready surface built with half the new material and dust suppression product that establishment would normally require.
As pits expand, older infrastructure is usually buried or discarded, and with it, the material and product that went into building it. Additionally, operators are currently experiencing pressure from regulators, investors and communities to reduce waste. Both of these challenges are addressed by reusing materials already on the site.
