Surface Mining is core course in Mining Engineering. India's more than 95% of the total mineral production is coming from Surface Mines and Quarries. Surface Mining involves deployment of Heavy Earth Moving Machinery with latest technology of Machinery Control and Maintenance Management. Information and Communication Technology is the heart of any large surface mining project today. Application of AI, ML and IoT with Drone Technology, Remote sensing and GIS are now unavoidable needs of modern Surface Mining. Environmental Management and Post mine-closure management of mining land and ecological restoration invite lot of interdisciplinary experts into the surface mining industry. Fianacial Management of Surface Mining Operation and Scientific Asset Management require deeper understanding of occurrences of mineral resources and their safer and economic extraction with minimum permanent damage to the environment and natural endowments. You need to learn the methods of how to access the sub-surface mineral deposits and to systematically and economically extract them and send to the next users for further value addition.
Thus, surface mining course is not a subject for passing the exam, but for learning necessary and important skills to survive as a competent real-life problem-solving technological expert. Plan your time other than attending the classes for learning those tools and techniques that will be applied in surface mining operations and management.
The sections I will be introducing, as per the curriculum of IIT Kharagpur are very limited. These include: (i) Excavation by Ripper, (ii) Excavation by Dragline (iii) Excavation by BWE (iv) Designing Pit layouts for surface mining (v) Designing Haul Road (vi) Mine closure.