Mikashevichy quarry
The Mikashevichy Quarry is located immediately west of the small town of Mikashevichy in Belarus . Every year around 15 million tons of granite , granodiorite and diorite are mined and processed there. It is the largest quarry with these types of rock in Europe. Currently (as of 2019) the quarry is around 3 km long, 1.4 km wide and the excavation floor is around 150 m below the natural surface of the terrain. Around 2500 employees work in two shifts, with the stone quarrying mainly from spring to autumn. During the winter months, on the other hand, operations focus on maintaining the machines and systems used.
history
In 1963, geologists examined the soil below the swamps west of Mikashevichy and discovered the abundant rock deposits. After a planning phase that lasted from 1965 to 1968, the necessary preparatory work began in 1971. In 1976 the quarry went into operation.
Mining operations
Before the rock is excavated, the overburden , which is up to 60 meters high, is removed. This is done with a scraper , shovel and backhoe excavator (including NKMZ ESH 11/70 or Volvo EC 700C ). The exposed rock layers are then loosened with up to 100 large borehole blasts per year. Russian SBSH-250 MNA 32 electric drilling rigs are driving the necessary drill holes into the ground.
The loosened rock is loaded onto around 70 dump trucks from the Belarusian manufacturer BelAZ with an electric shovel excavator Uralmasch EKG and then brought to the crushing plants. Rocks that are too big for the crusher are crushed in advance with hydraulic hammers . Several wheeled dozers and bulldozers maintain the routes necessary to transport the rock.
Products and application
In the processing plant , the mining material is broken up, washed and sorted according to different grain sizes. This creates the following end products:
- Crushed sand up to 5 mm grain size
- Fine and coarse gravel from 5 to 70 mm grain size
- Schropping from 70 to 300 mm grain size
The processed material is then transported directly to the loading area via conveyor belts or it is temporarily stored in a stockpile. Around 90% of the volume produced annually is transported by rail and 9% by truck. Around 1% of the annual production is carried out by cargo ship and is carried out via a specially built canal that flows into the Pripyat River after 6 kilometers .
Most of the material produced is used in their own country or exported to Russia. But Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and the Ukraine are also among the customer countries. Customers mainly use the material in road and track construction or use it to make concrete.
museum
In 2015, a museum was opened on the site, which quickly gained national fame and is often visited by school classes. It provides information about the mined rock, the historical development of the quarry and the mining methods. In addition, finds that were found during the removal of the upper overburden layers are exhibited. These include, for example, fossils of mammoths and primeval rhinos with an estimated age of around 400,000 years.
source
- Wilhelm Weissbecker, Katya Shchedrova: Jahrbuch Baumaschinen 2020. Podszun-Verlag, 2019, ISBN 978-3-86133-934-2 , page 5 ff.
Coordinates: 52 ° 13 '26.1 " N , 27 ° 25' 6.6" E