# Mining Site Environment Map

How an open\-pit mine works, from drilling and blasting the benches to hauling rock up the ramp and crushing it\. Follow the drill rig, shovel, haul trucks and support machines on site\.

By Thomas Lamontagne

Topic: Engineering

[Open the interactive Jig](https://ask.jig.com/j/pr1w3kyT2OEh)

## Transcript

### 1. Mining Site Environment Map

This model map shows a whole open\-pit mine, with its working fleet in motion\. Follow one load of rock from the bottom of the pit to the crusher, and meet each machine on the way\. Drag to turn the map, or tap any machine to fly to it\.

The map is built at 1:500 scale: one centimetre on the map is five metres on the ground\. Machines move faster than in real life so you can watch a whole cycle\.

### 2. Stepped pit walls

The pit is dug in giant steps called benches\. Each bench here is 15 metres tall, about as high as a five\-storey building\. The flat ledges between them, called berms, catch loose rocks before they can roll down\.

Large mines use benches about 10 to 15 metres high, so a pit wall looks like a staircase for giants\.

### 3. The drill rig

On a bench top, the drill rig bores a neat grid of deep holes\. Engineers then use them for a carefully controlled blast that cracks the rock, so the next machine can dig it\.

The dark dots beside the rig are its drilled pattern, spaced a few metres apart\.

### 4. The hydraulic shovel

On the pit floor, the shovel scoops broken rock and swings round to load a truck\. Its bucket holds about 52 cubic metres, close to 94 tonnes in one bite\. Four passes fill a truck\.

A shovel this size weighs about 1,000 tonnes, as much as a few hundred cars\.

### 5. The haul truck

A loaded truck climbs the spiral ramp out of the pit\. The ramp is about 30 metres wide, room for three trucks side by side, and rises about 1 metre for every 10 metres driven\. Each truck carries up to 363 tonnes\.

Amber marks loaded trips and teal marks empty returns\. Each tyre is about 4 metres tall\.

### 6. Crusher and stockpile

At the crusher, the truck backs up to the wall and tips its body to dump the load\. The crusher breaks the rock into smaller pieces, and a conveyor carries them up to the stockpile\.

With its body raised, a truck of this class stands about 15\.7 metres tall\.

### 7. The support fleet

Other machines keep the site running\. The water truck sprays the haul roads to keep dust down, and the dozer shapes the waste rock dump\. By the truck shop, a parked haul truck towers over a pickup\.

A pickup is about 1\.9 metres tall, less than half the height of one haul truck tyre\.

### 8. Explore the whole site

Drill, shovel, trucks, crusher and support fleet work together as one system\. Tap any machine to fly to it, or drag to look around the whole site from any side\.