Helpful information. Minerals: Limestone Where limestone is used
Limestone is one of the oldest rocks on Earth. This rock was born millions of years ago and mined at the bottom of the ocean, which made up most of the planet's surface. The main constituent is calcium.
Extraction by conventional method
In order to get a limestone slab, you can use the good old way to do this. The main thing is to find a small way out from under the ground. Next, with the help of a shovel, it is necessary to clear the area in which the limestone will be mined. Use a crowbar to form a crack in the limestone slab, and then pry off the edge of the slab. Then you need to lift it up. Since limestone lies underground in layers, only a small plate of it can be lifted.
Take the plate and take it out of the place where the limestone lies. You can cut this breed with the help of the most ordinary saw. And in order to make it easier, take water and soften the stove.
Explosive way
Limestone can also be mined using an explosive method. To do this, you first need to open the deposits by removing the earth from them with the help of bulldozers. It is also necessary to remove clay and substandard limestone from them. Along the edge of the mining site, it is necessary to drill wells and put explosives there. If the explosions are properly organized, they will break off large layers of limestone, which later need to be loaded into dump trucks and taken to the processing site.
Further, a quarry in which limestone has already been mined must be covered with earth and planted with herbs and plants. This method can be used in large deposits, and as for small ones, there is no need to use an explosive method. In them, limestone must be removed in blocks that have the shape of rectangles. This is due to the fact that contour gaps are created.
This technology is called bar working and is based on the fact that an array of limestone is created with notches that are directed perpendicular to natural cracks.
The work is carried out with the help of various machines that are engaged in cutting stone, and in this process one cannot do without the participation of an excavator. This technology has the advantage of:
- it is comparatively simple;
- the blocks immediately have a good shape;
- easy to transport and handle.
Due to the fact that it has a porous structure, limestone is commonly used in construction. From it you can build temples, palaces and estates.
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A detailed production report from the Sokolsko-Sitovskoye flux limestone quarry, located a couple of kilometers northeast of Lipetsk. Under the cut are large excavators, BelAZ trucks, a factory, conveyors, an explosion and much more...
1. Some official data: The quarry is being developed by Studenovskaya Joint-Stock Mining Company, currently a member of the NLMK Group and one of the Russian leaders in the production of flux limestone, used mainly in the metallurgical industry and construction.
2. Mining volumes account for more than 15% of the mined flux limestone in Russia.
3. The dimensions of the quarry are impressive: 1500x500 meters, and the depth is 50 meters. Here you can easily build more than 10 football fields or lay a track for Formula 1... 
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4. According to geologists, the reserves of raw materials in the quarry at the current capacity will be enough for at least 30 years of operation. 
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5. Limestone is a widespread sedimentary rock formed with the participation of living organisms in marine basins. Once upon a time, approximately 350-370 million years ago, in the Devonian period of the Paleozoic era, the Lipetsk region, like many regions of the central part of Russia, was a sea. Often in the fragments of the rock you can find fossil remains of the ancient life of those years ...
6. The deposit is developed by an open method. Technological process mining can be divided into the following main types of work:
Stripping works
mining operations
Dumping and mining reclamation
Transport work
Mineral processing 
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7.
Overburden works.
First, with the help of a bulldozer or a loader, the top fertile layer of soil is removed - black soil, and stored for subsequent reclamation of lands disturbed by mining. This is followed by a clay layer with a thickness of about 20 meters, which is worked out by electric excavators with a bucket capacity of 8-10 cubic meters. Overburden works also include partial sampling of substandard (poor quality) limestone, which is located directly under the clay layer.
8. This photo clearly shows a section of the “quarry pie”: a layer of clay, a layer of substandard limestone and an even ledge of a mineral. The crumbling hill of limestone under the ledge is a consequence of the explosion. It is precisely these “consequences of the cry” that are loaded into BelAZ trucks and taken to the factory. And all overburden rocks are taken to the internal dump. 
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9.
Mining work.
It is customary for miners to say production, with an emphasis on the first syllable. Limestone mining itself is preceded by drilling and blasting - the most spectacular part of the whole process.
10. A hard layer of limestone, which cannot be scooped up with an excavator bucket, has to be drilled, explosive materials are placed in it and blown up. For drilling, drilling rigs of the SBR type, powered by electricity, are used.
11. Drilling rigs are serious, they drill holes with a diameter of 16 cm to a depth of up to 24 meters (7 floors). It takes 50 minutes to drill one well. A string of wells, elongated in a line, is drilled one by one 5 meters from the edge of the cliff.
12. Brave driller!
13. For the explosion, industrial and conversion explosives are used, the acquisition of which requires a whole bunch of various permits and licenses, as well as special vehicles for transportation and armed guards. You can't just buy gunpowder at the market ...
14. TNT checkers serve as a detonator.
15. On average, about 30 wells are drilled to carry out one explosion, where a total of 5-6 tons of explosives are laid.
16. To connect all the wells with explosives into a single circuit, a detonating cord is used.
17. An explosion is a very responsible matter! The quarry is completely cordoned off, guards are posted in the area of the future explosion. All equipment is taken to a safe distance, and BelAZ vehicles generally leave the quarry. Before the explosion, all cordon posts are polled by radio and the situation is clarified. If everything is fine, permission is given to carry out blasting. (The security post and the transformer box are also being taken away).
18. The wells are not blown up simultaneously, but with a delay of several hundredths of a second, otherwise there will be an earthquake, and most of the buildings in Lipetsk will have windows blown out.
19. For a sense of scale - on the right side of the frame there is an excavator the size of a 4-story building ... Small pieces of rock can fly away to a distance comparable to the height of the main building of Moscow State University - 250 meters.
20. It can be seen how heavy pieces of hard rock are separated from the ledge in even rows and fall down.
21. The whole explosion passes in a few seconds and is well heard in the city. This is what collapsed rock looks like. After the smoke clears and the dust settles, the explosives will check for failed charges, after which the excavators and BelAZ trucks will go about their work.
22. The rock is loaded into BelAZ using a mechanical shovel (that is, an excavator), or rather, using a self-propelled full-turn excavation and loading machine. This monster runs on 6000 volt electricity, the photo shows a high-voltage cable that powers the excavator's engines. During a day of operation, the machine consumes as much energy as an ordinary nine-story residential building in a week.
23. At one time, the excavator can load 10 ordinary photographers, or 20 Chinese photographers.
25. The weight of such a bucket is 16 tons.
26. Each excavator employs two people to ensure the continuity of the production process.
27. In total, 6 large excavators (bucket with a volume of 8 and 10 cubic meters) and 2 smaller ones with a bucket volume of about 5 cubic meters work in the quarry.
28. Sometimes appliances break down. For example, the main gear of this excavator has failed and it is being repaired right in the quarry. The diameter of limply hanging steel ropes is 4 cm.
29. And this is a now decommissioned veteran who honestly gave the enterprise about 40 years. In spite of respectable age and shabby appearance, grandfather, in case of emergency, can be brought to work in the quarry.
30.
Dumping and mining reclamation.
At a constant depth, the quarry bowl constantly moves in the direction along which the limestone occurs. On one side of the quarry, overburden is removed and limestone is mined, on the other, the mined-out space is filled with overburden, limestone crushing screenings and black soil. 
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32. Screenings are brought from the crushing and processing plant in dump cars, which are formed after limestone crushing and are not suitable for use. The excavator dumps everything on the dump, filling the mined-out space of the quarry. Then the dumps will be covered with previously opened soil and top with black soil.
33. This mechanical shovel is smaller - with a bucket for 5 cubes.
34. Next, plowing of the land is carried out and biological reclamation is carried out - the sowing of land with useful plants. In a few years, the recultivated lands can be used again for agricultural purposes. Previously, the quarry started right from the landings (on the right in the frame) and has shifted 600 meters in 20 years. Now there is a field. In the future, the quarry may advance another 2.7 kilometers.
35.
Transport work.
Every day, 12 BelAZ trucks operate on the line in the quarry, which ensure the transportation of overburden rock to dumps, and the mined limestone to the DOF - to the crushing and processing plant.
36. Belazists work around the clock in three shifts, eight hours each. During the day, BelAZ makes up to 100 walkers, and transports up to 16 thousand tons of mined limestone. In three months, the car runs the distance from Moscow to Vladivostok.
37. The carrying capacity of such a BelAZ is 55 tons, more than its own weight. BelAZ trucks with a higher carrying capacity in this quarry are not advisable to use for several reasons: the depth of the quarry, the distance of transportation, the volume of production, and so on. This baby mammoth is powered by a 700 hp diesel engine.
38. If during transportation from BelAZ something falls out onto the road, such as a large stone, a special wheeled bulldozer will remove it back to the face, to the excavator.
39. They actively fight dust in the quarry, the roads are constantly doused with a special watering can. And in winter, watering is replaced by sprinkling with a sand-salt mixture.
40. To take this shot, I had to ask the driver on the radio (each piece of equipment in the quarry is equipped with a radio station) to drive outside the watered road. The permissible speed in the quarry is 20 km/h.
41. The quarry has 14 km of technological roads built in bulk, there are also electrification and substations to power excavators. The roads are excellent, you can easily move on them by car.
42. Shop for the repair and maintenance of BelAZ.
44. The body and engine were removed from this BelAZ.
45. The mined mineral is brought to the DOF and unloaded into the receiving bunker, before that the dump truck is weighed and by simply subtracting the weight of the empty BelAZ, the weight of the cargo is obtained.
46. Receiving hopper.
47.
Mineral processing.
This is the first building of the factory - the building of coarse crushing. Here, the jaw crusher rough crushes large pieces of rock. Fractions up to 10 cm in size are obtained.
49. Approximately 15,000 tons of rock are transported on a conveyor belt per day.
50. Cone crusher performs medium crushing.
51. Cunning system of vibrating screens. In closed devices, the products are divided into fractions (according to the size of the stones) and distributed along the conveyors.
52. An ordinary five-story house can easily fit in the workshop ...
53. Quite small limestone - screenings up to 1 cm are sent for unloading into dump cars for subsequent transportation to the quarry dump.
54. Corps of sorting and loading. Comes here finished product, where loading into railway wagons takes place. The main consumer of the products is the Novolipetsk Iron and Steel Works.
56. One car includes 69 tons of crushed stone.
58. Loading into vehicles is taking place nearby.
59. Work in a quarry does not stop at night. For this, backlighting works on excavators.
61. UFO.
62. The 55-ton BelAZ trucks used in the quarry are relatively small, and by miners' standards, they are just babies. Someday I will definitely look at the work of 320-ton trucks!
63. Night quarry and factory are beautiful!
Separately, I want to say about the people with whom I worked for two shooting days. Open, kind, cheerful miners, happy to talk about their work and equipment. Real men!
Thanks to all staff
Natural limestone, which consists mainly of organic calcite, is used to make cement, lime, facing blocks, soda, fertilizer, livestock feed, paper, sugar, glass, soap and more. Unlike marble and granite, the deposits of which can be found in the Articles section, limestone is found on almost all continents of the globe. Methods for obtaining this breed have their own specifics.
Extraction methods
Basically, limestone is obtained in open pits. To do this, first remove the top layer of earth and clay and create a cut. Here, the rock is crushed and loaded, which is subsequently taken out on special vehicles.
To date, most often explosive technology is used to get limestone. As a result, the rock crumbles heavily, then this mass is removed by an excavator and loaded for transportation to the processing site. If rather large pieces remained during the explosion, then overhead charges or special mounted butoboys are used to grind them.
More "sparing" methods consist in loosening the rock without explosions. For this, heavy equipment is used, equipped with a mechanical or hydraulic quick-release device. The driver of such an excavator can change the bucket for a baking powder in a matter of minutes and paint the rock. Such machines are able to cope with both soft limestone and hard limestone.
Another method of rock mining is carried out with the help of a milling combine. The machine crushes and loads the limestone at the same time, without delaying its removal.
When erecting buildings, satisfied large slabs are usually required. For their extraction, along with excavators, stone-cutting machines are additionally used. You can also get large fragments with the help of properly organized explosions, but in this case, the blocks may be uneven. To process them, you will need a special grinding tool, and chemical novelties - cleaners, impregnations, dyes - will make the material aesthetically attractive.
According to experts, non-explosive methods of limestone extraction are the least expensive.
Limestone is a soft rock that is widely used in construction.
Most often, the rock is mined by blasting, as a result of which limestone turns into crumbs.
Then this mass is lifted from the quarry by an excavator and transported to the factories.
Currently, other methods are being introduced into practice that make it possible to loosen the rock without producing an explosion.
Caterpillar has developed new heavy-duty excavators equipped with special attachments that break rock quickly. There are excavators with both mechanical and hydraulic aerating machines.
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The device is attached to the handle with a special mount. And it is quick release. An excavator driver can change the bucket for a baking powder in a matter of seconds, which turns the rock into crumbs.
Then the removable device is changed to a bucket, with which the loosened rock is transported from the quarry. This machine is capable of crushing both soft and fairly hard limestone.
The advantage of this method is also the fact that it makes it possible already in the quarry to carry out rock selection for various fractions. Although it is possible to accurately select a mining method only after analyzing the rock, one can still immediately say that this method is the future.
In Germany, it is used when limestone deposits are located in places with a high population density. The method also pays off when it comes to the impact of production on the environment, as it reduces the proportion harmful emissions in atmosphere.
The method is actively promoted Russian company Zeppellin, which uses Rip&Load technology for non-explosive limestone mining. The company studies the physical and chemical properties of rock limestone at the enterprises where it is delivered.
As a result, data were obtained on which methods should be applied in various fields.
The third extraction method is performed by a milling machine. With this method, the rock is mechanically converted into crumb. Grinding, loading and transportation are carried out simultaneously.
The lowest costs for the extraction of rock are achieved by using an excavator and a hydraulic opener. An even more economical way is to use a mining machine, whose operating costs are 7% lower than mining with an excavator.
Limestone is a natural stone of soft sedimentary rock, which has an organic or organo-chemical origin. The main constituent of limestone is calcium carbonate (calcite). In addition, limestone may also contain impurities of quartz, phosphate, silicon, clay and sand particles, calcareous remains of skeletons of microorganisms.
limestone formations
Limestone is formed mainly in marine shallow basins. However, there are cases when natural limestone was formed outside of the usual conditions - in a freshwater environment. Stone deposits are deposits and layers. Lime deposits are sometimes formed in the same way as salt and gypsum deposits - as a result of the evaporation of water from sea lagoons and lakes. But, despite this, the main localization of limestone deposits is in the seas, which are not characterized by intense drying.
The origin of limestone is mainly associated with the release of calcium carbonate by living organisms from sea water, which is necessary for the formation of skeletons and shells. The accumulation of these remains of dead organisms mainly occurs at the bottom of the seas. Coral reefs are one of the clearest examples of how calcite is extracted and accumulated. Sometimes, if you break the limestone rock, you can see the presence of individual shells. Sea currents and sea waves have a destructive effect on reefs, as a result of which calcium carbonate is precipitated from the water at the bottom of the seas, which is added to lime debris. In addition, young limestone rocks are formed with the participation of calcite, which comes as a result of the destruction of ancient rocks.
Calcium carbonate, which is part of the rock, is able to dissolve in water, resulting in the formation of karst. There are also cases of its decomposition into a base and carbon dioxide. However, this requires proper conditions, therefore, calcium carbonate decomposes only at great depths, as a result of which, under the influence of the heat of the earth, gas is released for mineral waters.
Depending on the conditions of formation, limestone is divided into types. The most common is the shell rock. Fragments and many shells of marine animals participate in its formation. However, in addition to this type, there are others, among which are:
- Mshankovy limestone. Its main components are the remains of bryozoans, i.e. invertebrates that are quite small in size and live in colonies in the seas.
- Nummulitic limestone. The composition of this type of stone includes extinct unicellular organisms of nummulites, which belong to the order of foraminifers.
- Marble limestone. This type is subdivided into two subtypes: thin-layered and massively layered. It is no secret that metamorphism causes limestone to recrystallize, resulting in the formation of marble.
| limestone structure | Hardness MPa | Yield strength MPa | Plasticity coefficient | Young's modulus Е 10 -4 , MPa | Specific contact work J/cm |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Organogenic highly porous | - | 150-400 | - | 0,8 | 66 |
| Organogenic porous | 580-1150 | 350 | 7,0 | 2,0 | 23-38 |
| organogenic dense | 1100-2000 | 500-1100 | 2,0-5,0 | 2,0-5,0 | 7-28 |
| Pelithomorphic highly porous | - | 100-250 | ∞ | 0,6-0,8 | 237 |
| Oolitic highly porous | - | 300-460 | ∞ | 1,7-2,8 | 170 |
| pelitomorphic dense | 1200-2000 | 550-1150 | 2,0-6,0 | 1,5-5,0 | 7-25 |
| Fine-grained porous weathered | - | 180 | ∞ | - | 152 |
| Fine-grained dense | 1200-2000 | 300-1200 | 2,5-4,5 | 2,0-4,0 | 7-18 |
Thus, it is worth saying that limestone is a monomineral rock that has in its composition, in addition to the main component, a wide variety of impurities. The name of limestone, as a rule, depends on the type of these impurities, as well as the structure, their geological age and the nature of occurrence: oolitic limestones, ferruginous limestones, limestone limestones, Triassic limestones, etc.
Natural limestone is characterized by a light gray color, but, despite this, it can also be black or white. The existence of limestone with a bluish, pink or yellow tint is acceptable, depending on the impurities that are in the composition of the stone.
limestone deposits
There is no shortage of limestone in the world, since it belongs to fairly common sedimentary rocks formed with the participation of living organisms in the aquatic environment.
Whole alpine chains are formed from limestones. Limestones also took part in the formation of the Crimean mountains. However, these are not the only places in the world where the stone is located. Its deposits are known on the territory of the former USSR (Central Economic Region), on the territory North Caucasus, the Volga region, the Baltic states, the Moldavian SSR, the Azerbaijan SSR. Among the main lime deposits are:
- Afanasievskoye field, located in the Moscow region. It is the main source of extraction of white limestone, which is used in the production of cement;
- Barsukovskoye field, which is located on the territory of the Tula region. Flux limestone is mined from it;
- Guryevskoe (Venevskoe) field. It is also located in the Tula region and is a source of dense limestone mining, from which crushed stone is produced;
- Oknitskoye deposit (Moldavian SSR). It contains shell-oolitic limestone used in the process of forming saw wall blocks;
- Badraksko-Alma deposit. Located in the Crimea. It was there that deposits of white shell sawn limestone were discovered, which is the main material for the production of facing and wall materials;
- Shakhtakhtinskoe field (Azerbaijan SSR). It is a deposit of grayish-yellow and light brown sawn cavernous travertine limestone, from which facing slabs are produced;
- The Zhetybai deposit, located on the Mangishlak peninsula, contains deposits of pink, light gray, gray-yellow porous shell saw limestone, which is also used for the production of facing slabs.
| Field | Region | Reserves, thousand tons* | Scope, quality | Degree of development |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pronskoye | Ryazan region | 657980 | state reserve | |
| Sukhorechenskoye | Chelyabinsk region | 418330 | flux limestones; CaO - 50.5-55.2%; SiO2 - 0.24-3.04% | state reserve |
| Urusovskoe | Tula region | 415768 | flux limestones; CaO - 52-55.8%; SiO2 - 0.1-1%; MgO - 0.3-1% | state reserve |
| Galyanskoe | Sverdlovsk region. | 384244 | flux limestones; CaO - 55.3%; SiO2 - 0.15%; P - 0.013%; MgO - 0.51% | developed |
| Akkermanovskoye | Orenburg region | 376303 | flux limestones; CaO - 51.2-56%; SiO2 - 0.10-3.37% | developed |
| Dzhegutinsky | Karachay-Cherkess Republic | 352269 | raw material for cement production | developed |
|
Chanvinskoe (Kostanok area) |
Perm region | 333253 | limestones for chemical production (CaCO3 - 94.0%; MgCO3 - 4%; SiO2 - 2.5%) | developed |
| Karachkinskoe | Kemerovo region. | 322818 | flux limestones | developed |
| Pikalevsky | Leningrad region. | 307278 | flux limestones; CaO - 53.6%; SiO2 - 0.9%; MgO - 1.4% | developed |
| Solominskoye | Kemerovo region. | 306129 | raw material for cement production | developed |
| Malo-Salairskoye | Kemerovo region. | 275155 | flux limestones | developed |
| Khrapovitskoe | Vladimir region | 258555 | raw material for cement production | state reserve |
| Podgornoe | Krasnoyarsk region | 248104 | flux limestones; CaO - 54.13%; SiO2 - 1.56%; P2O5 - 0.048% | state reserve |
limestone mining
When extracting limestone, several methods are used to extract it from the bowels of the earth. These methods include:
- open career path. Considered the most common. At this method there is a removal of the upper soil layer and the formation of a quarry in which pyrotechnic work can be carried out, by which portions of limestone are crushed and detached. The next stage of this method is to transport the stone to the places of its processing. For this process, mining vehicles are used.
- explosive way. In this case, the deposits are opened by removing the earth from them with bulldozers. After that, clay and substandard limestones are also removed from them. In such places where limestone is mined, wells are formed into which explosives are laid. With the proper organization of this process, rather large limestone layers are broken off, which are taken out by dump trucks for further processing.
- mining with a milling machine. This method mechanically converts the rock into crumbs. Thus, several processes are carried out simultaneously - grinding, loading and transportation.
It is worth noting that after the extraction of limestone, the quarry should be covered with earth, as well as planted with herbs and plants. Usually these actions are carried out in places of large deposits. In small deposits, limestone is mainly mined using an explosive method. From such deposits, the extraction of stone is carried out in the form of blocks having a rectangular shape. This is due to the creation of contour gaps.
It should be noted that each of the methods is more or less economically costly. However, one of the cheapest options is the extraction of stone with an excavator and a hydraulic opener. But there is the most economical way, which is to use a mining combine. This method is about 7% cheaper than the previous one.