ORALS

SESSION: IronThuAM-R2	Assis International Symposium (9th Intl. Symp. on Advanced Sustainable Iron & Steel Making)
Thu. 30 Nov. 2023 / Room: Dreams 2
Session Chairs: Wilson Ferreira Santos Jr.; Session Monitor: TBA

12:25: [IronThuAM03] OS
EVALUATION OF THE REDUCTIONS IN ATMOSPHERIC AND GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS BY USING A CONVEYOR BELT MINING SYSTEM IN AN OPEN PIT MINE
Douglas Emerich Gonçalves Oliveira¹ ; Thais De Faria Bravin¹ ; Gabriel Patricio De Souza Rezende¹ ; Eduardo Antonio Silva Baeta¹ ; ¹Samarco Sa, Belo Horizonte, Brazil;
Paper Id: 313 [Abstract]

There is currently in the mining industry, as well as in other industries, a movement seeking to increase investments in decarbonization processes to help combat global warming. Among some initiatives taken is replacing diesel-powered mobile equipment in the mines with electricity-powered equipment, such as electric off-highway trucks or even belt conveyors in the mining operation. Samarco is a Brazilian mining company that, since its conception, has used a conveyor belt mining system in its mining operation, using only a small number of trucks to complement the mining process. This mining process that combines conveyor belts and trucks has brought environmental gains for the company, since the environmental impact of conventional truck-only mining is greater than that of the combined system. To measure these gains, a medium-term mining plan was developed in which two fleet scenarios were detailed. One scenario contemplated a high level of detail of belt mining seeking its maximization, while the other considered the operation performed 100% by trucks, eliminating the use of conveyor belts. Through the comparison of these two scenarios, it was possible to make an inventory of atmospheric emissions and greenhouse gases for each one of them, considering data such as types of equipment, diesel consumption, total distance travelled, and energy consumption. The results showed that the fleet scenario with conveyor belts results in periods with up to 15% less greenhouse gas emissions and 37% fewer total particulates compared to the truck-only scenario. Therefore, the results confirm the environmental benefits of the method and the need to look for ways to even expand it in future operations through a study to identify the potential areas in the long-term mining plan.