Utilization of the secondary resources of titanium-zirconium pits when constructing highways

Abstract

Purpose. To develop a methodology for determining the economically feasible distance of construction sand haulage, which is a secondary raw material of ore pits, to highway construction sites in comparison with the delivery of sand from mining enterprises of building materials, taking into account land conservation indicators. Methodology. The research used a set of methods: analytical method – to establish the main technical and economic indicators that affect the cost of delivering sand from the mining enterprises to the road construction site; technical and economic analysis – to determine the influence of the building materials haulage distance on the cost of construction works. Findings. The economically permissible haulage distance for sands form titanium-zirconium mining enterprises to highway construction objects was established in comparison with the involving of sands from deposits of building materials. It has been proven that under the conditions of using the sands of the Motronivskyi MPP, where the main raw material is titanium-zirconium ores, in addition to the economic effect of the mining waste disposal, there is an ecological effect of reducing the dumps and tailings areas. At the same time, the cost of sand rocks during the construction of the road surface will be reduced by 3 to 60 %, depending on the distance to the construction road site. All together, the area of lands saved from being disturbed by new mining operations will reach 3.3 hectares during the construction of a 2.5 km long category I-b road section. Originality. Dependence was established of the sand cost and its delivery to the object of new highway construction on the materials haulage distance when purchasing sand at the enterprise of the main raw material and from the titanium-zirconium deposit, where it is developed as an associated raw material. The dependence of the economic efficiency indicator of the road construction on the increasing distance of sand rocks delivery from the titanium-zirconium deposit was determined, which allows justifying the rational haulage distance according to technical and economic indicators. Practical value. The developed method for determining the effective haulage distance for sand rocks to the construction site allows one to calculate the expediency of involving associated minerals of ore pits during the reconstruction and construction of new highways, as well as to establish the effect of resource conservation due to the reduction in the area of mining facilities during the extraction of ore and building raw materials.