Hey there, I'm currently bidding on a job in Colorado. We'll be removing material to a depth of around 60'. 40' of that is shale. 800'(L)x600'(W)x60'(D) The GC thinks we may have to blast. I'm thinking we'll be able to rip through it with a D8 or D9 and then haul it out with 745 haul trucks and a 349 hoe. The top 20' we'll remove with scrapers. I've only been able to read the boring logs from the Geo Report and am waiting to receive the whole report. Can I get some insight from people who have a history with sitework/scraper work and dealing with shale? Thanks, Chad
I'm certain someone here has a lot of good insight. would blasting leave you with bigger chunks where ripping grinds it up more? Renting equipment for the task or something you already have?
Blasting will save time and machine repairs, anything hard rock work is a PITA where blasting takes a great deal of the extra and specialized requirements out. Drop back to rubber tire loaders and track hoes, larger scale dump wagons after the rock is reduced to rubble.
In the report, what are the blow counts? What region of Colorado are you in? If it’s what they consider “Colorado blue” which is more of a clay stone it’s rippable but tough
Welcome to Heavy Equipment Forums, Chad. Posting the identical question in multiple forums can create confusion. For that reason, I've moved one reply to this thread (it had more replies), and removed the duplicate threads altogether. Carry on...
I’d be curious to see what the logs tell you. Around here, OK, MO and KS any of the brown and lighter shale seems to drill and dig fairly easy. The blue shale gets pretty darn hard. I have a 60’ drop shaft at my shop. Top 15’ or so is lighter shale. The bottom 45’ is blue shale. Drilled harder but nothing like rock. In digging out my hill I can tell you the blue stuff gets easier to dig and rip after it’s been exposed for a bit. I think a big machine with a ripper would get things loosened up to where you can dig it out with the right machine and bucket teeth. Around my shop it also ends up in sheet and veins, if you find the right spot you can dig it a little easier. Any mass excavation of shale I’ve seen here is rippers and hoes.
Paning shale can get expensive . We had a 700 acre site 8 - 637 pans . On average we sliced beyond repair one tire a day at times having 4-5in a day .
I would be renting the equipment to deal with the shale. Blasting can get me down to size for running it through a Jaw Crusher I believe. Thats the other thing. We want to crush the shale down to size for re-use.
I'll try and post a picture of the Boring Logs. We'll be up in North Colorado. Fort Collins area.
Here are the 2 Boring Logs they've provided me with. I only scanned over the logs that have shale.
You probably need to blast, then use an excavator and artic trucks or regular off-highway trucks. When I was in charge of mining for a brick company, we had one plant with a very hard shale that we mined. We tried ripping and loading with scrapers. We tried a large EZ miner, loading directly into trucks. We tried an excavator with a "V" rock bucket loading artic trucks. None of these options provided us with any real steady production levels that we required. Some of the trials did not produce a fine enough product for later crushing. We then had a drilling/blasting company come in to shoot a good size area. This shot provided us with almost 6 months of loose shale. We then used an excavator and a couple of A35 trucks to haul the material to the stockpiles. The material loaded easily, and the size worked perfect for our in-plant crusher. Jeff
The red shale we have around here decomposes after being broken up and exposed to air turning into a red dirt.
Blast, one and done. But I digress, we are solid rock. It’s so instant and can get multiple pieces running and material moved earlier in the process
I know where that place is. I was really impressed by how well the operators kept their cans clean and machines greased.
Thanks boys, for all your input. Appreciate it.