Effective Utilization of Horsepower in Mined-Land Reclamation Effort

The growing national concern for preservation of the environment presents a real and difficult challenge to the mining industry and manufacturers of earthmoving equipment. Perhaps the greatest challenge is the development of equipment that will relocate strip-mined spoil with a greater degree of efficiency than is presently possible with conventional bulldozers. The relatively short distance that spoil must normally be relocated is a guideline for research and development of techniques and attachments for conventional bulldozers, designed specifically to handle large volumes of spoil over lateral distances of 50 ft or less.

Although a wide variety of standard and exotic approaches have been considered for handling spoil in the land reclamation effort, the tractor appears to be the most suitable basic prime mover; the angle blade shows promise as an attachment that can materially improve overall efficiency in short relocation distance ranges where bulldozing techniques are highly inefficient.