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Before digging dirt in mining or civil earthwork operations, managers must consider containing or providing water, building access roads, and matching the right equipment and operator for the tasks. This book covers all of these basics. It also includes training sections for teaching operators how to work efficiently and for profit with equipment based on the owner’s requirements for a particular piece of land.
Readers can learn about floor leveling, pit mining, and blasting. Especially noteworthy is Martin’s knowledge of pit mining in monsoon territories and other areas that receive excessive rainfall. Pumps and tanks of all kinds and scenarios must be considered long before torrential rains arrive. Roads are equally crucial to accessing any mining area. Massive equipment and ordinary-sized trucks and vehicles must share the roads with limited damage occurring to the vehicles or roadway. To increase profits, dig systems must be established to permit shovels and trucks to occupy close quarters, hauling out material from faces that have been blasted or dug.
Experienced with both pit and precious metal mining operations, the author shares his expertise in this 430-page book. Martin offers up a gold mine of personal experience after his years of working with landowners as a contractor/consultant. In his flow of words, you can almost feel the author moving controls up, down, and out to lift, push, and dump before seeing him drive away safely. The text and enormous amount of photos from the author’s personal collection work together to explain facts to trainees or anyone else who is seriously interested in moving dirt with purpose. The author also provides a helpful index.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review