Development of a mining concept for the reactivation of a limestone quarry in a multiple pit operation considering alternative locations for mobile pre-screening and crushing plants

Abstract

Currently, the Flandersbach lime plant is supplied by the adjacent quarries Rohdenhaus-Nord and Silberberg and from the quarry Hahnenfurth in Wuppertal-Dornap. The currently idled quarry Dachskuhle is located east of the Flandersbach lime plant. The prescreening of impure limestone and the crushing of chemical non-suitable limestone to produce aggregates for internal and external use are currently carried out on the inside dump at Rohdenhaus South. Due to the advance of the dumping activities, the mobile processing plants need to be removed soon. The Dachskuhle quarry is considered as one of several alternative locations for the prescreening and crushing of impure limestone from the entire Flandersbach mining activity. By combining different theoretical approaches under the framework of the Mine Facility Location Selection described by Fazeli & Osanloo in 2014, a multistep procedure for the evaluation of alternative locations for mobile processing plants in multiple-pit operations is developed and applied. Another objective of this thesis is the creation of a mining concept for the remaining reserves of Dachskuhle quarry, to support the raw material supply of the lime plant with chemical suitable limestone and substitute the chemical suitable limestone coming from Hahnenfurth. Since conceptual mine plan for the recovery of the Pillar Dachskuhle Prangenhaus has already been developed by Kunert in 2015, this thesis has focused on the ramp-up phase and the development of the Dachskuhle within the permitted limits. To define the exact scope of required data and deliverables, a check-list from the Quarry-Design-Handbook has been adapted.